Possession of traditional liquor

I am back to my home village for a break and the old men in my village enjoy traditional liquor rather than beer. They asked me to buy them traditional liquor which I accepted. I went to buy traditional liquor for them and on my way back from the traditional distiller I was arrested by village militia while carrying two gallons of traditional liquor on a motorcycle. The militia took me to the police station where I was detained for two hours but later granted police bail and asked to report back to the police station this week. Can I put a defence that I bought the liquor just as a Christmas gift for the old men of my village and not for sale?
KR, Musoma

Traditional Liquor (Control of Distillation) Act [Cap.384 R.E 2002] prohibits not only the sale of traditional liquor commonly known as gongo, moshi or chang’aa but also possession and even consumption of the local liquor unless the possessor is a licensee or an authorised distiller. Possession of local liquor without a licence is a very serious offence which is punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years.

A plea that the possession was only meant for free supply to the old men in the village cannot, in law, cannot be accepted as a defence to exonerate the offender from the criminal liability. Possession of traditional liquor is a strict liability offence which does not require proof of the offender’s intention. After all, since even consumption of the traditional liquor is an offence, the fact that possession was meant only for free supply cannot be an excuse. In short possession of local liquor is an offence under section 30 of the Traditional Liquor (Control of Distillation) Act.