A bathroom is normally where people go to answer nature’s call. In one Baringo County homestead, however, officers say the floor was also answering to a suspected illicit alcohol operation.
Kenya Revenue Authority enforcement officers uncovered a secret underground chamber containing suspected ethanol and tobacco during an intelligence-led raid in Kimosop Central.
The operation brought together KRA officers from the North Rift region, police officers from Baringo Central Police Station and local administrators. Their target was the residence of a suspected illicit alcohol trader.
Getting inside was no walk in the park—or even through the gate. According to KRA, the compound had more than six gates, apparently installed to restrict access and give enforcement officers a particularly unfriendly welcome.
The gates, however, only delayed the inevitable.
After entering the compound and searching the premises, officers found the operation’s biggest plot twist beneath a bathroom floor: a concealed underground room allegedly used to hide suspected illicit products.
Inside the chamber were nine jerricans, each containing 30 litres of suspected ethanol, and 40 sachets holding 200 millilitres each. Together, they amounted to approximately 278 litres.
Officers also recovered six kilograms of tobacco.
KRA estimated the value of the seized products at Sh226,292, with Sh170,212 in taxes at risk. In other words, the bathroom’s underground economy was potentially giving the taxman a very expensive headache.
The suspect escaped during the operation and remained at large, KRA said. Authorities secured the scene for further investigations and processing of the seized products, while efforts to apprehend him continued.
The authority said the discovery demonstrated the increasingly sophisticated methods illicit traders were using to evade detection. Multiple gates and a chamber beneath a bathroom floor may sound like ingredients from a low-budget crime film, but the risks associated with unregulated alcohol and tobacco are anything but fictional.
KRA said its enforcement operations help protect government revenue, safeguard the public from potentially harmful products and ensure legitimate businesses are not forced to compete with traders operating outside the law.
The authority pledged to continue working with other government agencies to disrupt illicit trade and hold those responsible accountable.
For now, the suspect may have slipped away—but his alleged underground stock was not so flush with luck.
