Drunk Nairobians are the reasons bars are not licensed

Nairobi City County Alcoholic Drinks Control and Licensing Board has now raised an alarm over hostility that the enforcement officers are receiving from members of the public when on duty.

Appearing before the Nairobi assembly budget committee on Monday,deputy Chief executive officer Hesbon Agwena says some of their officers have recieve beatings when conducting operations.

‘‘Its true Mr. Chairman , it’s  challenging and we can not reach our target,our officers were beaten in Dondara phase four and its very difficult to penetrate some areas. Infact  the multi-agency team that  we work with rely so much on city hall officers,’’ The areas marred with resistance and hooliganism area  Gomongo, Korogocho,Kibera,Langata and Mathare.

‘‘We have now developed new strategy ,our work is to enforce and we are using a full force to deal with areas where resistance has been met.’’ He noted. The board has now embarked on auditing  its  clubs and restaurants records to ensure no outlet evades paying tax to the county.

According to Agwena the board is in the process of hiring a consultant to conduct census  on the same. ‘‘We have currently licensed 3900 bars,but according 2016 census report  that was done by the board, the report showed that we have 7200 bars in Nairobi,to that effect we  are planning to engage a consultant to conduct a new census.’’ Agwena stated.