Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has extended operating hours for bar and restaurants to 11pm or subject to respective operating licenses guidelines.
This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta vacated the nationwide dawn to dusk curfew hours which have been in place since March 27, 2020.
“With the removal of the curfew, we are reverting to closing bars and restaurants at 11pm or the time allowed by licensing authorities,” Kagwe said in a press briefing.
However, Kagwe mantained that the hand washing and social distancing protocols would still be enforced.
This clarifies the state of confusion following contradicting statements issued by Ministry of Tourism and the National Police Service concerning President Uhuru Kenyatta’s order of lifting the nationwide dawn to dusk curfew.
In a local daily, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, said that the curfew lift effectively means the restriction on bars and restaurants was also vacated immediately.
He stated that hospitality facilities are back to normal with the Ministry of Health protocols.
However, the National Police Service had announced that the 7:00pm closure time for bars was still effective.
“Following the vacation of the COVID associated curfew by the President during Mashujaa Day speech, existing measures on closure of bars by 7.00pm remain in place for now. Enforcement of violation of this measure to continue,” said the police.