Bar owners take on counties over laws on alcohol

A lobby group of bar owners has raised alarm over several amendment Bills being introduced in counties targeting the alcoholic beverage sector.

The Bar, Hotels and Liquor Traders Association of Kenya (Bahlita) said the amendments; if passed, will kill the alcoholic beverages and hospitality sector.

Addressing the press after a meeting with members in Nairobi, officials cited Nyeri and Meru counties that have introduced punitive legislative changes.

Nyeri County is discussing The County Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill, 2023 which is currently undergoing public participation.

A similar Bill is set to be introduced in the Meru County Assembly. Both Bills seek to have legislation in support of the fight against alcoholism.

But bar operators argue the proposals are overzealous and overreaching and will kill rather than control a sector that employs thousands of people in the country.

The bar owners also vowed to seek legal redress, protesting against Nairobi County’s move to double licence fees to sell alcohol in the city introduced via the 2023 Finance Act assented to by Governor Johnson Sakaja.

“We have been angered by Sakaja here in Nairobi because of the increase in licence fee despite the public participation," said Bahlita Secretary General Boniface Gachoka.

"The result will be an increase in the consumption of illicit alcohol because of the restrictions on formal alcohol, and this leads to loss of jobs.”

The Bills seek to restrict the sale of alcohol to take home, introduce alcohol-free zones, and restrict the sale of alcohol by wines and spirits shops outside designated areas and in hotels.

The Bills also seek to ban advertising of alcohol and restrict alcohol sales by supermarkets to between 5pm and 9pm and in hotels and lodgings and members’ clubs to between 1pm and 11pm.

Bahlita argues that the majority of the contentious provisions in the county Bills run counter to the existing Alcoholic Drinks Control Act at the national level, popularly known as the Mututho Law.

The lobby said it was apprehensive that public participation in the counties could be used to meet the requirement on paper without any real impact on the proposed law.