Any investor especially those in the small and medium enterprises always dreams of making a profit to boost their income; to make their lives better and ultimately to grow into the league of the big boys and girls. 

Majority of these investors are riddled with loans and have compromised on their quality of lives so that their businesses can grow.

They are the hardest hit when the economy gets jolted. To survive in a hostile environment sometimes takes divine intervention. 

These are Kenyans who should be lauded for the risks they take and the innovations they come up with to ultimately make society better through job creation, among other contributions. 

The liquor industry is among businesses that took the worst hit from the Covid-19 pandemic. Many clubs and other beer outlets were shut and the few that remained are still reeling from effects of the pandemic protocols such as the dusk-to-dawn curfew.

It is, therefore, disheartening that unscrupulous police officers and their bosses have turned such enterprises into cash cows. A bar that barely makes enough to pay its bills has to part with at least Sh500 daily to grease the palms of unscrupulous officers.

Failure to do so would make the officers target the establishment and the wrath that comes with being targeted has seen some investors close shop. 

The amounts may seem small but estimates from the Bar Hotels and Liquor Traders Association of Kenya show that police officers across the country could be pocketing as much as Sh200 million a month from business owners in liquor trade in form of bribes.

This is in excess of Sh2 billion a year for the officers to do what they were employed and are paid to do. This is a big shame. 

The bars are the easiest target but even ‘Mama  Mbogas’ are not spared this callous behaviour. In the matatu industry, police extortion has been domesticated; it is a way of life.

Ditto trucking business and even long distance hauling services. It is sickening that instead of these industrious Kenyans working for their businesses and families as well as paying loans they are filling the bellies of some wayward police officers. 

This practice, in some way, has to come to an end. The business community should come out and call out such officers.

Exposing them will go a long way in remedying the situation. Police should protect businesses, not turn them to avenues of extortion.