Murang'a bar owners threaten to sue State over closure of their businesses

Murang’a bar owners have accused the national government of fighting their businesses under the guise of eradicating illicit brews.

The bar owners have reiterated that they have no connection to the producers of second-generation and illicit brews and that they have continuously been targeted for the wrongs committed by manufacturers.

The bar owners who met in Murang’a town on Friday said over 40 percent of their businesses have been closed down, rendering over 10,000 workers jobless.

Murang’a Bar Owners Association chairperson Simon Njoroge said a majority of the closed-down businesses have been closed over their proximity to schools and residential areas.

“We have made it very clear that we support the fight against illicit brews but we also want a clear definition of the term residential area,” he said.

He added that some administrators have been taking advantage of the fight to harass bar owners while sparing those affiliated with them.  

“This has become malicious. It is no longer about illicit brews. Some administrators have been harassing women traders and closing their bars after rejecting their advances. It’s unfair”.

Njoroge said the association will now be collecting signatures and filing a suit against the government saying their livelihood has been destroyed.

“What will we do with the stock we had bought before the bars were closed down? We know the government is vetting manufacturers and we are telling Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki that we are the retailers and have a lot to tell him,” he said.

Bar owners, he said, have a strong association that has 42 county chairpersons who are ready to meet Kindiki and give information that can help the fight against illicit brews.

Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni who attended the meeting said the closure of bars is a targeted attack on local investors.

He wondered why some high-class establishments are not being subjected to the same standards being used to close bars in the rural areas.

“This is why we are saying this is economic sabotage. What do they want people to do?” he asked.

“There is no producer here. Producers have been licensed by the government and issued with KRA and KEBS stamps. Why are they targeting bars and causing misery to hardworking Kenyans?”.

He said the requirement for bars to be over 300 metres away from learning institutions is not enforceable in the Mt. Kenya region that has been seriously affected by the subdivision of land.

Even shopping centres, he said, are in one block of land that hosts schools, churches and businesses.

“We are not denying that we have an alcoholism issue in the region but this is not the right way to deal with it. How can you grow a country with this attitude? You’re telling us to go to macadamia, coffee and tea that are all doing badly,” he noted.

Kioni further noted that licensing bars are a function of the county government and wondered why the national government is interfering with devolution.

He said he would partner with other like-minded lawyers to fight for the bar owners, the same way they fought for 22 elders who had been charged with being members of the Mungiki sect and who were acquitted by Murang’a law courts two weeks ago.