Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is set to summon all County interdepartmental security heads to discuss the return of illicit brews in the market.

Speaking last Friday in Murang'a County, Mr Gachagua said he will summons all County Commissioners and all county police heads to a review meeting at the Deputy President's Official Residence in Nairobi's Karen estate.

He said the agenda will be reviewing and updating on national policy towards eradication of illicit brews, narcotics and all other forms of substance abuse.

The security heads will also be sensitized on the drive by their parents ministry to introduce amendments to the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act so as to induce aspects of traceability of raw materials and end products throughout the value chain. 

The proposal is contained in the Government's Omnibus Bill, which is before the Attorney-General, the memo indicates.

Mr Gachagua lamented that the gains he anticipated in launching the initiative to keep the country sober are getting lost.

Chairman of Mt Kenya Counties Governors Mr Mutahi Kahiga said there are reasons to believe there are security officers sabotaging war against reckless alcoholism especially in the hometown of the Deputy President so as to make him look bad.

Mr Kahiga who also is Nyeri Governor stated that “such officers who are receiving their orders from some senior politicians need to be called out”.

"They should be made to understand that this is a war to help national economy and security but not a personality issue," Mr Kahiga said.

Gatanga Ward MCA John Kibaiya had complained to the Deputy President that the war was backtracking especially in Mt Kenya region.

"We had started well in this region but the gains are being reversed...we are sinking back to the old culture of death in the hands of merchants of moonshine brews and narcotics," Mr Kibaiya said.

Mr Gachagua concurred, saying he was privy to intelligence reports that even some security officers were consumers of illicit brews hence lacking the passion to fight their merchants.

"Take a case of Murang'a where we have lost an administrator who succumbed to consumption of illicit brews. That administrator has been buried a week ago," Mr Gachagua said.

He lamented that some of those who are supposed to help fight the menace are the consumers of illicit brews.

Mr Gachagua said that border points still remained a weak link in the war especially in sneaking in killer methanol used to clandestinely prepare second generation liquors.  

Urging members of the State agencies tasked with the fight to take their duties seriously, he said stamping out the menace will restore families through getting the country back to sober ways.

He told Murang'a County Commissioner Mr Joshua Nkanatha who accompanied him in the visit, to pull up his socks in the fight against the brews.

"That is why I have a meeting with all security heads in Nairobi coming Friday so that we can have a discussion around the issue... this is not a war that we are ready to lose," the DP said.

Complaints have been live that number of bars are yet to go down as was anticipated, substandard brews are finding their way back to the shelves and security officers are still running bars contrary to government policy as well as police officers moving around bars using official patrol vehicles to collect extortion fees.

On Wednesday last week, a multi-agency working committee that has Interior Ministry PS Raymond Omollo, had released a report detailing some of the gains in the war against the brews, narcotics, and pharmaceutical products abused as intoxicants.

Mr Gachagua reiterated that he will work with the security heads to reclaim the war and sustain the community satisfaction with a sober nation.

The Omollo report indicated that since March 2024 police officers across the country had conducted 65,488 raids on liquor outlets.

The Omollo Report indicated that that in the period under review ending June 30, 2024, security teams had arrested 30,675 suspects in the war against illicit liquor and other substances.

"In the raids, the officers have since seized 358,000 litres of chang'aa, 2.7 million litres of kangara, 8,000 litres of ethanol and 389 shisha bongs," the report shows.

The report also revealed that the fight against drug and substance abuse tasked the Pharmacy and Poisons Board has since seen 408 premises inspected and prosecution of nine suspects already ongoing for non-adherence to good pharmaceutical practices. 

"The board has also closed 150 premises and seized 325 containers of suspect medicines. We are developing guidelines on enhancement of fines and forfeiture of confiscated medicines by the courts," it said in part.

However, Central region's Youths Chapter of the National Democratic Alliance chair Ms Gladys Njoroge said the war is facing challenges.

"While there is evidence that the war is live, it should be brought to Mr Gachagua's attention that corruption, impunity, favouritism and duty negligence are also live in the way it is being fought," Ms Njoroge said.

Mr Gachagua had also last month while in Nyandarua County pressurised the president to state his stand in the war, lamenting that there were security officers who were sabotaging the efforts.

Mr Gachagua said he now needs assurance that various agencies will consolidating efforts of protecting gains made as the government increases its tempo of eradicating illicit alcohol and drugs abuse in the country.

The efforts, he added, must remain rooted in the hard policy that the government declared in March 2024.  

Mr Gachagua had last Wednesday met Mr Omollo alongside Mr Harry Kimtai (Medical Services) and Terry Mbaika (Devolution) as well as representatives of the Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya Bureau of Standards at his Karen official residence. 

In attendance also at the meeting were heads and representatives from the Ministry of Health, The Pharmacy and Poisons Board, Anti-Counterfeit Authority and Office of the Attorney-General.

"It must be a huge win for this administration with zero cost. This is a war we cannot relent because it is good for the country and will be successful," the DP said.

As Mr Gachagua remained upbeat that the war was good for the country, Mt Kenya counties have since argued that they have been losing revenues, stating the figure to be Sh0.5 billion so far in the period the war has lasted.

Worst affected, according to the Country Governments Budget Implementation Report, are Nyeri, Kiambu, Kirinyaga, Meru, Embu, Murang'a, Nyandarua, Nakuru, Laikipia, and Tharaka Nithi.

The report said the devolved units raised Sh250 million down from Sh700 million they had collected in the previous financial years.

The governors cited records by the Controller of Budget showing that the fight had brought down liquor revenue targets from Sh1.5 billion in Mt Kenya to below a billion shillings.