Crouching behind a flower pot in a stranger’s compound in the middle of the night was not what George Maina had planned that Saturday night.
Yet there he was, his heart racing wildly as he heard footsteps approach on the other side of the rickety wooden fence where there was a road.
Maina curled harder into his corner. He could hear two pairs of legs heading in his direction. He prayed and hoped they wouldn’t see him in the eerie light of the full moon.
The men ran past the fence behind which Maina was hiding. From his hideout, Maina heard the two panting in a state of panic, as though running from some monster. When the sounds of their running faded into the darkness, everything turned quiet.
Maina hoped the occupants of the compound in which he had sought refuge wouldn’t mistake him for a thief. One of the homes had its lights on. His legs grew numb from squatting, but he dared not move in case his pursuers saw him. Maina stayed in that position for almost half an hour until he was convinced it was safe to leave.
Luckily, the gate of the compound was not locked, something which surprised him considering the time of night. He hadn’t come in through that gate; he had entered the compound through a hole in the wooden fence. Maina slowly opened the gate and looked up and down the road. Satisfied there was nobody around, he tiptoed out of the compound and began the walk home, muscles trembling with the tension of being a fugitive from the police.
FROM FUN TO FEAR
Maina, 45, is not a criminal. He and his friends were hanging out at their favourite bar, watching a football match, something quite normal for a Saturday night. A police raid forced everybody to scatter in different directions while scaling walls, stumbling into muddy ditches and hiding in strangers’ flower beds.
Maina’s experience is typical of the challenges faced by bar patrons across the country as police occasionally enforce the legally defined operating hours. Bars are supposed to open at 5pm on weekdays and close at 11pm. On weekends, bars are allowed to open at 2pm but closing hours remain at 11pm. Shops selling wines and spirits are allowed to open all day for takeaways but must close by 11pm.
Of course, it would be easier for bar owners and their customers to simply comply with the law, go home at the prescribed hour and avoid trouble with the police. It’s not as simple as that because the police are a big contributor to the problem. Here’s why: Bars regularly give police officers money to avoid getting raided.
In Maina’s case, one of the reasons he frequented that particular bar was that it would remain open beyond 11pm. “Every evening, I see the police Landcruiser move around bars and everybody knows they are collecting money,” Maina says.
The owner of the bar where Maina was almost arrested confirms that they pay the police to prevent crackdowns. “We give them Sh100-200 a day, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you have sold. They want their money,” the pub owner, who cannot be named for purposes of this article, says.
Sh200 a day seems a small amount of money, but it particularly affects bars in low-income areas, which have to sell at economy prices. With the small profit margin from each bottle, Sh200 represents several bottles worth of sales.
“Even if I closed at 11pm, the police will still demand their daily cut," the bar owner explains. "You cannot survive in the bar business if you obey the law. I have expenses such as salaries for the bar attendants, cleaners and security. I wouldn't afford to stay in business if I was closing at 11pm." The rather high licence fees that county governments charge bar operators also contribute to expenses.
We give them Sh100-200 a day, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you have sold. They want their money
BRIBE OR APPRECIATION?
It is not clear how many bars there are in Kenya, but the Bar, Hotels and Liquor Traders Association of Kenya (Bhalita) claims to have 54,000 registered members. If rogue police are collecting Sh100 a day from each of those bars, a quick calculation shows bars in Kenya are losing as much as Sh1.9 billion a year.
A police officer describes the daily fee from bars as a token of appreciation. The officer says night patrols are hard work and so it is okay for bars to motivate officers by contributing money. “We provide security to these bars; what is wrong with giving us something small to keep us comfortable during the cold nights?” she asks.
Elsewhere, another bar patron recalls the night he and a hundred other people jumped into a dark gulley in the middle of the night. Samson Bakari, a butchery worker by day, was lucky to escape with bruises but he fears others may have broken their limbs.
“There’s this new bar that opened in my estate just before Christmas,” Bakari narrates. “My friends and I were there one night, enjoying the ambience. The place was packed with people from far and wide. The parking lot was full. The music was blasting away and nobody heard the police come in.”
There was pandemonium in the bar as hundreds of people in various states of drunkenness attempted to evade arrest. Bakari was familiar with the bar’s locality as it is not far from where he lives. "I couldn't go out the front because that's most likely where the police were waiting. I knew if I jumped over the back wall, I could escape through a bushy piece of land," he says.
There was one problem with Bakari’s escape plan. A deep gulley separates the bar’s rear wall from the undeveloped plot. He knew about the hazard from the gulley but the newcomers did not. “Many people got injured jumping over the wall because they did not know about the gulley. I saw some of them get injured but there was nothing I could do to help, I just ran,” Bakari says.
Earlier this month, the problem of police extortion was highlighted by a bar owner in Kitengela, who vowed to quit the business because of incessant extortion. Merceline Atieno described on social media that she was paying Sh5,000 a month and an additional Sh200 a day to keep the police happy.
The National Police Service (NPS) subsequently issued a statement alleging that Merceline has previously been fined for flouting liquor licensing laws. “For those who are extorted, they are advised to exercise their civic duty and report to law enforcement such actions for remedy,” NPS said.
Many bar patrons have been injured while fleeing police raids in the wee hours of the night. Why do they risk their lives sitting in bars beyond the official closing hour? Could the on-off enforcement of the law be to blame for the situation? Perhaps it would help if police enforced bar operating hours consistently every single day without fail.
Edited by T Jalio
