About a week ago I posted a story about the Kenyan singer Awilo and his big hit from a few years ago “Am not sober”, in which I mentioned the attempt to introduce the “Alcoblow” in Kenya. The introduction of the breathalyser by police last December proved very unpopular with some drivers, so much so that a group of them took their objection to the High Court. They argued, successfully, that since the breathalyser had no basis in legislation its use by police should be banned. Plans are now in the offing for the Traffic Act to be amended, as Mugumo Munenewith of The Nation explains:
Currently, the law barring drink driving states; “Any person who when driving or attempting to drive, or when in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place is under the influence of a drink or drug to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding eighteen months or both.”
Section 45 (1) of the Act deals with public service vehicles and says; “Any person who, when driving or in charge of, or during the period of duty in connection with the driving of a public service vehicle, drinks any intoxicating liquor shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding fifteen thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.”
Mr Wako’s proposal to Parliament seeks to enhance Section 44 (1) and Section 45 by “including the use of such devices as may be necessary or appropriate.”
While the legislation doesn’t seem to have been passed as yet, I did want to point you in the direction of a biting but entertaining article called “Kenya: The Drinking Country”, written at the beginning of the year by Simiyu Barasa in G21 magazine. In it he skewers Kenya’s politicians as well as its drunk but resourceful drivers:
Like there are now drivers for hire near traffic roadblocks: you drink silly, detour to a petrol station a few meters from the roadblock, hire one of these drivers to ferry you across the police for a hundred shillings, then he alights and heads back to the station to wait for another drunk driver while you drive yourself smack into a tree and your wife into early widowhood.
having been in Kenya for two
having been in Kenya for two years, I can attest to the latenight free for all…i love the drivers for hire idea…