The Bar Code: Kenyan bar owners bemoan extortion by police

file image of a police car

On March 22, 2022 Kitengela-based business lady Marceline Atieno posted a heart rending message with Kenyans of the circumstances that forced her to close her 2 year-old business in Kitengela.

“I want to say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for standing with me severally; first thank you for helping me to open motherland bar and restaurant and thank you for believing me when I exposed police extortion in my business,”  Marcelline Atieno Tweeted.

“I however remain alone with rent and loan arrears, endless phone calls and pressure from left, right and center to pay up, lost customers and huge reduction in my stock and the kitchen remains closed, motherland can no longer sustain me.”

She arrived at this hard and painful decision after claims of constant police harassment and extortions that had gone on for over two years.

At that time, she had been bogged down by loan repayments and rent arrears that had accumulated over several months.

Police officers from the Kitengela police station, she said were to blame for her woes. in an emotional message posted on her social media accounts, Marceline further said she was contemplating going back to her previous way of earning a living.

“The only other thing I know apart from business is webcam modelling. As a public figure, I’m disgusted to go back to my old ways of stripping online which I stopped three years ago but I don't have any other option.” She added.

Marceline Atieno, a newcomer to the bar and restaurant business opened up motherland bar and restaurant through crowd sourcing. Kenyans of goodwill, moved by a story she shared in November 2019, contributed Ksh.500,000.

“My story already trended so much…I was incarcerated and deported from the US…hii biashara ilifunguliwa na wakenya…The kindhearted Kenyans contributed 50 wengine 100” Marcelline told Citizen TV.

All was going well until mid-2021 when some customers failed to clear their bills amounting to 6000 shillings.

She reported the matter at Kitengela police station, a move that she would later regret.

She claims that from that day on, the senior officer at the police station made it the norm to extort her business on the fifth day of every month.

The money she was to pay was called a 'protection fee’.  Junior officers from the Kitengela police station then joined the train, by visiting her premises every evening to collect amounts between 50-200 shillings. 

With rent of 36,000 to pay, salaries of her 7 employees to settle and other business operational costs that she needed to meet, Marceline, could not keep up with the appetite for bribes from the police

 “Nilidhani ni kitu ya mara moja na inaisha kesho wakakuja around the exact time…nikawapea hiyo 200 sasa siku zingine kazi iko slow nawaambia si niwapee 100 wakakataa,” the businesswoman said.

Despite assurances from the police station, Marceline and her employees regularly be unlawfully. For every arrest she would have to part with 5,000 to secure the release of her employees and 1,000 for each client.  

We reached out to the national police service for a response to the allegations levelled against the Kitengela OCS.

In a statement, the NPS spokesperson Bruno Shioso said the complaints were being investigated and that the senior officer had been transferred from the Kitengela police station.

We also encountered similar complaints of police extortion in Kiambu County where some bar owners, wines and spirits establishments have closed shop while others are on brink of shutting down.

Abu Dhabi bar in Juja area has been shut since the beginning of the year.

The owner Amos Kibe who is also the Secretary General of the Kiambu bar owners association says he was forced to close after police officers terrorised him.

He claimed police officers were frequent visitors at bars along Eastleigh Street in Juja fleecing bar owners.

According to records by the association, there are over 750 bars in Juja sub-county alone. Making the businesses a lucrative venture for some of the rogue officers.

 In the larger Kiambu County, operators say three quarters of their earnings go to licenses and bribes. In a cctv footage obtained by Citizen Tv, police land cruisers are seen pulling up at various bar and restaurants to allegedly collect money.

According to operators, this happens on a daily basis between 7pm and 8pm.

In CCTV footage seen by Citizen Digital, a police vehicle is seen pulling up at 19:10hrs, flashing of lights announces its arrival and a few minutes later someone from the restaurant walks towards the vehicle and hands the money to the police officers.

With many entrepreneurs still struggling to get their businesses back on track after the Covid-19 pandemic, police harassment and extortion is, proverbially speaking, like rubbing salt on a raw wound.

“We treat allegations by bar owners of bribery of the police as a two way traffic issue. That might explain bar operators' reluctance to report such solicitations if true,” the National Police Service said in response to the claims.

“Bribery is corruption, which involves two parties, one party a law offender and the other a law enforcer”

The national police service (NPS) further called on bar operators to be compliant with all regulatory requirements to minimize the bribery opportunity and make it easier to deal with errant police officers soliciting for bribes.

The requirements according to the alcoholic drinks control board mandated to provide licenses to bars and liquor businesses are; a liquor license, public health license, single business permit and fire inspection license, all consolidated into an alcoholic drinks license.

But as it turned out during our investigations, most businesses have complied with all the requirements to operate but  still live in fear of harassment by the authorities.

Many are suffering in silence as a result of the failure by the authorities to act on police officers accused of extortion.

In the case of Marceline Atieno for instance, the case of the OCS is yet to be concluded.

According to the IPOA the statements from witnesses have been recorded, and the authority has also reached out to the national police command to provide more information regarding the activities of the officers who are of interest in the case.

It is a statement that hardly gives hope to bar owners desperate to break the code of extortion that their businesses have had to live by for many years now.

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kenya bar owners extortion

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