• Deputy county commissioner Baxton Mayambi and subcounty police boss Ellen Wanjiku led the raid along Chania River in Makwa village.
• They destroyed seven boilers used to brew chang’aa.
Police in Gatundu North on Monday impounded 2,000 litres of solutions used to make illicit brew after deploying drones to monitor illegal breweries in the area.
Deputy county commissioner Baxton Mayambi and subcounty police boss Ellen Wanjiku led the raid along Chania River in Makwa village. They also destroyed seven boilers used to brew chang’aa.
The officers were assisted by an official of the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse who deployed the drone to identify the dens. No one was arrested in the operation.
Mayambi said officers were adopting the latest technologies in combating the illegal brews in the area as well as surveillance for security purposes.
“The drones will end the cat and mouse games the brewers have been engaging the police in. The drones will be able to identify the individuals behind the illegal trade and help the police smoke them out of their hiding places,” he said.
He noted that the notorious brewers have been preparing the illicit brews in old caves.
The administrators said that he will consult with the relevant authorities to have the caves blasted.
He said that police in the area will use all necessary means and help they get to fight the illegal chang’aa trade that has persisted in the region for decades.
The deputy county commissioner called on the government to procure more drones to help in the fight.
“If we get drones and our Murang’a counterparts get theirs we will be able to end chang’aa brewing along River Chania. We will conduct joint crackdowns and bring to book all the culprits involved in this outlawed activity,” Mayambi said.
Mayambi noted that they are also profiling several notorious chang’aa brewers who have been perpetrating the outlawed trade.
“Their days are numbered. We will go after them in their houses or their hiding dens. They will face the law,” the administrator said.
He urged the courts to ensure that when culprits are arraigned they mete out the harshest punishments applied in law.
“This way, we will wipe out the bad elements from the community,” he said.
Chang’aa brewing and consumption in Makwa village has left a trail of deaths attracting the attention of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On July 1, 2015, Uhuru ordered a crackdown of production and sale of illicit brews in Central Kenya led by then General Service Unit commandant Joel Kitili and area MPs.
The leaders and residents had called for the government’s intervention over heavy consumption of illicit liquor in the region.
“They have become a major problem especially in our backyard where they have destroyed our children, families and many young workers. People are dying every day. Even where I come from (Gatundu), this is a major problem,” Uhuru said during the meeting with Central Kenya MPs at State House.
In February 2018, former Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu launched the county alcoholic addicts’ rehabilitation programme dubbed as ‘Kaa Sober’ in the village.
Waititu hoped to control brewing, sale and consumption of the illicit brews that had turned most youths in the village unproductive.
Some 6,000 addicts from across the county who were recruited in the programme were engaged in the clearing of bushes, unclogging trenches and collecting dirt for daily wages.
Each addict was paid Sh400 a day and offered counselling for free. The programme spent Sh1.3 billion but the original intention was never achieved.
In March 2018, Interior CS Fred Matiang’i returned to the village and led local administrators in destroying illicit brews, second-generation liquor and narcotics.
During the raid, Matiang'i said the number of liquor dens surpassed that of public primary and secondary schools combined. Kiambu had 3'062 liquor outlets while there are 1226 public schools.
Matiang’i said that the outlawed brews had claimed many lives and the government would partner with the county to wipe it out.
“We are burying between five and 10 people who are mostly young people from the same village per week because of illicit brews and drugs. This won’t happen again under our watch,” Matiang’i said.