A year after eight local administrators in Kirinyaga County were suspended over the deadly illicit brew crisis, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has lifted their interdiction, sparking debate over accountability and legacy politics in Mount Kenya.
Speaking during a Jukwaa la Usalama forum in Kirinyaga, Murkomen announced that the three chiefs and five sub-chiefs from Mwea West would return to their respective locations, Mutithi, Kathiga, Ngomongo, Kianjogu, Kariukuini, Gitumbi, and Kiandiiri.
The officials were suspended in February 2024 on the orders of then-Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, after more than 20 people died from alcohol poisoning in the region.
Murkomen, however, took a softer stance, insisting that the administrators had been unfairly victimised. “We are evaluating the issue, and it was not their fault. They were fighting illicit brew, but when someone gets to court, they get released. So we are saying it is not their fault, and they should just go back to work,” he stated.
The reinstatement underscores a policy shift from the hardline approach championed by Gachagua during his tenure as deputy president. Gachagua had positioned himself as the chief crusader against illicit alcohol in the Mount Kenya region, repeatedly warning that it was destroying the community’s youth.
His campaign culminated in the dramatic suspension of the Kirinyaga chiefs during a mass funeral for victims of alcohol poisoning.
Even after his impeachment in October 2024, Gachagua continued to defend his anti-brew legacy. In one of his earliest public addresses, he urged chiefs and assistant chiefs not to allow illicit alcohol to resurface, warning that “the boy child is in trouble.”
At the time, he accused unnamed figures in President Ruto’s administration of enabling the trade to weaken Mount Kenya’s influence.
