If you are under 21, the government wants you nowhere near a bottle of alcohol, not in the bar, not even in a wines and spirit shop where it is sold.
That is one of the proposals outlined in a policy document spearheaded by the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), a policy that could drastically reshape the alcohol landscape in the country.
The new National Policy for the Prevention, Management and Control of Alcohol, Drugs and Substance Abuse raises the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, part of what NACADA describe as an effort to safeguard society from the harmful effects of alcohol. "There should be no person below the age of 21 allowed to access or enter any alcohol selling outlets whether alone or accompanied," the policy states.
According to a 2022 national survey by NACADA in partnership with KNBS, children as young as seven are now consuming alcohol.
