John Mureithi, the seller of the illicit brew that has seen the death toll rise to 20 in Irate Kangai village in Kirinyaga county has been arrested.
This comes barely a week after the residents burned down the bar blaming the police for not taking action against the proprietor despite numerous complaints.
Speaking in Kirinyaga on Friday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said the seller of the killer brew is a notorious offender who had been arrested before and taken to court 16 times and was released many times on very lenient bond terms.
“Therefore it ought to be clear that it is not entirely true to say that public officials or law enforcement officials have not done their job, it is however true that certain officials of the Judiciary have let the people of Kenya down and frustrated the law enforcement efforts of our officers,” he said.
“We have arrested John Mureithi once more. We have obtained custodial orders to keep him in custody till we complete our investigations and we intend to charge Mureithi with the most serious crimes ever in our statutes,’’ he said.
The Interior Cabinet Secretary said the murder of many people is not a trivial matter and therefore they are looking at putting a proper serious case such that the seller of the killer brew will never know freedom again.
"There is no difference between what this character has done and what the al Shabaab terrorists are doing or what the bandits are doing in other parts of the country," he said.
The new county commissioner for Kirinyaga County, Hussein Alasson, Police commander Ali Naibei among other newly appointed officers have been directed to commence an operation immediately to make sure similar characters are apprehended before they cause more harm.
“We have also initiated a program to assist our people who are chronically addicted to drugs and substance abuse so that we can take them for rehabilitation," Kindiki said.
