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"content": "those who are drunk speak a lot of truth. This is not to justify being drunk but to recognize the fact that drink and alcohol does, indeed, relax people. I have read stories - I am sorry to say this in the House - that some of the best experiences of sex come after taking alcohol. This is not, again, to justify such experiences but to say that human life has always revolved around some amount of alcohol. The only problem is when it is done in excess. Anything done in excess is dangerous. Therefore, that is why there are laws to make sure that there is moderation in access to alcohol by the people who should have access to it. In the traditional society, the one that I know of, the Luo Society, alcohol was only accessed by adults. At one point, it would be accessed by adult males and not females. Females were expected to make it and not to partake of it. That would eventually cause a relaxation. In the traditional society, older females and not like Sen. Janet Ong’era here, could access alcohol for very good reasons. Therefore, if you look at the whole sociology and history of alcohol, you will realise that there was a mechanism to have it accessed by the right age of people and, secondly, it was taken in moderation. In my society – I remember growing up as a child - old men always went to drink alcohol after 5.00pm. When they were coming back home, they would be singing and warning those who had attempted to be naughty in their homes to leave as the old men came back. So, there was a structured way of accessing alcohol and introducing discipline in the way that alcohol was used in society which must now be restored. The problem with our present society is the chaotic manner in which alcohol is accessed and the rather liberal access to it by all ages at all times. I guess that this law that Mr. Mututho initiated and which Sen (Prof.) Kindiki is now mending was meant to take us back to the cultural role of alcohol which is discipline and access to the right people and where the time of accessing alcohol is controlled and limited. In the traditional society, this was never any time earlier than 5.00 pm or later than 9.00 pm. That was there and there was no misbalance in society as far as I can remember. When I was growing up, we never saw young men falling in markets due to taking alcohol. However, if you went to any market today, in the rural areas, you would see that it is full of misfits who are completely drunk and hopeless. Saying that they are poor and, therefore, must drink is not good enough an excuse. If they are poor and you find them work to do, then they would do something much more useful than getting drunk and becoming hopeless in markets. One thing that has not been dealt with in this particular law is the access to sachets. Sachets are small packets of alcohol. Those are being manufactured and sold in a very big way. These are the most dangerous. If I were somebody framing this law, then I would suggest that sachets be banned all together. At page 140, there is a table that talks about the size of package, height of character and the font size points. This, I think, is with regard to the way the alcohol is packaged and advertised. I see here 250 millimeters to 475 millimeters. I do not know how big a- 250 millimeters is. I do not know whether that is a sachet or not. But I hope that is not a sachet. I hope it is a tin or something. I do not know what size a sachet would be. Those should be banned, all together, in this country because those are the ones that are accessed by little boys and girls in market places. Those are the ones that are sold to school boys and girls in kiosks. I would like to ask Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki, somewhere in this amendment, to introduce a law banning the manufacture and sale of sachets all together in this country. I know that they make money but they are the centre and source of destruction in children and young people in this country. They are cheap and accessible and, therefore, you can put them in your pockets and drink them at any time of the day and anywhere. Those sachets are extremely dangerous. As far as I am concerned, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}