Anthony Kagame, 40, was taken into custody on Saturday, December 4, after Police found a group of ten minors in the bar drinking at about 8:30 p.m.
Rwanda National Police (RNP) spokesperson, Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera said that Police responded to a call reporting noise pollution, which was coming from 360 Degrees Pizza Resto-bar.”
“During the operation, Police found a group of 14 people, who were drinking including 10, who were under-age. The manager claimed that they did not serve them alcohol but when Police officers tested them with a breathalyzer, they found that they had been drinking and the manager of the hospitality establishment was immediately taken into custody,” CP Kabera explained.
“It is prohibited and punishable by law to serve alcohol to anyone aged below 18 years. Owners, managers and employees of hospitality establishments should be conscious when serving alcoholic beverages to their customers to protect children from taking alcohol,” he added.
Health experts say young people’s brains appear to be more sensitive to damage from alcohol but less sensitive to some of the side-effects of alcohol.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) highlights four broad categories of risk-taking behaviour that are consistently documented to be associated with excessive alcohol consumption in young people; high-level intoxication that results in loss of consciousness and risk of death, accidents, risky sexual behaviour, including unprotected sexual intercourse resulting in sexually transmitted infections or unplanned pregnancies, and sexual intercourse that young people later regret.
Physical harm caused by alcoholism, includes liver injury, cancer, gastrointestinal damage, immunodeficiency, cardiovascular disease, abdominal obesity and neurological harm.
According to WHO, these are rarely diagnosed in young people but manifest in later adulthood when the body becomes less able to repair and regenerate in response to repeated high-level exposure to alcohol.
In article 27 of Law N°71/2018 of 31/08/2018 relating to the protection of the child; a person who sells alcoholic beverages or tobacco to a child, causes or encourages a child to drink alcoholic beverages, to smoke or to go to bars commits an offence.
Upon conviction, he or she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than three months but not exceeding six months and a fine between Rwf100, 000 and Rwf200, 000.
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