Nairobi — Administration officials in Kibera on Wednesday evening discovered the probable source of the brew that has killed at least 23 people in the slum.

The area chief and his assistant, with the help of village elders, broke into a house in a part of Laini Saba known as Biashara Street, the epicentre of the weekend tragedy.

The single room looked like a store for the deadly alcohol suspected to have been laced with methanol.

There were three buckets with 200 ml bottles filled with chang'aa, a 50-litre tank of water and a sack with empty bottles.

The owner was identified as Njoki Wachungie but neither she nor her customers were arrested. She had not opened the bar she is said to operate in the area.

It appeared sellers have discovered a new devious way to market their products safely.

Rather than sell the drink out of a jerry can, they pack it in bottles of products that have passed the standards test, or are not associated with alcohol.

Laini Saba chief Richard Juma said the sellers collect the empty bottles, wash them and fill them with chang'aa or other illegal concoctions.

These are then distributed to bars or sold to individuals at a retail price of Sh20 or Sh30. "The packaging makes it difficult to identify the chang'aa," said the assistant chief.

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