Embu ward representatives continue being criticised for extending alcohol drinking hours.
The newly-enacted Bill allowing the drinking from 3pm on weekdays and from 11am on weekends to 11pm was passed last week and is now awaiting the assent of Governor Nyaga Wambora.
County Assembly speaker Josiah Thiriku on Monday defended the MCAs, arguing that the county had an alcoholism problem not a time management problem.
He said the intervention of the MCAs was timely and would address alcohol abuse as closing the bars was not the solution.
Thiriku said if the assembly legislated the reduction of drinking hours, residents would find ways of accessing liquor from illicit dens as opposed to buying it from licensed bars.
He called on the opponents of the new liquor law to scrutinise it objectively and note down problematic areas for petition to the assembly.
He said the MCAs would consider the amendments at the Trade, Tourism, Investments and Industrialisation committee and incorporate them in the Act.
Under the Mututho law, which is applied countrywide, the drinking hours are 5pm-11pm on weekdays and 5pm-11pm on weekends.
Thiriku said the Embu assembly did not contravene any national law by passing the Embu County Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill, 2019.
The Alcoholic Drinks Control Act of 2010 (the Mututho Law) ceased to operate after the introduction of devolution in 2013.
Before then, the licensing of liquor dealers was the mandate of the district commissioner.
Thiriku said the second part of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution gave county governments the mandate to license liquor outlets.
He spoke after certifying and dispatching copies of the new law for gubernatorial assent.
He said that the former legislature had passed a similar law allowing the sale and drinking of alcohol from 2pm on official working days and from 10am on weekends and public holidays.
He said the critics of the enacted Bill– especially the regional administrators – were members of the Sub-County Liquor Licensing committee that vets and allows bars to operate.
