The government has suspended all licences of second-generation alcohol manufacturers and distillers pending fresh vetting, and ordered the closure of bars within 300 metres of schools and residential areas.
The measures, which are part of 25 new strict rules to curb rampant alcohol abuse, were announced on Wednesday by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua — the poster boy of President William Ruto’s administration’s bid to rid the country of illicit drinks — and Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki.
At the same time, all public officers that run bars have been asked to stop with immediate effect, on grounds that the law bars them from running such businesses.
“All public officers currently operating such premises are required to shut them down or resign from the service with immediate effect. Cross referencing of the Public Service Commission, National Police Service Commission and distinct agency staff records shall be undertaken to secure compliance thereof,” Prof Kindiki stated.
In addition, the CS said, all officers in the enforcement chain, including those working in Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), Anti-Counterfeiting Authority (ACA), public health and the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada), not to own and operate a bar, either directly or by proxy.
“President Ruto, who chairs the National Security Council, has given clear and unequivocal instructions to us that the matter of drug and substance abuse has reached alarming proportions and is a serious threat to our national security. The government has decided that this matter has to be dealt with as an existential threat to the republic because of what poison disguised as alcohol has done to our people,” said Mr Gachagua.
The said that police officers who appear to be a stumbling block in the war against illegal alcohol and marijuana will face serious consequences, including dismissal.
“There is a new policy direction, that failure, you will no longer be transferred to another county. Where officers have failed to perform their duties by acts of omission or commission, they will no longer be transferred to other counties because that is essentially transferring failures, and all counties are part of this fight,” Mr Gachagua said.
The first step that the government has taken is to suspend the operation licences issued by KRA and Kebs. All existing valid licenses will be vetted afresh within 21 days after the directive, with premises approved to resume operations only upon receipt of fresh approval.
“All licences are suspended with immediate effect. All existing valid licences will be re-examined within 21 days of this directive, and premises will not be allowed to resume operations until they have been re-examined,” said Prof Kindiki.
The CS has also asked all licensed manufacturers and distillers to attend a meeting to be held at the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday next week, starting at 10am.
In order to obtain a new license, the manufacturers are required to have quality control laboratories. Prof Kindiki said the labs should be operated by competent analysts whose main responsibility will be to test incoming raw materials and finished products before they are released into the market.
“The laboratories should register with an inter-laboratory comparison provider and submit their quality control results to the Kebs on a monthly basis,” the CS said.
In addition, all alcohol producers are required to ensure that they identify and document all traders in their distribution chain and have procedures in place to ensure full traceability from the factory to the consumer.
According to the CS, any manufacturer who is aware of counterfeits of their products and fails to report them to ACA will be considered complicit.
On bars near schools and residential areas, Prof Kindiki said: “Any licences currently issued to bars and other outlets and premises by county governments that are contrary to the provisions of the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, especially as relates to licensing of premises within residential areas and around basic education institutions are null and void. County security teams are to secure shut down and seizure of such premises with immediate effect.”
The punishment, he said, will extend to landlords.
“All landlords or premise owners shall be deemed aiders and abettors thereof and be held liable for renting out space for establishment of bars/ wines and spirits outlets in prohibited areas pursuant to section 20(c) of the Penal Code,” he said.
Further, the CS said that no bar or alcoholic beverage outlet would be allowed to operate beyond the stipulated operating hours as provided for in Section 34 of the Alcoholic Beverages Control Act.
“If any bar or alcoholic outlet is found to be operating outside the stipulated hours, the operators shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment as provided by law and all beverages and related accessories in the premises shall be confiscated with the concomitant revocation of the licence,” Prof Kindiki said.
At the same time, Kebs has been directed to review the guidelines on minimum quantity of alcoholic drinks and increase the same from 250ml to 750ml or higher. This, however, does not include beers.
“This is targeting the small fractions of wines and spirits, called ready to drink, such that when you manufacture a bottle, it will have its standards, unlike now where you have people going to buy wines in bottle of 100ml. That is what we want to eliminate,” Ministry of Interior Spokesperson Francis Gachuri said.
Prof Kindiki also directed Kebs to ensure that all industrial ethanol is denatured or marked with a denaturing agent within 45 days to prevent diversion and/or inadvertent use of industrial ethanol in alcohol production.
He added that licensed manufacturers will be required to provide county security teams with the geo-location and physical details of their licensed premises, as well as stock records per licensed premise.
“Any other physical premises storing, manufacturing and housing manufactured stock will be considered illegal stock for destruction,” he said.
All enforcement agencies have been directed to vet officers at the border points, highways and regional offices.
This is to ensure that only officers of integrity and good standing are appointed to conduct surveillance at these points.
The government has also banned, with immediate effect, the manufacture, sale, use, advertisement and distribution of shisha, and the counties asked to enforce this directive without fail.
Ironically, it is the same Kenya Kwanza government that reopened 26 manufacturers of second-generation alcohol that had been shut down by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.
Barely two months after President Ruto and his deputy took their oath of office, the manufacturers who had been suspended over different issues, but mostly tax disputes with KRA, resumed operations.
At the time, while addressing a Kenya Association of Manufacturers event, Mr Gachagua lectured KRA for closing businesses and issuing agency notices for businesses it had issues with, indicating that the new government would not entertain such moves.
“The issue of closing factories for taxpayers who are suffering is a thing of the past because it is foolish. The issue of tax and agency notices where you close accounts, if you shut down an account for six months (and) somebody cannot do business, where will you collect tax the following year? When you shut down a factory, those employees lose their jobs (yet) they were paying Pay-As-You-Earn tax, where will you get the money from?” asked Mr Gachagua then.
The DP used Africa Spirits Ltd factory in Thik,a owned by businessman Humphrey Kariuki, as an example, and faulted the taxman for shutting down the company. He argued that the move had cost the authority close to Sh2 billion in revenues.
“That factory was paying about Sh50 million in terms of tax every month. They send policemen there, shut it down, arrested Humphrey Kariuki — a very enterprising Kenyan, an honourable man, a man who has toiled through his life — locked him up for four days with ordinary criminals and KRA lost Sh50 million every month.
For three years, we have lost a whooping Sh1.8 billion. It was a foolish decision and such things will never happen in the Ruto administration,” said the DP.
