A section of Women from Kiambaa Sub-County have joined forces and come up with a plan geared towards curbing the accelerating level of alcohol and substance abuse in the area.
Speaking on Thursday, Grace Gathoni, a member of the group dubbed Say No To Alcohol, said over 30 women had decided to team up so that they could save the society from further destruction.
“We have come up with an initiative whereby the peddlers and illicit brewers are identified and summoned by the women who tell them to quit the business or face the wrath of the angry women. Most of them do not quit just because of a simple caution but after one is caught red-handed and humiliated, they stop their involvement,” said Gathoni.
She also said they confronted the culprits in their working places and in case they found them engaging in illicit brewing, they poured the brew so as to serve as an example to other peddlers with such illegal businesses.
Gathoruwe Chief Simon Kangethe said alcohol had become like a virus in the blood of Kiambaa society and it needed to be cured.
“After the implementation of the Mututho law, most bar operators were unable to keep up with the expected levels of brands to be sold, resorting to those remote areas where it will be impossible for the law to catch up with them,” said Kangethe.
The chief also said he had received reports that some police officers from the area were working in cahoot with the peddlers because anytime an ambush was laid for them, nobody would be arrested yet people would be spotted in drunken stupor along the streets of Kiambaa.
He admitted that the initiative was slowly achieving its goal and called on more people to support them so that they could fight the vice from within.
He said no outsider was going to live in Kiambaa and help them wipe out the mess which was eating into the young generation that society relies on so they should face the challenge head on.
“The brave move made by these determined women has surely proven that unity is strength,” said Kangethe.