Women from Kapkombe sub location in Baringo North Sub County have taken to the streets to protest the sale of second generation alcohol and illicit brews in the area.
The women who waved placards and chanted slogans marched to Kabartonjo Deputy County Commissioner’s office to seek audience over what they termed as a life threatening business which claimed exposed gullible youth to harm.
Priscilla Kangogo, a resident said they could not stay quiet when the dangerous second generation drinks had turned promising young men into zombies and unproductive members of the society with a bleak future.
“We are asking the concerned authorities to come and arrest all those who are engaged in the business because our youth are no longer productive,” she said.
Kangogo noted that the sale of lethal liquor packaged in plastic bottles and mostly sold inside Chebono forest has sharply affected enrolment of children to ECDE centres because the youthful parents wetre no longer interested in the education of their toddlers.
She cited the neighbouring Kabargoge ECDE which had registering only 10 children.
Magdalene Kechem said that the situation has made many of the youth at the sub location to drop out of school while the rate of immorality has risen sharply.
Kechem noted that the dealers were now selling openly up to the doorstep of Kapkombe dispensary.
She stated that they have tried to inform the area assistant chief and village elders but no action was taken to discourage the people she allege were well known in the society.
Esther Kiptoon, another resident, said that from the illicit brews their sons steal from them in order to meet their drinking expenses.
Kiptoon revealed that women were the most affected since there is massive theft of sheep, poultry and breakages of granaries in the area yet it is useful in paying school fees for other children.
Kabartonjo Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) Danson Waithaka who received the women assured them that they would act on their grievances within the shortest time possible.
Waithaka said that they have already finalized profiling some of the notorious brewers operating mostly in bushes to facilitate arrest and subsequent arraignment in court.
“Together with Nyumba Kumi elders and residents we are narrowing down on the sellers of these brews and am sure we will end this illegal business once and for all,” he said.
Baringo North Sub County Administrator Hellen Juma stated that only four bars have been licensed in Kabartonjo and Kipsaraman towns and those who are engaging in the sale of second generation liquor and busaa especially in the backstreets of Kabartonjo, Kaptere and Kapkombe were doing so illegally.
She said that the county administration in collaboration with the national government will mount a massive crackdown to apprehend the culprits engaging in the business mostly at night.