Scores arrested in police swoop on illegal drinking, unlicensed shebeens

Nairobi, Kenya: Scores were arrested in a police swoop on ill-time-operating bars and off-time drunkards in Nairobi Eastland’s Tena Estate. The early Monday afternoon operation saw many illegal bars closed and drunkards arrested. Most of those arrested were young people who were spending their day in illegally operated unlicensed alcohol dens around Tena Estate.

It was not known whether the recent high spate of crime in the area informed the swoop, most recent being the early afternoon execution of a businessman along Manyanja Road in the same area. But according to witnesses of both events, the two are related.

Mwaseda*, a trader along Manyanja Road says that it might be that the police are trying to keep the area under security check after Saturday afternoon’s violent protests against the execution of the businessman and his colleagues in a car.

However, like the proverbial rattrap, that catches both the guilty and innocent, many other suspects were caught up in the exercise. Young people who were found lazily hanging out around the pubs found themselves on the wrong side of the law too. They were hurriedly hurled onto a police track parked along the Manyanja Road. Police also suspected that there could be under-age drinkers who sip at the illegal shebeens.

However, not all the suspects were unlucky to have been netted in the operation. Omosh* a young man who was visibly inebriated shouted out his joy after escaping the cops, and publicly announced his intention to get ‘saved’ and stop predisposing himself to jail terms or court fines.

The undertaking scared many people who were working at their various stations. Mercie*, an MPESA Agent at the Outering Road-Manyanja Road Junction closed her shop when she was startled by people running past her shop. She says she thought it was another shooting reminiscent of Saturday’s, or a robbery chase that could endanger her and her business.

Nevertheless, most of the residents and businesspersons around the area agree with what the police did urging that it could help reduce the rising cases of light crimes and anti-social behavior among the youth.

Nairobi’s Eastlands is infamous for both light and hardcore criminals, most fueled by young people who abuse drugs and live by preying on others. Unemployment is the single major cause of crime, vis-à-vis the high population and overstretched facilities. From organized criminal gangs, hijackers and muggers, the area, which hosts more than a third of Nairobi’s population, life in the area is unpredictable, short and brutish.

Such operations are more than welcome, if carried out in the proper way.