Makwa village in Gatundu North has been in the news for years for three wrong but related reasons - brewing, sale and consumption of chang’aa.
Despite relentless efforts by the national and Kiambu county governments to wipe out the menace, the brewers are always ahead with new schemes to defeat the system.
On July 1, 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a crackdown on the production and sale of illicit brews in central Kenya. The crackdown was led by then General Service Unit commandant Joel Kitili.
This followed complaints from leaders and residents - especially women - that the consumption of illicit liquor was claiming many lives and impoverising the region.
“They (brewers) have become a major problem in our backyard where they have destroyed children, families and many young workers. People are dying every day. Even where I come from (Gatundu), this is a major problem,” Uhuru said at a meeting with central Kenya MPs at State House.
Four years later, the vice is still deeply rooted with hardly any signs that the business is about to be eliminated.
In February 2018, former Governor Ferdinand Waititu came up with a county alcoholic addicts’ rehabilitation programme dubbed as ‘Kaa Sober’. The intention was to control the brewing, sale and consumption of illicit brews that had turned most youths unproductive.
Some 6,000 addicts were recruited and engaged in manual jobs like clearing bushes, unclogging trenches, collecting dirt, invasion and destruction of illicit brew dens at Sh400 daily wages.
The addicts were also counselled cost-free at the end of the day.
The much-hyped programme gobbled up Sh1.3 billion of taxpayers’ money yet the mission was never accomplished.
In March (2018), Interior and Coordination of Government Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i visited Makwa village accompanied by county administrators. They seized and destroyed illicit brews, second generation liquor and narcotics.
The magnitude of the menace in the county was such that the number of liquor outlets surpassed that of the combined public primary and secondary schools.
At the time, Kiambu had 3,062 liquor outlets compared to 1,226 public primary and secondary schools.
Matiang’i regretted that the outlawed brews had cost many lives. He promised that the national and regional governments would end the menace once and for all.
“We are burying between five and 10 people, mostly young people, from the same village per week due to illicit brews and drugs. This won’t happen again under our watch,” Matiang’i declared.
Last Saturday, a multi-agency sting operation headed by Gatundu North deputy county commissioner Baxton Mayambi and sub-county police chief Steve Kirui seized and destroyed 600 litres of chang’aa along the Chania River in Makwa.
The team also destroyed brewing items. No one was arrested.
Mayambi told journalists that the brewers are taking advantage of the limited number of police officers now involved in enforcing the curfew and other Covid-19 pandemic-associated containment measures to conduct their nefarious activities.
“They have taken advantage of the pandemic because they know police are implementing government guidelines to curb the spread of the virus. Also they know that Chania River is full and no one is going there. But we are up to the task and we will cripple their illegal trade and bring them to book,” he said.
The administration is also jointly working with state agencies like the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse through its Citizens Coalition to uproot the vice.
Further, the police are using drones to monitor where the liquor is brewed along the river.
Mayambi said eight notorious chang’aa brewers had been profiled. “Their days are numbered. We will go after them in their houses or their hiding dens. They will face the law.”
He pleaded with the courts to ensure that when the culprits are slapped with long jail terms without the option of fines.
Community leader Evans Kamau, who is also an anti-alcoholism advocate in the village, called on the government to step up the fight and eliminate the illegal production and sale of illicit liquor.
“We don’t want to return to the dark days where we use to bury two or more people every week due to the illicit brews menace,” Kamau said.
He called on residents to also assist by exposing the culprits to the police.
- mwaniki fm
