Outgoing National Authority for Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (Nacada) chairman John Mututho has said that Nacada wishes to cap the legal drinking age up from the current 18 years to 21 years.
Speaking on Monday during a session of training bar owners at the Pride Inn hotel in Westlands, Mututho said that the authority was in the process of making legal amendments that will have far-reaching effects on its mandate and operations.
In the amendments underway, bartenders will be required to have certificates of competence in order to operate.
“Bartenders, and not the bar owners nor company, will be held responsible for that last bottle the customer gets just like the pharmacists. So many people are making beer at their backyards and thus, it is upon the barman to tell fake from genuine liquor,” Mututho said.
Mututho further hinted that Nacada was in its final transitional stages that will see it change from just a mere Campaign authority to a fully fledged national control authority that will have the powers to make arrests.
He therefore urged those who run liquor joints to start putting things in order so as to avoid brushing shoulders with the coming Nacada askaris.
Those whose bar businesses are within 300 meters from learning institutions and especially schools have been advised to pack as early as now.