The Uganda Police has asked Parliament to revise the laws on alcohol production and consumption to improve enforcement against alcohol abuse.
This follows the death of several people at the weekend in West Nile after reportedly consuming “City 5” a brand of Gin produced by City 5 Distillers in Ayivu Division, Arua City.
According to police, seven of the deaths occurred in Mvara and Oluko suburbs in Arua city and seven others in Madi Okollo district between Friday and Sunday, before Police in the region cordoned off the premises of the factory. Some arrests have also been made.
Michael Ogwang, the Acting Head, of Narcotics at the Criminal Investigations Directorate, says the laws that are in place may be adequate but regulations need to be revised to enable proper enforcement. Some of the laws include The Liquor Act of 1960, Enguli (Manufacture and Licencing Act), and the Potable Spirits Act.
Ogwang says for example, that when a culprit is found either selling or manufacturing illicit brew, or even after causing death like in the Arua case, investigations will take several days because it will involve transmitting samples to Kampala for testing.
In the process, according to him, the suspect will be released on bond or bail, which in the end affects justice.
The Arua case is just one of the fatal incidences that are usually blamed on the weaknesses of the government regulatory and enforcement agencies.
Reports by different organizations have revealed that hundreds of people die in Uganda every year from alcohol poisoning – consumption of alcohol with higher ethyl content than recommended or consuming the products in too many quantities.
The Uganda Youth Development Link says their surveys usually reveal 40 to 150 people dying in a year, either in big numbers at a go, or in scattered single-death incidents.
Ogwang says one of the reasons the presence or growth of the illicit alcohol business persists is because there are no effective penalties or sanctions. He says for a producer who is caught violating the laws, a maximum fine of 2 million shillings is not punitive enough to deter the offense.
Following the Arua incident, the industry leaders have launched a new campaign that is aimed at sensitizing the public on the dangers of consuming illicit products and excess consumption of alcohol generally.
“The ‘Mind Your Drink’ campaign calls for all of us to join the fight against this scrupulous trade and we encourage all our consumers to not only buy but consume only regulated Alcohol to protect our safety and the economy,” said the Chairman of the Uganda Alcohol Industries Association, Onapito Ekomoloit.
Illicit brewers and distillers control about 65 percent of the market, leaving the registered or formal companies with 35 percent, according to the association.
These operators are unregulated and therefore do not necessarily follow the set standards, and usually include additives to make their products more potent, but dangerous.
“Ordinarily, alcohol is about happiness. Unfortunately, some people across the country have decided to give it a bad name by not producing and selling it the way it’s supposed to be done,” says Ekomoloit, who is also the Legal and Corporate Affairs Director at Nile Breweries Ltd.
Some distillers who have been caught producing products whose potency goes beyond the permitted levels have accused the large industries of providing them with dangerous inputs or raw materials.
Srinivasa Reddy, the General Manager at Premier Distilleries Ltd says the same raw materials they sell to other distillers, are the same that the registered companies use to produce the safe products. He accuses the informal sector of adding chemicals and using processes that are not permissible.
He called on the ministries of trade, industry, and cooperatives and of finance, planning, and economic development to ensure there is enough capacity at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to enhance enforcement.
He also urges the Uganda Revenues Authority and the UNBS to have their policies harmonized to avoid operational clashes.
Dr. Hilary Irimaso, the Chairperson of the Uganda Psychiatric Association says one of the main dangers of illicit alcohol is that it is cheaper and therefore the poorer Ugandans find it more conveniently affordable.
This explains why the health effects and deaths are more prevalent among that segment of consumers. He adds that the main cause of death, blindness, and other effects is that alcohol interferes with food digestion systems and absorbs water from the food eaten, and when the content is too much, it leads to dehydration.
The maximum permissible level of methanol in alcohol is 50 grams per 100 liters, but the UNBS limits the Uganda standards to a minimum ethanol content of 37.5% to ensure more safety for consumers.
UNBS says it is financially stretched and therefore it cannot be everywhere at the same time.
Unfortunately, according to them, it is very easy for one to set up an informal or unregistered production and by the time the authorities find out, a disaster has happened.
It is also hard to control the influx of illicit alcohol products from other countries because of the porous borders.
There are more than 100 distilling companies in the country but less than 20 are registered, while on the market, the products are sold openly.
Ogwang also faulted corruption in the enforcement agencies, including the police.
He also gave an example of the corruption of the police in the Karamoja region which has failed the bylaw that banned such alcohol from the region. Ogwang says the illicit alcohol trade and consumption in Uganda was helped by the Covid-19 pandemic as the lockdown made enforcement hard.
The premier trader’s association, KACITA-Uganda, says they are ready to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the UNBS, Police, and the distillers’ association to help in enforcement against the trade.
KACITA-Uganda General Secretary Abdul-Hakim Katongole says that their studies have shown that there are influential people who are behind the illicit alcohol industry and therefore unless this is tackled, the trade will not be easily defeated.
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