A methanol-laced alcoholic brew kills 45 people and sends dozens to hospitals in Kenya.

Machakos District Hospital said thirty-one people were receiving treatment for severe methanol poisoning. Of them, at least ten have "partially or completely" lost sight.

Kenyan police said the adulterated liquor, called "chang'aa", was consumed in massive quantities in the trading post of Makutano, about 30 kilometers south of Nairobi.

They said at least six people had been arrested, but the owner of the bar was still at large.

In recent years, methanol, a poisonous chemical used in industry as a solvent or antifreeze, has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in the east African nation.

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.

Although the unlicensed manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol is illegal in Kenya, the chang'aa trade is widespread. It costs about 10 US cents a shot and offers a much cheaper way of getting drunk than highly taxed legal beers and spirits.

In 2000, at least 134 people died and dozens went blind, while hundreds of others were admitted to hospitals after drinking poisonous alcohol in the slums of the capital.

(CRI.com June 27, 2005)