• Nairobi County will close bars at 10pm and ban nightclubs to stop noisy music playing through the night
• Bar operators have warned that tens of thousands of jobs could be lost
Nairobi county has clamped down on nightclubs and bars in residential areas to protect residents from noise. Bars will have to close at 10pm and nightclubs will be banned altogether.
The Pub, Entertainment snd Restaurant Association of Kenya (Perak) claimed that Nairobi's 12,000 nightclubs employ 60,000 people and warned that at least 13,000 jobs are at risk.
Both sides are over-reacting. It is common knowledge that bars and nightclubs ignore city by-laws on noise levels and closing hours. Something had to be done.
But it is not clear what is a bar and what is a nightclub. Bars all play music, some of it live. Presumably a nightclub has dancing but should an enclosed nightclub be banned if it cannot be heard from the street? And do the new rules mean that Nairobi residents cannot go out dancing after 10pm?
And will restaurants also be subject to the 10pm closing rule?
The new regulations are not well-thought through but they are better than nothing, if rogue bars insist on playing loud music through the night.
Nairobi residents will just have to get used to their entertainment closing down at 10pm until Nairobi County puts out more carefully crafted regulations.
Quote of the day: "A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past."
Fidel Castro
The Cuban leader started his guerilla war on December 2, 1956