The Nairobi City County Government (NCCG) continues to push for the closure of more stores selling wine and spirits. In its latest initiative, it is closing store sites near matatu (minibus) and bus stops across Nairobi. The move has resulted in more than 30 stores closed within a week.

The government of President Ruto, which was elected in August 2022, has adopted a much harsher stance towards alcohol retail than the previous administration. Ruto himself is teetotal. He was elected post-COVID and after a period when new licenses to sell alcohol in Nairobi had exploded, up fourfold in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019.

In 2021, Nairobi City County Alcoholic Drinks Control and Licensing Board then announced it would increase the number of liquor stores by 13,000 between 2021 and 2023. By August 2023 the government announced it would close nightclubs and bars and within 300m of residential areas and schools in Nairobi.

Nairobi is not the only place alcohol retailers are being targeted: earlier in February 2024 Kirinyaga County (south of Mount Kenya) ordered the immediate closure of all bars in the county following the death of 17 people who consumed adulterated alcohol. The closure is indefinite and a new process to verify and licence bars proposed. Two weeks later, only 70 of the 330 bars in the county had been cleared to open.

At the end of February, Narok County Commissioner Reuben Lotiatia closed 23 bars in Kojonga, Enoseian and Ntulele in Narok East Sub County, in the southwest of Kenya.

The Kenyan government is currently preparing an amendment to be put to the National Assembly that would see the mandate for licensing bars and liquor outlets transferred from county governments to the national government.