Gachagua ameamua!:Only one bar should operate 24hrs in major towns – Gachagua

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has called on governors to review the licensing of bars and restaurants.

Gachagua said in the big Kenyan towns, there should only be one 24-hour licensed entertainment joint.

He spoke on Thursday during the commissioning of affordable housing project in Ruiru, Kiambu.

“We want to appeal to our governors to sit down and agree that they cannot licence each and every outlet to be bar and restaurant to sell 24 hours,” he said.

“It is wrong and it is unacceptable.”

He added that it was wrong for governors to do that in pursuit of increasing the county revenues.

“You licence all bars to be bars and restaurants so as to increase revenue and in the process, we lose an entire generation. Sasa ata mkiokota ii pesa mjenge barabara, ii watoto wakikufa nani atatumia?” he asked.

This is loosely translated to, “…. Even if you collect that revenue to build roads and the youth dies, who will use them?”

He added:

“So the governors in Kenya must make a decision. In pursuit of revenue, licensing every kiosk, and every bar to be bar and restaurant, you want to destroy an entire generation. And that is not right.”

This directive follows after Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja ordered the closure of noisy entertainment joints in the residential areas.

“Bars and restaurants in residential areas must operate within the specified time and control noise emanating from their premises. Specifically, playing of music must stop by 10 pm,” he said in November 2022.

The decision was however overturned by the county assembly.

It directed that the County Executive Department of Urban Planning should get a clear mapping of residential and commercial areas.

In a rejoinder, Sakaja said the decision to ban nightclubs in residential areas will not be withdrawn.

“There will be sanity in our neighbourhoods. There’s no turning back from that,” he said.