Cheap, deadly booze killing Uganda’s future

The rest of the country should pick a leaf from the northern districts if we are to save a generation of our youth from ending up as a social waste on account of alcohol abuse.
Three days ago, Gulu District Council very commendably, threw out a Trade ministry quest to suspend the local authority’s ban on sale of the ubiquitous so-called satchet waragi. A week earlier, authorities in Adjumani District had taken a similar uncompromising stand, while to the far northeast in Karamoja, they have been seizing and setting these dangerous portions ablaze.
It is hard to see why the Trade ministry is dragging its feet on this matter. Across the country, there is sad evidence of the satchets’ devastating effect; thousands are being turned into drunken slobs; staggering along to their next fix.
There is a highly addictive element to this gin whose manufacture in mainly back street ‘factories’ is not sufficiently supervised to assure public safety. Unregulated manufacture of spirits can be deadly. In May 2014, people were going blind or dying in eastern and central Kenya after imbibing illicit brews laced with methanol -- an industrial grade chemical which poisons the nervous system – to give it an added kick.
The medical people will tell you that they are recording a high incidence of alcohol-related illnesses from diabetes, liver disease to mental breakdown. Many of the new patients have a history of quaffing copious volumes of these satchet products.
This reality is placing an extra and unnecessary strain on Uganda’s hopelessly inadequate healthcare resources. It has also triggered a spike in domestic violence and is destroying families. As more young men succumb to the deadly temptation, it is depriving agriculture of much-needed labour in the countryside where small scale farming is still the mainstay of our economy.
Employment and revenue may be the argument at the Trade ministry in seeking to stave off the ban until September 30. But when weighed against the number of youth whose lives will have been destroyed within the coming eight months, the few jobs which can be traced to these low investment operations cannot justify any more dithering.
It was the same logic that was for long used by the tobacco companies. But the government also saw hard evidence of spreading lung disease and cancer, among others, and raised taxes on cigarettes. The tobacco companies were outraged; some closed their factories but Uganda survived. The country cannot afford to have its most productive age group having their collective livers and kidneys fried by these gins of dubious manufacture.

The issue: Satchet waragi
Our view: The country cannot afford to have its most productive age group having their collective livers and kidneys fried by these gins of dubious manufacture.