Illicit brews would be a thing of the past in Molo sub-county if residents will fully embrace community policing, a senior police officer has said.
Reacting to reports raised by area MP Jacob Macharia that some illicit liquor sellers have devised clever ways of remaining in the illegal business and beating police roadblocks while transporting their brews, Molo OCPD Job Lesikinwa said some residents were aiding the business by keeping quite with important leads that could aid the arrest of the culprits.
This, Lesikinwa believes, is the cause to the resurgence of the business that was officially launched by the President Uhuru Kenyatta mid this year, in an operation dubbed ‘the business of death.’
“All of us have a role to play in taming crime in our specific localities that is why the police service came up with the community policing initiative aimed at using wananchi to link up the police to criminals, to aid in their arrests,” he said on Wednesday.
He says a police officer cannot be practically at every scene of crime but if responsible members of society took up the initiative of tipping them of planned crimes and whereabouts of the perpetrators, Molo will be one of the safest places to live.
The Molo MP threatened to lead a demonstration to express police laxity in dealing with illicit brews after he was put to task to explain why officers in the area were allowing some people posing as taxi operators to openly sell illicit brews within Molo town.
“If our officers are too lenient to these brewers, let all of them be transferred and a fresh and able team brought here to help us intensify crackdowns. I will personally seek an explanation from our OCPD and AP commander before giving my word on that,” he said.
The OCPD nevertheless has expressed confidence that the fight against the business of death is on course and nothing would deter them from arresting the brewers in the area.