Ann Mathu posted this photograph and I have struggled to get it out of my head.
Four out of the five graves in her family are alcohol-related deaths.
Look at that photograph again.
Four out of five graves in one family.
All alcohol.
This photo should have shaken this country awake.
Sadly, It didn’t.
Let me tell you why.
If Ebola killed these four members of one family, the world would descend on that village. Doctors. Cameras. Emergency funding.
If it were famine, politicians, churches and every camera-loving preacher would be there holding somebody’s child for a photograph.
But alcohol?
Silence.
But it’s alcohol.
Not drinking too much, NO NO NO it’s ALCOHOL POISONING.
Kenyans dropping dead from toxic drink sold openly on our own shelves.
Literally toxic alcohol is killing people who sometimes don’t even know what chemicals are inside the bottle they are drinking.
You could be drinking a VSOP whiskey 🥃 but a few hours later you’ll be in ICU trying to save your liver or kidneys
And because it wears that word, the world looks away and calls it a lifestyle choice.
At home it’s worse. President Ruto doesn’t drink, so it doesn’t touch him.
Gachagua doesn’t drink, so he won’t raise his voice.
And the government collects its “sin tax” on every bottle, so why would the people profiting from the poison ever move to stop it?
So the graves keep filling.
Family by family.
Village by village.
In total silence.
Who will save Kenya?
Or do we wait until the last Kenyan is buried before the world finally admits that alcohol poisoning wiped out a generation while everyone looked the other way?
The world stepped in for Rwanda’s crisis.
Kenya is dying the same death.
Where are you?