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RDC bans daytime bars, sports betting
Residents drink from pot of local brew commonly known as malwa recently. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA
Mpigi- The Mpigi Resident District Commissioner, Mr Swaibu Lubega Waggwa, has ordered local leaders and police to immediately close cinema halls, bars and gambling centres that operate during morning hours.
The order follows the killing of a teenager in one of the gambling centres in the district last week. Simon Nsubuga, 16, a resident of Buligi village in Budde Sub-county, was killed last week following a fight with his colleague over Shs500 during sports betting. The suspect is still at large.
“Gambling should be banned as soon as possible because the vice through sports betting and playing cards is spreading at a faster rate leading to crime, drug addiction and drinking alcohol, especially among the teenagers,” Mr Waggwa said last Friday while addressing residents of Buwama Town during a community sensitisation meeting .
He said owners of bars and cinema halls will be allowed to open their premises in the evening and strictly for adults only.
However, the RDC’s decision has drawn mixed reactions from the youth, who argue that it is their source of survival.
Advice to districts
Mr Waggwa also advised the new district or sub -county councils to make by-laws governing entertainment places, including discotheques and cinema halls to curb the increasing crime rate in the country.
If the RDC’s directive is implemented, Mpigi District will become the fifth local council in central region to ban gambling after Kalungu, Lwengo, Lyantonde and Kyanamukaka Sub-county in Masaka District.
