Four city restaurants closed for flouting Covid-19 rules

Four city restaurants closed for flouting Covid-19 rules

Four restaurants in Nairobi city were Friday shut down by officials from the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) public health department after they were found to be flouting Covid-19 guidelines.

The four restaurants -- Petma, City Gava, Hot Dishes and Beneve Foods -- were ordered closed as the officials began a crackdown on businesses flouting Covid-19 guidelines.

The crackdown targeted eateries and food businesses, schools and public service vehicles.

“We are inspecting every business that was cleared to operate and if we find any that does not observe the guidelines, we are asking them not to operate until they reorganise themselves and reapply for the licence afresh,” said Mr Sammy Ole Kamwaro, who is the assistant chief public health officer at NMS.

Mr Kamwaro said they had carried out the crackdown following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive on Wednesday, and after realising that many businesses were not observing the guidelines.

“We are now doing enforcement in collaboration with the police. We have found four premises all of which are flouting the rules. So we’ve just stopped their operations and told them to reapply for licences afresh,” said the official.

The team of more than 250 officials deployed across sub-counties within Nairobi targeted businesses in operation and how they were observing social distancing, wearing of masks and washing of hands. They also checked the type of hand sanitisers that were being used and whether they met the threshold of 60 per cent alcohol content, to effectively disinfect.

“Those found with over 70 per cent level of compliance will be given time to reorganise and their operations will only be halted for some time,” he said.

The officials also went around supermarkets inspecting the level of observance of the guidelines, though no supermarket had been found to be flouting any by Friday noon. They said the intention of the exercise was to make businesses keen and observe the guidelines in order to prevent the spread of the disease, rather than punish them with punitive measures.