The rate at which bhang, illicit brew and counterfeit goods are making their way into Vihiga markets is alarming, county commissioner Felix Watakila has said.
He said law enforcers must comply with that law before enforcing it on other people.
"We can't be saying that we want to arrest chang'aa people, yet those who are supposed to conduct the raid are in that very den," Watakila said.
The administrator said any government officer who will be found breaching the law in the fight against illicit brew, drugs and counterfeits will not be spared.
The county commissioner was speaking at Luanda Market.
He said when they conducted a raid in Luanda town, they seized more than 2,000 litres of chang'aa, 450 brooms of bhang, 110 rolls of bhang and 10 kilos of bhang seeds.
They also confiscated and destroyed 10 cartons of contraband cigarettes.
"For the few days we have been here on the raid, we have seized narcotics worth Sh1.4 million," Watakila said.
"That is not the end of the business, we are still on the move to ensure our markets are clean at all cost."
Watakila said during a raid at Luanda market, they discovered that even kiosks that are supposed to sell food are the major suppliers of drugs.
"We are not a drinking nation and people cannot wake up and spend the entire day in chang'aa dens as if they have nothing to do," he said.
Watakila said the crackdown will continue throughout the county to ensure all illicit brew and drugs are wiped out of the area.
In May this year, Interior PS Raymond Omollo said the statistics on drug and substance abuse in Kenya are alarming.
The PS spoke during the launch of the National Survey Report on the status of drugs and substance use.
"The statistics on drug and substance abuse are truly alarming and deeply concerning. When I first went through the 2022 Drug Use Report, it hit me that we were staring at a crisis of epic proportions," the PS said.
Omollo said the fact that more than four million people used drugs in the country in 2022 was staggering.
"That is one in every 10 people," the PS said.
Omollo said what was more disconcerting was knowing that all ages from 15-65 are affected and initiated to various substances of abuse at the young ages of six-eight years.
He termed it unfortunate since most productive years lie within this age bracket.
Omollo said bhang use has increased by 90 per cent in the last five years.
"A walk around our urban areas, villages and informal settlements will give you a sense of the drug-infested communities we now have, where entire populations, both male and female, are drunk and high," he said.
The PS questioned when the country will start treating drug abuse and addiction as a collective public health crisis, rather than a criminal justice issue that focuses on manufacturers, distributors and traffickers of drugs.
"How many more lives will we lose to the drug menace before we put an end to this epidemic?" he posed.
The report by Nacada showed that the Kenyans using bhang has increased over the years.
The report shows one in every 26 males and one in every 333 females are currently using cannabis.
