A group of angry women from Kairi village in Gatundu North, Kiambu County today braved a heavy downpour to protest against the rampant sale and consumption of illicit alcohol and drugs in the village.
Holding placards and carrying twigs, the irked women who marched around the streets of Kairi town took issue with local authorities for doing less to contain the sale of outlawed substances which they said continue to turn their husbands into zombies.
They decried that the small town had more than 10 bars which is way higher than the available retail shops, lamenting that drinking dens they said have become their husband’s reporting stations from the morning to evening.
As a result of the high appetite for the harmful substances, the women lamented that men have been selling house appliances and farm produce to get money to facilitate their drinking sprees, a situation that has brought about endless family feuds.
They at the same time decried their men’s bad performance in bed as well as getting home late in the night and being overly drunk with no power to undertake their manly duties.
Led by Mary Nyambura Kabuba whose husband has been in and out of hospital over high uptake of alcohol, the women grieved that the future of their children is bleak after their sons joined their fathers in clubs forcing most of them not to marry.
“You are asking us to sire more children. We are ready but with who? All our men and our sons are alcohol addicts and the only thing they do when they get home after all-day drinking is shiver and sleep. While our sons have refused to marry, our men no longer have the power to ignite, we are in a deep mess,” Kabuba said.
Furious that their elected leaders including Chania Ward MCA Joseph Mwangi Kibuu and MP Elijah Njoroge Kururia have not been heeding their cries to root out the menace, the locals called on deputy president Rigathi Gachagua to promptly intervene to save the current generation from further ruin.
They stated that while he has been priding in low uptake of alcohol in Central Kenya since he launched a fight against the outlawed substances, the situation at the village is messy and requires an urgent address.
“Where did our MCA go? We no longer see him after voting for him. Our MP Kururia abandoned us in this fight and we have now been left to fight on our own. We are asking deputy president Rigathi Gachagua who has been saying alcohol is no longer there in central Kenya to come and see what we are going through here,” Ruth Njeri, a resident, lamented.
During the protest, only one man, Charles Kagunye who flew from America recently to bury his brother who died as a result of alcohol uptake, joined the troubled women.
“This challenge is now too much and a lot needs to be concertedly done to eliminate the vice. It is sad that men are dying in this village when the government is watching. Let us join hands and do what we can to deal with the alcohol demon,” Kagunye said.
