Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga orders county staff who own bars to shut them
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga after he assented to a county Alcoholic Drinks Control bill outside his office in Nyeri town on March 15, 2024. He has ordered county staff who own bars to close their businesses. He also suspended the issuance of new bar licenses.
Nyeri County employees who own bars have been given a week's notice to close their businesses or face dismissal.
Speaking while assenting to the County Alcoholic Beverages Control Bill passed by the County Assembly last month, Governor Mutahi Kahiga also suspended the issuance of new bar licences from Friday (today) pending a verification exercise.
"This means that in the next two weeks, all officers in charge should map every bar, their licence registration numbers, find out the owners and what the businesses are selling and submit the records to us," he said while asking chiefs and their assistants to assist in the exercise.
In his orders, the county boss also stopped the transfer of business licences to new locations, noting that his government had recently closed down all bars near educational institutions in its fight against alcoholism.
The new law aims to controlling the management, licensing and regulation of the production, sale, distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the county.
The new law, which will be implemented once gazetted by the state, has changed the regulatory management of the industry by reorganising the county and sub-county committees that license the sale of alcohol.
This was done by removing bar owners' representatives from such committees. Bar owners operating in the county will now be regulated without being involved in licensing.
The committees were originally made up of county officials, but will now also include an independent party who is not an executive.
The new law has also brought changes to licensed working hours in order to control alcohol consumption. Bars and restaurants have been restricted to selling alcohol only from 2pm to 11pm, while premises selling only alcohol (wine and spirits) will only be open for seven hours - from 5pm to 11pm.
In an attempt to control the distribution of illicit brews, the new law provides for tough punitive measures against those found manufacturing or selling ethanol, stating that such offenders will face a fine of Sh10 million or a jail term of 3 years.
It has also introduced new measures to ensure greater coordination between the county and national governments on enforcement.
Speaking during the passage of the bill, Nyeri Town MP Duncan Mathenge urged all security agencies to work together and monitor social media sites, saying the internet contained a lot of information on the drug trade.
"I have seen many groups on social media discussing illegal businesses in their localities, some even know the culprits but somehow the police and intelligence tend to ignore them," he said.
MP Mathenge also called on the county government to develop a toll-free number to encourage locals to report cases of illegal trading anonymously.
Pius Murugu, the Nyeri county commissioner, said his administration had closed down 700 alcohol outlets near educational institutions.
The leaders called on the judiciary to help implement the new laws, saying there were many cases of offenders who had been arrested and released on bail by the courts but were still involved in the trade.
