Bar and hotel owners in Murang’a will pay only Sh15,000 of their Sh30,000 annual licence fee after the county halved the levy to cushion them from Covid shocks.
The traders said the subsidy will help them remain afloat as they have been struggling to cover their expenses since the pandemic hit in March last year.
Speaking on Tuesday, Hotels and Liquor Traders Association chairperson Simon Njoroge said the subsidy was issued following consultations with Governor Mwangi Wa Iria.
“We met him and explained our predicament, and he agreed to have the levy halved,” Njoroge said.
The sector has been hard hit by the pandemic and has seen numerous traders close shops as they struggle to pay rent and their workers.
Njoroge said many traders in the hospitality industry are still paying rent arrears accrued last year when the businesses were closed down by the government as a measure of controlling the spread of Covid-19.
He further said the association that has over 54,000 members has employed over 250,000 workers who depend on the sector for survival.
“Many of the traders have been forced to send home a majority of their workers and they are still compelled to support the laid-off workers struggling to feed themselves,” he said.
The lifelines of over 70,000 workers working in the five counties that were declared a disease infected area and cessation of movement in and out of the zone hangs in the balance.
Curfew in the counties of Nairobi Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu and Nakuru starts at 8pm, causing businesses to close earlier.
The government also closed down bars, hotels and banned all public gatherings.
On March 26, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that Nairobi county was leading with infections, with six out of 10 people testing positive.
Njoroge said the five counties have at least 15,000 hotels and bars that are currently not operational.
He however emphasised the need for traders to continue observing the Covid-19 protocols to protect themselves and their customers from the virus.
“We do not want to entertain customers today then see them in hospitals tomorrow. This pandemic will come and go.”
“We have seen other countries opening up and we hope that ours will get there soon so that we can go back to normalcy,” he said.
Macharia Kairu, the deputy chairman of Murang’a Bar Owners Association, appealed to the government to consider including bar traders and workers as a priority group in the vaccination programme.
“We have over 15,000 workers in Murang’a and they interact with too many people daily,” he said.
The traders said ensuring as many Kenyans as possible are vaccinated is the only way to save the country from the pandemic and put it on the path to economic recovery.
In September last year, the Bar, Liquor and Hotel traders association formed Bar Kumi Initiative to help enforce the government’s regulations on Covid-19.
The initiative borrowed from the Nyumba Kumi initiative started by the government to improve security.
Through the initiative, every licensed bar was required to join the association and each Bar Kumi group will have a leader.
This was to help discipline errant bar owners who flouted the government’s directives and ensure only repeat offenders are forwarded to the administration. BY THE STAR