Abstract: The study investigated the influence of the political landscape at the county level in the implementation of both the national and county legislations on locally produced brew. The advent of devolution has been pointed as one of the top barriers to the actualization of regulations on local brew. There has been massive legislation and government spending in the reduction of production, supply, distribution, and consumption of local brew in Kenya. However, the government responses have motivated residents to produce local brew ardently especially after the adoption of devolution in Kenya back in 2010. This study will be significant to the planners and policy makers both at the non-governmental, national and county levels in their effort to control the continued indulgence in the consumption of local brew in Kenya as a whole. The data used for the study was collected from 44 national administrators and 26 police officers from the seven police stations within Teso South sub-county. Two different questionnaires were used to collect unrestricted opinions from the respondents. Collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 for windows and presented using frequency tables, graphs, and pie charts. The study findings show that county governance priorities conflict with the national efforts to curb local brew. Paradoxically, while national bodies such as the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) are committed to the crusade against the excessive consumption of both commercial and local brew, the county government is exploring all avenues to gain revenues and political mileage. For counties, political existence dictates which laws to be adopted and backed up. The study highlighted that the devolution of the alcohol control roles weakened the Alcohol Control Act of 2010 since political will required for holistic prohibition of local brew at the county level is dismal. The study also tinted lack of effective county structures to implement the policies and negative influence from county politicians who also own some bars. The study found significant evidence to recommend that more investment on the socioeconomic aspects of life that precipitate the production and heavy drinking of local brew is imperative. The study also recommended that alcohol regulation roles need to be reverted back to the national government since the county is more political and every legislation is implemented depending on its political utility. Current intervention efforts should zero in on regulation as opposed to the prohibition efforts which are mostly counterproductive.
Keywords: Busaa, Chang’aa, legislation, local brew policy, policy implementation, prohibition, political will.
Title: Devolved Governance versus Prohibition: The Role of Political Will in the Implementation of Legislation on Local Brew within Teso Sub-County, Kenya
Author: Levis Omusugu Amuya, Edward Oendo Onantwa
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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