Gov't to reinstate Kirinyaga chiefs suspended over alcohol deaths
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the officers had been wrongly punished despite their efforts to tackle the sale of illegal brews.
The government has announced plans to reinstate chiefs and assistant chiefs in Kirinyaga County who were interdicted last year after 17 people died from consuming illicit alcohol.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the officers had been wrongly punished despite their efforts to tackle the sale of illegal brews.
He explained that their work was often frustrated once offenders were taken to court and later released.
“After evaluating the situation, it seems it was not these chiefs’ fault. They were fighting illicit alcohol, but when the culprits are taken to court, they are freed,” Murkomen said during a visit to Kirinyaga.
He confirmed that the process of reinstating the officers was already underway.
“We have decided to reinstate them; we are finalising that process, and they will all resume work,” he added.
The CS faulted what he described as a “judicial problem” in handling illicit alcohol cases, saying that repeat offenders regularly find their way back to the business after being freed by courts.
The interdictions had affected two chiefs and their assistants from Kangai and Kandongu villages, areas that recorded the deaths of 17 people from toxic brew.
The move to suspend them had been ordered by then-Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who held them and local police responsible for failing to stop the sale of the liquor.
That decision, however, triggered criticism from some residents and leaders who argued that the administrators were being unfairly targeted for a challenge that required broader interventions.
Murkomen’s directive now reverses that position, signalling a shift in the government’s approach to addressing the widespread problem of illicit alcohol in the region.
