Bar owners oppose proposed COVID-19 rules

The proposed sale of alcoholic drinks rules which seeks to ban the sale of alcohol to sit-in customers in public places has sparked uproar with restaurant operators and leading manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic beverages terming them as punitive.

The rules which were crafted by the Attorney General, and already sent to stakeholders for consultations also seek seeks limit the hours that such facilities are to operate and limits the sale of alcohol to take-away.

The new measures which will affect restaurants, eateries, bars and entertainment joints are aimed at containing COVID-19 spread.

“Few isolated incidents that have breached the law are a small percentage. They should not be a collective punishment to all eateries and restaurants,” Alice Oper the PERAK chairperson said.

Speaking on Wednesday, Health Ministry CAS Dr Rashid Aman said no bars have been licensed to sell alcohol.

“We know there are bars opened under the guise of eateries, Bars and pubs remain closed, we know there are eateries acting as bars, equally there are bars pretending to be eateries” Dr Aman said.

As of Wednesday, Kenya had recorded 14,805 cases of the new coronavirus after 637 people tested positive between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Of the new cases are 361 male while 276 are female aged between 1 and 88-years-old.

The new cases are from 4275 samples tested in the last 24 hours and bring the total number of samples tested so far to 254,273.

The cases are spread out across the country as follows: Nairobi (342), Machakos (85) Kajiado (57), Kiambu (51), Nakuru (22), Mombasa (17), Marsabit(), Nyeri (13), Busia (10), Murang’a (9), Uasin Gishu (6), Bomet (5),

Kericho (3), Kisii (3), Marsabit (2), and Narok, Vihiga, Meru, Garissa, Embu, Kakamega, Kisumu Kitui, Laikipia, Kilifi and Homabay have (1) case each.