The message server on my phone beeped early Sunday morning. It was a message from one of my friends which began rather cryptically, “Just had me first meal courtesy of GOK at Muthaiga!”
What the hell! My friend in his usual laid back manner was reporting that he had been busted the previous night at Sarit Centre in Nairobi by the ‘alcoblow’ cops for driving under the influence (DUI) while over the legal limit of 0.35 units (of god knows what and this measure changes with whoever has been a victim) and had spent the night in the lock up at Muthaiga Police Station with a motley of similar men and women in varying degrees of inebriation and they would get their date in court the next Monday.
These are difficult times for all of us and the fact that the 0.35 units has not been defined in a measure that we can all understand (such as two bottles of Tusker or three bottles of malt lager or a double whiskey on the rocks or two glasses of dry red wine or even a large serving of fermented porridge) means that all who partake of alcohol are losers from the word go simply because they have no way of knowing if they are over the legal limit while indulging in their favorite tipple……………or porridge! Surely there must be a way that this measure of 0.35 units can be defined so that the poor driver out there is not scared stiff after partaking of one Tusker with a friend as he waits for the notorious Nairobi traffic to thin out before heading home? Surely………………!
I have my serious misgiving about how the authorities are going about this drink driving business but I do not question the intent behind ‘alcoblow’ as it is very noble and has reportedly resulted in a significant reduction in accidents caused by drunk driving. I personally think that the implementation has been done in an overly enthusiastic and sadistic manner and is open to abuse by the NTSA which seems to be the body mandated to ensure that drunk drivers are kept of Kenyan roads at whatever cost. How else but sadistic would you describe having “random” road blocks/testing points outside some of the most well frequented pubs in middle class Nairobi where you are bound to score by nabbing a whole bar load of drunks?
The application of this ‘alcoblow’ testing from where I sit seems to be skewed and, particularly in Nairobi, seems centred around the more affluent areas of the city and on the highways into and out of the city. Imbibers of the frothy stuff and other more expensive single malt whiskies, cognacs, aperitifs and assorted expensive liqueurs will easily afford the ‘alcoblow’ fines would seem to be the conventional thinking. This to me is also informed by the fact that those caught driving under the influence in Nairobi are incarcerated at Muthaiga Police Station with some of the more comfortable (or so I am told) police cells in Nairobi at present wherever in the city one is arrested!
So is this ‘alcoblow’ thing then a ploy to generate more revenue by way of fines for a government burdened with an insanely huge wage bill that saw the entire cabinet a week ago agree to a pay cut and other government expenditures occasioned by devolution? I would tend to think so given the enthusiasm and the tenacity of the authorities to rein in the time honored Kenyan pastime of over indulgence in alcohol including naming and shaming through expensive newspaper adverts those who did not appear in court to answer to charges of driving while under the influence as well as now setting up their sting operations even during the day.
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