Hundreds of Businesses Closed For Selling Illicit Alcohol

Consumption of illicit alcoholic drinks in Kenya is still high. Death and blindness from these contaminated drinks has left numbers of families devastated. At the beginning brewing started in villages also known as ‘Gicagis’ where older women and men used to brew and sell locally to villagers ,today that business is booming than before and worse of all ,the illegal brew is commercially bottled and sold to licensed outlets.

Just the other day, some people died after consumption .The president has given orders to eradicate the killer brews starting from central province where its worst hit, he also mandated MPs and all the supporters of the drive, to check and close all outlets selling illicit drinks and destroy those in the manufacturing process.

The government has also dismissed the alcoholic beverage licensing until thorough inspection of premises is done and met the set KEBS standards. Let’s not be fooled by this rules that are just emerging now, personally I have been through the struggle of acquiring a license to run a beverage wholesale shop, this is the most devastating  process of having a startup, I am very sure any business person can agree with me. How these illicit drinks get bottled and distributed is shocking, how the manufacturers never get caught is even more depressing.

After a small audience research, it is now very clear that corruption is dominating our lives. How sad, that an inspector can be bribed to allow distribution of illegal drinks, being aware that people’s lives are at stake. The popularly known wines and Spirits are at high risk of closure not forgetting the huge loss they might face. Given that the packaged drink is not inspected at the processing/manufacturing level, the Wines and Spirits owners should not be blamed for selling or should at least be compensated when their stock is destroyed.

With hundreds of these distributors across the country, a lot is at stake, loss of jobs and loss of property. The government should think deep on how this will affect the country and come up with smarter ways to curb illicit brewing and consumption in Kenya.