Ban on bars in residential areas spot on

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s ban on bars located in residential areas comes as a breath of fresh air for many city residents.

One of the reasons the public has been against running of bars in residential areas is the carefree habit of playing loud music by bar owners.

Due to corruption in government institutions that are mandated to issue and enforce guidelines and conditions that must be met before one is issued with an operating licence, people had been allowed to set up bars in between residential homes. This is wrong.

Some of these bars play loud music on powerful speakers and the noise is audible several kilometres away.

People living near these alcoholic drinks’ outlets have endured sleepless nights for years, as noisy revellers and deafening loud speakers rule the nights.

The immoral behaviour of drunk revellers adds to the discomfort of residents, who find it hard to shield their children from it all .

Soundproof

My question is why these bar owners have not been forced to soundproof these joints. It means that the regulating authorities are dead asleep.

The music systems used by these bars cost millions of shillings to instal, yet the owners are unwilling to spend much less than that to sound-proof these joints.  The famous Florida nightclub, which reigned in the 90s, had sound-proof walls and one could only hear their powerful speakers at their doors.

This shows that authorities then were working.

Yet almost everyone trooped there due to its high standards of customer care,high quality drinks, security and strict adherence to business ethics.

Let bar owners know that revellers will go wherever a bar is located despite the distance.  In fact, bars in remote places are better for drinkers.

People travel from Nairobi to Naivasha, Kajiado or Machakos just to booze.

The famous Carnivore restaurant was set up far from estates, yet it is always filled to capacity.

So, the tendency by bar owners to choose residential areas doesn’t make much sense, unless they are targeting students.

Bar owners must be mindful of our children, who may easily be influenced by what goes on in their businesses if they are adjacent to residential homes.

Most of these bar owners live far and often in serene environments yet they set up bars in other people’s residences to harass and rob them of their peace.

Let them not only be blinded by the quest for profits and for once reason like their fellow parents.

Robert Musamali,  Nairobi