High Court re-opens ‘strippers club’ closed by John Mututho

NACADA Chairman John Mututho (centre) with security officers when he ordered for the shutting down of the club on December 8, 2013. [PHOTO: STANDARD/FILE]

By MICHAEL OLLINGA

ELDORET, KENYA: The High Court in Eldoret has ordered for temporal re-opening of a club that had recently been closed by the National Authority for Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) chairman John Mututho for allegedly hosting strippers and operating without a license.

The sitting judge Fred Ochieng ordered that the club be allowed to operate until December 23 when the case it filed against its closure will be heard again.

The club’s owner, Mr John Kibe had moved to court on December 11 to reverse the verbal order by Mututho to have the club closed on claims that it had no valid liquor selling license, besides hosting strippers.

John Nyandoro, the lawyer representing Kibe had also filed a case against the office of the Attorney General (AG) and Inspector General (IG) of Police for continued harassment of the club's employees.

Through his lawyer, Kibe told said it was illegal for the authorities to close his business citing lack of an operating license, because he had applied for it six months ago but the liquor licensing board had not issued the document.

“My client had applied for a license from the District Alcoholic Drinks Control Committee as required by the Alcoholic Control Act of 2010 in June, but there is no functional county licensing board to issue it,” Nyandoro told the court.

He added that his client’s business was discriminatively closed down because most of the bars and restaurants in the County are yet to receive an operating license due to the inactive DADCC.

NACADA’s counsel Felix Mukabane opposed Kibe's petition on grounds that the owner was ignorantly operating without a license.

Mukabane said the business premise had no permit disclaiming allegations it had been granted an approval letter from the area Public Health Officer and insisted that there is a functional liquor licensing board in the county.

The disagreement prompted the judge to compel Wanjiku Mbiu the AG’s and IG’s lawyer and Mukabane to prove to the court that there existed a functional licensing board in the county.

Mbiu and Mukabane invited the area deputy county commissioner Christopher Wanjau, OCPD and AP commandant who sit in the said board.

Wanjau, who is the chair to DADCC, had a difficult time explaining to the court why they had not communicated back to the client or issued a license six months after application.

The court learnt with surprise that DADCC was dormant when Wanjau disclosed that they have not issued any liquor license since their last sitting in April.

“Your honour we have not issued any license since April because the board has never sat since then due to logistical inadequacies,” he said.

Wanjau said the board has not been facilitated since the county governments took over from the central one, because it has not been clear on who should cater for their needs of the board members and promised to have a sitting in a fortnight.

Nyandoro pleaded for the re-opening of the club to make up for the losses incurred since its closure, with knowledge that his client is repaying a Sh3 million bank loan he had pumped in the business.

Before issuing the orders, Ochieng faulted the petitioner for being impatient by opening a business without a license, and the administration for laxity and discriminately shutting down the business.

“I do not want to come to a situation where the taxpayers’ money is used to compensate a targeted businessman because a responsible board sat on his work, let everybody do their job as per the law,” he said.

Ochieng ordered for the respondents and the petitioners to convene and agree on the way forward before they appear in the same court on December 23.

He also ordered the administration use the grace period as an incentive to closely monitor the club’s activities and ensure that it operates within the law.