Busaa is the traditional opaque beer of western Kenya, associated especially with Luhya and Luo communities and also brewed commercially in Nairobi. It’s made from maize that is soured in water, roasted, and then brewed with finger millet malt (Eleusine coracana), and it’s drunk while still fermenting – thick, sour, lightly alcoholic and often lukewarm, which many drinkers say brings out the flavour. When ready, busaa contains about 0.5–1% lactic acid and 2–4% alcohol by volume (Nout, 1981).
How Busaa Is Brewed
The most detailed study of the traditional process followed eight complete brews by a commercial brewer in Nairobi (Nout, 1981):
- Souring. Uncooked maize grits are mixed with an equal weight of cold water and left for 2–3 days at about 25°C. The pH fell from 5.85 to 3.90 by day two. The sugar for this souring comes from the maize’s own starch-splitting enzymes, not from microbes.
- Roasting. The sour mass is roasted on steel sheets over a charcoal fire until cooked and lightly browned, then broken into a crumb. A tasting panel strongly preferred busaa from roasted soured maize to busaa from fresh maize: the roasted flavour and light-brown colour are part of what makes it busaa.
- Malting. Finger millet is steeped for 12–24 hours, germinated for 2–3 days, dried in the sun for 1–2 days and ground.
- Brewing. One part crumb is stirred into 1½ parts cold water with 0.1 part finger millet malt, then fermented for 2–4 days at about 25°C, strained to remove the coarse particles, and served.
What Ferments It
During souring, Nout found yeasts (Candida krusei and Saccharomyces cerevisiae), lactobacilli (Lactobacillus helveticus, L. salivarius, L. brevis, L. viridescens, L. plantarum) and pediococci. The finger millet malt carried a heavy and mixed microbial load of 10 to 100 million per gram. In the main fermentation, S. cerevisiae makes the alcohol while lactobacilli make the acid, and L. plantarum gradually takes over (Nout, 1981).
Why It Keeps Only a Day
That takeover is busaa’s weakness. Left at room temperature, lactobacilli keep souring the beer towards about 2% acid, until it tastes unpleasantly sour and the suspended solids separate, so busaa can’t be kept much beyond 24 hours, and brewers make only as much as they can sell the same day. Refrigeration extended its life by one to two weeks in Nout’s trials. He also developed a pasteurised, bottled version, and found that a starter of S. cerevisiae and the less acid-tolerant L. brevis gave a stable beer with about 3.25% alcohol (Nout, 1981). Among Kenya’s five main traditional drinks, busaa had the highest nutrient content, with notable protein, calcium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B12 and pantothenic acid. It’s still an alcoholic drink, though, not a food for children.
Busaa and the Law
Home brewing in Kenya has long been regulated. Nout’s thesis cites the Native Liquor Ordinance of 1930 and the Traditional Liquor Act of 1971, and describes a government keen to cut alcohol use. He argued for licensing and quality standards rather than a ban, noting that the illegal trade favoured the distilled spirit chang’aa, and that a nutritious beer like busaa should be allowed to continue (Nout, 1981). Today, Kenya’s Alcoholic Drinks Control Act of 2010 governs alcohol. In April 2026, residents of Busia County petitioned their county assembly for a law to license and regulate busaa, saying it is often criminalised and that many people cross into neighbouring Uganda, where it’s legal and regulated (The Standard, 2026).
Health Note
Oesophageal cancer is common in western Kenya. In a case-control study in Eldoret, most of the alcohol drinkers consumed came from low-strength drinks (busaa or beer), the risk rose with the number of drinks per day, and alcohol, especially busaa and chang’aa, accounted for about half of the oesophageal cancer burden (Menya et al., 2019). As with any beer, the less the better. Chang’aa is a spirit distilled from fermented mashes of jaggery, molasses or busaa itself, and most samples Nout tested had unacceptably high fusel-oil levels (Nout, 1981). Don’t distil at home.
Relatives
Busaa belongs to Africa’s family of opaque grain beers: South Africa’s umqombothi (maize and sorghum malt), West Africa’s pito and Ethiopia’s tella. For a non-alcoholic East African cousin, try Tanzania’s togwa.