You drink in front of children? Kidero will soon catch you

By ISAAC MESO and MAUREEN ABWAO

NAIROBI COUNTY: Drinking alcohol in the presence of your child will be considered illegal if amendments to the Nairobi County Alcoholic Control and Licensing Bill become law.

Nairobi County Governor Evans Kidero said that cases of children starting to consume alcohol at a tender age had been associated with parents exposing them to alcohol consumption at home.

“Most children are attracted to alcohol once they see their parents drinking it and in most cases, this propels them to indulge in alcohol. So we want to tackle this problem from that level,” he said.

Dr Kidero, however, did not highlight how his government would monitor parents in their homes.

Among other issues to be tackled by the amendments to the Alcoholic and Drinks Control Bill are control and mitigation of negative health, social and economic impact on individuals and communities resulting from production, sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks, and protection of consumers of alcoholic drinks from misleading or deceptive inducements.

ACCESS DRUGS

Kidero added that the county government would put stringent measures in place to tackle drug and substance abuse in public schools.

He noted that illegal structures that had been built around schools, which act as dens where children access drugs and other illegal substances, would be demolished.

“We are going to fence all public schools within the county that have not been fenced and demolish any illegal structures found around the institutions. Hawking around public schools will also be considered illegal,” he said.

The governor noted that there were also plans to increase the current fine from Sh20,000 to Sh500,000 for individuals found exposing under age children to alcohol and substance abuse.

He noted that the move would discourage individuals, especially bar owners, from allowing teenagers to buy or consume alcohol on their premises.

Kidero was speaking yesterday during the launch of a task force that will assess the situation of education in the county. He was accompanied by County Director for Education Abdikadir Ali and Kenya Secondary School Heads Association officials.

Ali said that currently, the county was performing poorly in education due to a limited number of secondary schools compared to primary schools.

“We have 81 public secondary schools compared to the 205 public primary schools. This has posed a big challenge especially when it comes to absorbing students into secondary schools.”

NUMBER OF STUDENTS

Ali said primary schools in Nairobi produce an average of 45,000 students a year and only 19,000 of them join public secondary schools, leaving a large number out.

He added that since the county lacked space for expansion or creation of more public schools, introducing new streams in already existing public schools would help ease the number of students missing Form One places every year.

He added that the Sh20 million offered by the national government to every county for infrastructure development in the education sector was inadequate and the county government had to seek more funds to finance projects.

Another plan of the county government is to implement a laptop project in an initiative sponsored by the county itself.

So far, the county government has partnered with Zuku TV Cable Company and Microsoft Kenya to have fibre cables laid in county schools.