- Jan 7, 2002
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NAIROBI: At least 25 people died and several dozen were admitted to hospital on Saturday after drinking an illegal liquor laced with deadly methanol, hospital officials said.
Police brought in seven people to the mortuary while 18 others died in the wards while undergoing medical treatment, the superintendant of the Machakos District Hospital, Simon Mueke, said.
At least 41 people were interned in the hospital, which is 60km southwest of the capital Nairobi, and dozens more were treated for symptoms including headaches, stomach pains and vomiting. Officials said at least 10 patients had lost their sight because of poisoning by methanol, which attacks the central nervous system.
Methanol is used in industry as a solvent or antifreeze. ?The patients are responding well after we gave them large doses of the antidote, ethanol,? Mueke said. ?This means they took a large quantities of local liqour that contained a large doses of methanol.?
The victims were drinking in a bar in Makutano township, about 30km from Nairobi. Police said they were still searching for the owner of the bar, who had gone missing. Many low-income Kenyans drink cheap gins. Chang?aa, usually distilled from fermented maize or sorghum flour, is the most popular and is produced all over the country. Bootleggers sometimes add industrial alcohol to make it stronger.
Cheap liquor is also dubbed Kumi Kumi (Ten Ten), among a variety of names, because a glass costs ten shillings ($0.13). In 2000, at least 134 people died and tens went blind while hundreds others were admitted in hospital after drinking poisonous alcohol in slums in the capital.
Eighty people died in August 1998 after drinking an illegal brew believed to have been contaminated with methylated spirits in the western Nakuru district.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Displa...e2005&file=World_News2005062612120.xml
Police brought in seven people to the mortuary while 18 others died in the wards while undergoing medical treatment, the superintendant of the Machakos District Hospital, Simon Mueke, said.
At least 41 people were interned in the hospital, which is 60km southwest of the capital Nairobi, and dozens more were treated for symptoms including headaches, stomach pains and vomiting. Officials said at least 10 patients had lost their sight because of poisoning by methanol, which attacks the central nervous system.
Methanol is used in industry as a solvent or antifreeze. ?The patients are responding well after we gave them large doses of the antidote, ethanol,? Mueke said. ?This means they took a large quantities of local liqour that contained a large doses of methanol.?
The victims were drinking in a bar in Makutano township, about 30km from Nairobi. Police said they were still searching for the owner of the bar, who had gone missing. Many low-income Kenyans drink cheap gins. Chang?aa, usually distilled from fermented maize or sorghum flour, is the most popular and is produced all over the country. Bootleggers sometimes add industrial alcohol to make it stronger.
Cheap liquor is also dubbed Kumi Kumi (Ten Ten), among a variety of names, because a glass costs ten shillings ($0.13). In 2000, at least 134 people died and tens went blind while hundreds others were admitted in hospital after drinking poisonous alcohol in slums in the capital.
Eighty people died in August 1998 after drinking an illegal brew believed to have been contaminated with methylated spirits in the western Nakuru district.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Displa...e2005&file=World_News2005062612120.xml
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