Initially, chang'aa cartels had a point-man in the police station who could forewarn them on upcoming raids; these police agents moved around in Land cruisers at night to collect ‘commissions’.
However, after the President’s directive to integrate police officers into the community, chang'aa dealers found themselves in a quagmire; there are so many police officers in the neighborhood to share the weekly Sh5000 per a dealer.
The frequent police transfers have brought officers from Nairobi or elsewhere who can’t be appeased with smaller amounts of ‘commissions’.
The recent executive order which revived the Provincial Administration has made the situation weirder; local chiefs with more teeth to bite have suddenly ‘grown horns’ and started demanding a higher commission!
Besides no area chief can risk his career after Matiangi’s directive to sack them if chang'aa dens are discovered in their area!
It’s paramount to note that the chang'aa brewers of this country are driven by pure passion for enterprise, where the government needs to provide favorable conditions for business; this will enable the government to collect taxes instead of millions of shillings channeled to its purported law enforces.
Maybe we should have another executive order to provide for chang'aa dealers to get equipment where they can jointly run cottage breweries or ethanol industries for the legal market. Intimidation and inhuman raids to chang'aa dens alone won’t deter them!