Illicit liquor brewery found at Gioto dump site

The Gioto dumpsite in Nakuru is always a bee-hive of activities. [PHOTO: BONIFACE THUKU/standard]

A nasty breeze irritates road users and people who live near the Gioto dumpsite located at London estate along the Nakuru-Kabarnet road. The stench is unbearable.

It is early morning and lorries can be seen ferrying waste from residential homes. As this goes on, marabou storks fly over the location searching for food, competing with the buzzing flies that converge at the site. Children, youth and women can be seen going through the heaps of trash in search of treasure.

There is another group of young men dressed in jeans, jackets and caps who can be seen seated at the edge of the site. They stand out like a sore thumb.

Calling each other by alias names, the youths are full of stories shared among themselves ranging from politics, current affairs, relationships and challenges encountered in life. While they keep up this banter, these young men keep an eye out for passersby who they interrogate.

Wondering what such energetic youths might be doing at a centre of waste?

It was recently discovered that there are chang’aa brewing dens erected at the dump-site and these young men are employed to guard the chang’aa dens and also find consumers for the illicit brew.

This was came to light after a team of chiefs, assistant chiefs and police officers led by Nakuru West Deputy County Commissioner Elmi Shaffie Ibrahim raided the dump-site and unearthed drums of frothing brew buried under heaps of tattered clothes, and all manner of waste.

Unfortunately, neither the brewers nor their patrons were in sight as the law enforcers further pulled down a ramshackle ‘pub’ where this ‘gabbage’ liquor is brewed.

“These people have gone to great measures to hide evidence of their operations. First by setting it up in a garbage site, which is an area not frequented by people, then by using real waste to cover up their brew containers,” he said.

Residents living near the site were shocked that the activities had been going on without their knowledge.