Isiolo MCAs urged to pass alcohol, waste management Bills
Isiolo Central local administrators destroy illicit brew seized in Bulapesa during a raid on December 4, 2021. Isiolo MCAs have been urged to pass laws to regulate liquor trade and waste management.
Isiolo Municipality Manager Osman Halakhe has asked MCAs to prioritize passing bills pending before the County Assembly for better services.
The bills are on waste management, liquor control and licensing, outdoor advertising, enforcement and urban transport management.
Mr Halakhe said the policy gaps were affecting the Municipality’s role and efforts to address challenges facing the populated Isiolo town.
“The challenges the municipality is facing, especially on enforcement, can only be addressed when we have proper bills and policies in place,” he said while calling for political goodwill from all elected leaders.
The by-laws, he said, will assist in dealing with waste management in Isiolo town that has been an eyesore and help regulate liquor businesses that continue to mushroom by the day.
The official said the Municipality had purchased an extra truck to collect waste and identified an open field off the town where the dumpsite will be relocated as the current one is overstretched.
He admitted that lack of policies to regulate liquor businesses was making the sector ungovernable with majority of the pubs operating outside the required hours.
Lack of clear policies
Isiolo Deputy County Commissioner Kepha Marube earlier lamented that the majority of operators arrested in the past were released due to lack of clear policies anchored in law to control the industry.
“Lack of law is making it difficult for our officers to crack illicit liquor that has ruined lives of many youths and school going children,” Mr Marube said.
More than 2000 liquor businesses have been registered within the Municipality that covers parts of Bulapesa, Wabera and Burat wards but majority of the operators are non-compliant to the law, Mr Halakhe said.
“Majority of the operators have not been paying for the licenses and operate throughout the day. With policies in place, enforcement will be easy and the number will be regulated,” he said.
Presence of many pubs and wines and spirits outlets has been blamed for luring youths and underage children into alcoholism with families forced to shoulder the burden of rehabilitating the alcoholics.
In some of the areas such as Mwangaza, the liquor businesses have outnumbered general shops with pupils at high risk due to their proximity to some of the schools.
