{"id":119126,"date":"2025-08-01T11:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T11:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/rehabilitate-heavy-drinkers-and-leave-us-alone-kisumu-bar-owners-tell-nacada\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T11:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T11:10:17","slug":"rehabilitate-heavy-drinkers-and-leave-us-alone-kisumu-bar-owners-tell-nacada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/rehabilitate-heavy-drinkers-and-leave-us-alone-kisumu-bar-owners-tell-nacada\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehabilitate heavy drinkers and leave us alone: Kisumu bar owners tell NACADA"},"content":{"rendered":"

KISUMU, Kenya, Aug 1 \u2014 Kisumu bar owners have told the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) to focus on rehabilitating heavy drinkers instead of stifling their businesses with what they term as \u201cill-informed\u201d policies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through their association, the operators accused NACADA of drafting a new alcohol policy without meaningful consultation with stakeholders, following the unveiling a proposed policy document on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Kisumu Bar Owners Association Chairperson Daniel Ouma said the reforms \u2014 which propose raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 and banning alcohol sales in beaches, petrol stations, restaurants, and supermarkets \u2014 risk crippling the industry and costing thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposals should primarily come from us \u2014 the players on the ground \u2014 not somebody sitting in Nairobi drafting a policy document without public participation,\u201d Ouma said on Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have a struggling economy. The new proposal will shrink it further. The government needs to rethink this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNo bans yet: NACADA says new alcohol policy still under review<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

He faulted NACADA for what he termed as misplaced priorities, saying alcohol funds set up by counties should be directed to rehabilitation programs for problem drinkers rather than punitive measures against bar owners. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlcoholic funds should be channeled into rehabilitation centers. Over the years, we don\u2019t know what the fund has done,\u201d Ouma said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Drinking cards\u2019<\/h2>\n

He also dismissed the proposed age-limit increase as impractical, questioning whether the government intends to issue \u201cdrinking cards\u201d for those over 21. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese young people access drugs over the counter in chemists. As bar owners, we have no control over that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Ouma further criticized the planned ban on alcohol sales in leisure spaces, arguing it would hurt Kenya\u2019s hospitality sector. <\/p>\n

\u201cGlobally, hospitality drives economies, especially in beach areas where alcohol sales are part of leisure. As a country, we are moving backwards while the world is moving forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He urged the government to involve stakeholders and relevant ministries before making policy changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese measures should be well thought out with input from all players. We must avoid knee-jerk actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KISUMU, Kenya, Aug 1 \u2014 Kisumu bar owners have told the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) to focus on rehabilitating heavy drinkers instead of stifling their businesses with what they term as \u201cill-informed\u201d policies. Through their association, the operators accused NACADA of drafting a new alcohol policy without meaningful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}