DPP Keriako Tobiko: Drinking before hours not illegal

Some of the thirty two people who were arrested for being drunk and disorderly in Kaloleni town during working hours when they appeared before the Kaloleni Principal Magistrate July 07, 2015. It is not an offence to drink alcohol before 5pm or after 11pm, the Director Of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has clarified. (PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/ STANDARD)

It is not an offence to drink alcohol before 5pm or after 11pm, the Director Of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko has clarified.

However, it is illegal for alcohol sellers to operate outside the prescribed hours.

The Alcoholic Drinks and Control Act of 2010, among other issues, states it is illegal to sell alcohol before 5pm and after 11pm on weekdays and before 2pm and after 11pm on weekends.

In a letter dated July 25, 2016, to the Eldoret Magistrate's Court signed by senior prosecution counsel Job Mulati there is no offence like drinking before hours. Mulati is the deputy head of the Eldoret DPP's office,

Mulati wrote the letter to the court after the DPP received a complaint from a citizen who claimed that he had been charged with a law that does not exist in the Alcoholic Drinks and Control Act of 2010.

"There are High Court authorities that have invalidated that count. And it is on the premise that we don't prefer charges relating to drinking before hours. The offense that exists is that of selling alcohol before hours," read part of the letter.

Mulati further directed the court that had charged the complainant with the offence of drinking before hours to withdraw the charge.

Many people across the country have been arrested and charged with the offence without knowledge that the punishment they received was not stated anywhere in the Kenyan laws.

In Uasin Gishu, the County Alcoholic Drinks Control Board officials have in the recent past conducted numerous raids on drinking joints that were found open before the stipulated hours, arrested revellers and hauled them to court to be charged with drinking before hours.