Drama unfolded at Luanda market after newly posted OCPD Justin Nyaga carried an impromptu crackdown on illicit brew peddlers in the raid that saw the culprits nabbed with thousands of counterfeit alcohol worth millions of shillings.
The police raided the shops and joints selling the illicit alcohol where over 50,000 sachets of Simba waragi and Kitoko from Uganda were recovered.
The officers also managed to impound 3,000 packets of fake Supermatch cigarettes from Uganda in a well-calculated police raid that has never happened in Luanda after the transfer of Monica Kimani.
Nyaga who is only two days old at the station summoned all police officers at Luanda police station to a meeting where he ordered them to surrender their phones to his office before conducting the raid.
Nyaga said he did not inform the junior police officers of what he was upto and asked them to give out the phones which were switched off to ensure the crackdown information does not leak to the targeted barons.
“We had a very successful raid on joints that sell illicit alcohol in Luanda market. We carried impromptu raids where we managed to net thousands of Simba Waragi and Kitoko sachets from the peddlers. We also managed to impound fake Supermatch cigarettes from Uganda with many bundles of banned plastic paper bags,” said Nyaga.
Nyaga who is holding the office for Emuhaya OCPD Benson Kilonzo who is on leave said he will use a few days he is in Luanda to swipe all illicit brew in the area. He said he is working on a more effective coordination with the public to ensure all of the unscrupulous people who are in such businesses rolls out of the illicit venture.
He thanked Emuhaya residents for giving information to the police for reaction.
“I will use the few days in Emuhaya to ensure the area doesn’t have traces of illicit brew. We are working on a proper coordination strategy between police and the public that will see us succeed in the war against illicit brew,” said Nyaga.
He said the eight arrested peddlers will be arraigned in court today for being in possession of and conducting illicit brew business.
This comes barely a few weeks after Luanda and Emuhaya residents had accused police officers of abetting illicit brew businesses in the area which have claimed lives of many youths.
The residents accused police officers in the area for openly engaging in illicit brew business by supplying the brew which they impound from peddlers to their friendly chang’aa dens operators. They also accused the officers of going round the chang’aa dens collecting money instead of making arrests.
They decried that Luanda and Emuhaya have become a market point for chang’aa and simba waragi from Uganda killing youths who consume the staff.
The residents said Luanda and Emuhaya sub-counties have over 50 illicit brew joints with notorious ones being close to police camps where they enjoy protection from the officers.
The residents also want disciplinary action to be taken against two administration police officers stationed at Mulukhoro AP Camp who vanished with 60 litres of chang’aa which was intercepted by the members of the public with help of community policing.
Vihiga County commissioner John Chelimo decried that there is a big problem in Luanda and Emuhaya sub-counties saying there are a few officers who abetting illicit brew businesses in the area.
He said he will continue to fight illicit brew businesses in Vihiga county and he will spare no officer who is acting as an obstacle to the war against illicit brew.
