A day after Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua ordered the enforcement of one 24-hour bar per town, Kirinyaga owners have vehemently opposed the directive.
Led by their association’s chair Antony Mucheke, the operators described the directive as oppressive to their businesses, clients and employees.
He said bar owners in Mt Kenya are the largest liquor operators countrywide and enforcing such a directive would not only spell doom to their businesses but also render thousands of bar workers jobless.
Speaking on Saturday in Mwea, Mucheke said their clients would suffer the consequences of the directive as many of them would have to walk for kilometers in search of a liquor outlet.
“Mt Kenya owns the greatest number of liquor outlets in the country and calling for restricted operations of our establishments would mean joblessness for our people. Each outlet employs about ten people,” he said.
“Many clients who also depend on our services would be compelled to travel for as long as 10 kilometers in search of our services, which is also oppressive on their end,” he said.
Mucheke, who is also the coordinator for the Bar Hotels Liquor Traders Association, further questioned the law upon which the Deputy President made the directive, noting that the Constitution allows them to carry out their businesses without harassment .
“We want the DP to refer to the 2010 Constitution, which grants us the right to carry out our businesses. We want to state that we operate our businesses in full compliance of the law, which does not allow us to sell liquor to minors and which dictates our operating hours,” he said.
Mucheke said bar and restaurant operators were among the worst hit during the Covid pandemic and such a directive would be tantamount to phasing them out the businesses.
The chairman said their members fully support the war on illicit brews, noting that substandard products are risky to the health and future of Kenyans.
He however reiterated that their members sell products that are legally approved by the relevant authorities and which have undergone the necessary standardisation procedures.
“We fully support the crackdown on illicit brews because we don’t want a situation where the young people entrusted to be tomorrow’s leaders will suffer the brunt of substandard brews,” he said.
