NAKURU, Kenya, Aug 12 – Over 30 revelers who developed complications after consuming illicit liquor in Nakuru’s Hodi Hodi area were served pure methanol to dilute on their own.
Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya made the revelation on Thursday when he visited the area and assessed evidence gathered by the police.
He said culprits involved in the incident had gone missing and that police were still making efforts to arrest them.
Natembeya said police were searching for a man only identified as Kamau and promised that justice will be served.
Speaking when at Hodi Hodi village in Kabatini location of Bahati Sub-County, the administrator said disciplinary action would also be taken against police and local administration in the area for condoning the sale of illicit alcohol.
Natembeya said an operation against illicit brews in all the 11 sub counties of Nakuru was ongoing following the incident.
He said so even as the death toll of the poisonous liquor rose to 10 on Thursday with 9 other people still hospitalized.
The ten who had succumbed included 9 men and a pregnant woman who turned blind before her death.
Nakuru County Chief Officer of Medical Services Solomon Sirma said the other victims were undergoing treatment at the Nakuru County Referral Hospital.
“Two of those admitted have also become blind and we will be referring them to the eye unit for further checkup,” he said.
On Monday Sirma said 16 people who had also consumed the illicit brew were treated and discharged.
The incident came into the limelight on Tuesday after four bodies of the revelers were picked at different points in the village.
The fifth person died later the same day while receiving treatment at Bahati Sub-County Hospital with the other three succumbing on Wednesday.
