AS bar operators oppose the proposed Bill to open bars at 5:00pm and close at 10:00pm, customers have reacted towards the proposal. Stella Naigino brings you their views:
James Kamwanyi, a businessman
Closing bars at 10:00pm is a drive towards a country’s development. People will have less time for leisure and will work hard to invest in business. Some people spend their money in bars and fail to pay their children’s school fees.
So with this proposal, they would divert their money to constructive things rather than spend it in bars. I drink, but would not fuss over the proposal because I can go to the bar and still go home at 9:30pm. After 10:00pm, thieves are more active, so it is safe to drink at a hotel where one is guaranteed of security.
Navio Kigozi, a rapper
Closing bars at 10:00pm would affect business because in growing economies, people work 24 hours without any interference. If bar owners get restricted, that will retard economic growth, therefore, Uganda would not compete with other countries favourably.
Maureen Nankya, a university student
Many people who drink go to bars after 10:00pm. This is the time university students are done with their evening classes. Closing bars at 10:00pm interferes with people’s lifestyle. Some men take advantage of girls in hotels and lure them into sex. I like to move from one bar to another, so if this proposal is passed, I will not be free to move around.
Bina Baby, a radio presenter
The proposal suggests that bar owners close and start other businesses. Drinking is more fun at night in the company of others. Telling people who want to extend their drinking to go to hotels is like encouraging excessive drinking.
When a person drinks from a hotel, that person knows that he is in a place where there are bedrooms so he or she can drink without minding about going home, which does not happen in bars. Prostitution will increase. Sex workers will go to hotels to seduce customers.
Shem Ssemambo, the events manager of Nile Breweries
Laws are there to be made for the good of the country and I believe in people who drink responsibly. Whether one drinks from a bar, kafunda or a hotel, one is not affected as long he or she drinks and acts responsibly.