Over 5,900 liquor joints closed down as illicit brew crackdown intensifies

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Ministry of Interior said the joints were shut down after they were found to have failed to comply with the legal operational requirements.

The aforementioned joints were part of 47,708 outlets that were assessed during the crackdown.

"A total of 43,708 outlets have been assessed, with 37,713 already cleared to carry on with operations while 5,995 have been closed down due to serious safety breaches and failure to fully comply with essential legal requirements," read part of the statement.

The Interior Ministry further noted that so far Rift Valley has recorded the highest level of compliance recording a total of 23,735 cleared businesses. Eastern Kenya came in second followed by Central, Nyanza, Western, Coast, and North Eastern regions.

"The Eastern Region and Nairobi have also recorded impressive figures, the former with 5,708 and the latter with 3,315. They are followed by the Central region with 1,827, Nyanza with 1,217, Western with 1,153, and Coast with 706," added part of the statement.

"Bottom on the list is North Eastern, where 52 premises have been declared compliant."

The ministry added that 86 percent of the inspected spots have recorded compliance.

The nationwide operation, spearheaded by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki seeks to crack the whip, on those selling illicit brew, and advancing abuse of drugs in the country. 

Mid last month, the government said it had arrested over 3,000 people, closed 5,000 unlicensed premises, and confiscated over 2 million litres of illicit alcohol, since it launched a crackdown in January, according to Interior Principal Secretary (PS) Raymond Omollo.

The latest statistics from NACADA show that Kenya’s Western region is leading in cases of alcoholism in the country, with an alcohol prevalence rate of 23.8%, followed by the Coastal region at 13.9%, and Central at 12.8%.

On consumption of alcohol, Western has the highest cases of chang'aa and traditional brew consumption while the Central region leads in the use of potable spirits (4.1%) followed by Coast (3.2%) and Rift Valley (3.1%);

Central region had the highest prevalence of current use of tobacco at 11.9% followed by Coast (10.8%) and Eastern (10.7%).