Kitui bar owners have decried Covid-19 restrictions imposed on opening and closing hours saying the move is killing their businesses and want the regulations lifted.
Association coordinator Alfred Wendi said it was time President Uhuru Kenyatta removed the restrictions and allowed bars and alcohol outlets to resume normal operation hours as it was before Covid-19.
The call ironically came at a time when the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe cautioned Kenyans on the upsurge of Covid-19 infections due the third wave of the disease. But Wendi said strict adherence to hand washing, physical distancing and masking protocol in bars was suffice to keep Covid-19 at bay.
“These Covid-19 containment measures have consigned most bar owners and their employees to poverty as their only source of income has been affected and workers left jobless,” he said.
Wendi said bar owners are now unable to pay rent leading to closure of their businesses and thus unable to put food on the table nor meet other obligations like paying school fees for their children.
He was addressing the press after the association held a meeting on Wednesday to take stock of the impact of Covid-19 protocols on their businesses. He said Kenyans had learned to live with the virus and restrictions on bars should be relaxed.
“Bar owners have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 restrictions whose enforcement appear to be punitive. Ban on public rallies and physical distancing in matatus are not strictly being adhered but bars are still being restricted to operate between 5pm to 9pm. It is unfair,” said Wendi.
He said the punitive Covid-19 containment measures that have seen bar owners close down thus losing income and rendering workers jobless, is something that the President should consider and lift restrictions.
Wendi said bar owners are optimistic that when the President pronounces himself as he addresses the Nation on the status of Covid-19 in Kenya on Friday, he will consider their plight and allow them to operate normally.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara