The Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration, Professor Kithure Kindiki, has said that alcoholic manufacturers will know if they will be relicensed or not in two weeks’ time.
He said a multiagency team will determine if the manufacturers have met the stringent conditions set by the government when their licenses were cancelled two weeks ago in the wake of deaths as a result of poison alcohol in Kirinyaga County where 17 levelers lost their lives.
Kindiki said each of the manufacturers has 25 conditions to meet and their licences will be dependent on how well they conform to the conditions.
The CS was speaking in Embu Town when he received a briefing from the County Security and Intelligence Committee led by County Commissioner, Jack Obuo, on the progress made in the ongoing crackdown on the sale of illicit liquor and other drugs.
Kindiki said security officers in Embu had made 100 arrests and recovered 300 rolls of bhang. 44 of those arrested had been prosecuted, he added.
He added that 296 bars licensed against the requirement that bars be at least 300 meters away from basic education facilities had been closed.
The CS, who was briefing the media after a closed door meeting, said he had urged the officers to upscale fight on illicit liquor and drugs especially be hard on those selling bhang to school children.
He said the sale of illicit substandard liquor and drugs was a national security issue.
Kindiki said some 292 police officers in Embu County will be affected by the order that officers who had served in the same station for more than three years be transferred in an order to break up any protection rings that may be existing in the alcohol and drugs trade.
By Steve Gatheru
