Hotel, bar and restaurant operators have been going through rigorous checks to ensure that they provide standard services.

The ministry of Health has in the past closed, suspended temporarily, issued warnings or passed the said facilities depending on their suitability hygienically for provision of foods, beverages and accommodation.

Results have been encouraging because general improvement in terms of quality has been reported. Even international guests who a month ago descended onto the City of Kigali for the first EAC Investment Conference,f illing the big and small hotels and apartments to the brim, were not disappointed.

Now hotel operators are being asked to do more, and rightly so. Police is currently engaged in a process of mobilising hoteliers to comply with some newly established rules, and requirements which have been in place but had not been strictly enforced.

One of the new ones is that hotels, bars and restaurants shall from now onwards employ security officers from recognised security companies. The aim here is to make sure patrons’ security on the premises is always under the care of trained personnel.

Apparently some hotels have been hiring people with neither training nor experience to serve as security guards.
An example of an old rule which has been frequently violated is the one that requires pubs intending to play loud music to have sound proofed premises.

Revellers love to have it at full blast, especially when they have been drinking. What they and the DJs often forget is that whereas after spending their hard earned money they deserve increased volume, there are residents in the neighbourhood who for varying reasons deserve undisturbed sleep.

Both of the above rules are quite clear. But there is this not so straight-forward appeal to the Commissioner General of Police made that hoteliers be on guard to bar the underage coming for alcohol in bars or sex in rooms.

Much as we all concur that the young ones should be helped to stay away from immorality, we could do with more elaborate guidelines regarding what age is under-age. As things stand at the moment, the basis is blurred and it might compromise the operators’ compliance.

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