MOMBASA: The High Court has temporarily stopped the Mombasa County Directorate Liquor Control from issuing licences and collecting levies from bars and restaurants in the county.
On Friday, Justice Anyara Emukule issued stay orders pending the hearing and determination of a case seeking to nullify the Mombasa Liquor Control Act on grounds that it was illegally formulated.
Emukule ordered the directorate to stop harassing the accused pending the hearing and determination of the case.
"Considering the submissions of Mr Kabundu, the applicant in person and defence lawyers, let the directorate hold their horses pending the hearing of this case," Emukule said.
The order was issued after Mombasa County Bar, Hotels, Restaurant, and Guest Houses Welfare Group Owners Association filed a petition in the High Court seeking orders to nullify the Act that came into force in 2014.
More than 300 bar owners led by The National Alliance (TNA) Mombasa Secretary General Patrick Kabundu had sought conservatory orders to stop the operation of the Act they claimed was illegally formulated as there was no public participation.
Kabundu, who owns Ivory Sport Bar and Restaurant on Moi Avenue, was arrested on February 14 this year alongside his employees for failing to apply for the licence.
Kabundu said more than 500 liquor operators in Mombasa were operating without a liquor licence because there is no directorate where one can apply for the licence and pay revenue.
"It is absurd and practically impossible in law to have a liquor licence since under the Mombasa Liquor Licensing Act, the directorate charged with issuing licences is yet to be formed," said Kabundu.
Kabundu further said he made an application for a licence in 2014 and paid Sh2,000 but to date he had not received any communication regarding the licence.
Defence lawyers for the bar owners Danson Mungatana and Gikandi Nguibuni said the Act was not gazetted but over 300 members of the bars association were not involved in the making of the law as required by the Constitution.
"The liquor Act should be declared null and void because the Act came into force in an unprecedented manner and there was no public participation in formulating the Act," said Mungatana.
However, Prosecutor Daniel Wamosa said there were existing by-laws that called for application of a licence long before the applicant (Kabundu) was arrested, which he ignored.
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