Feature: Kenya's nightlife roars back to life after curfew is lifted

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NAIROBI, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- While it is not unordinary for men to be deftly offloading crate after crate of alcohol from a truck stationed outside a restaurant in the eastern part of Kenya's Nairobi city center, the quantity of alcohol making its way into the premises is far beyond the usual.

"We are in the middle of making some operational changes because we have more operating hours. We have increased the quantity of alcohol we buy twofold and are looking at increasing our staff to meet anticipated demand," Gibson Shikanda, manager at the establishment, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

A declaration made by President Uhuru Kenyatta during a national celebration Wednesday to lift the countrywide dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed since March 2020 that ran from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. has sent a wave of joy and reprieve across the nation.

The implication of the announcement is that the service industry -- bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and public service vehicles whose operations have been severely undermined by the curfew since March last year -- can now operate for longer hours.

The just vacated restrictive measures allowed for restaurants to remain open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. while bars operated from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

"Plans are in the offing to bring back live performance now that we have more hours. We could not have them before because it did not make financial sense for either them (artist) or us to perform for one hour," said Shikanda, adding that the business has suffered considerably from losing staff, revenues and footfall.

An umbrella association of these establishments recently revealed that 15,000 bars and restaurants closed shop since the onset of the pandemic, plunging 90,000 workers into joblessness.

In his speech, President Kenyatta cited a desirable positivity rate of 5 percent recorded in the past two weeks alongside vigorous vaccination exercise, among reasons for lifting the curfew and allowing for the expansion of sitting capacity in churches.

The total number of vaccinated persons is at 4.8 million, representing 5 percent of the adult population as of Oct. 22.

Peter Ngugi is a roadside food seller who used to wind up his business at 9 p.m. His street food which is ideally enjoyed at night was not being consumed much with the streets emptying with people as early as 8 p.m.

"I am happy that the curfew is not there because I can now work late into the evening to make more money to meet the needs of my family. The current state of this economy requires low-earners like me to work much longer to be able to make a decent living," said Ngugi.

Even so, the Ministry of Health called on the public to strictly comply with hygiene protocols like mask-wearing and social distancing.

"It is however important for all of us to appreciate that we are yet out of the woods. We must therefore continue to observe the containment measures as directed by the Ministry of Health. This is the only way to guarantee the full reopening of the economy," Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary for Health, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Enditem

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