Citizen TV's Trevor Ombija on Wednesday, October 12, defended his approach to dealing with noise complaints by residents who neighbour his club in the upmarket Kileleshwa, Nairobi county.
Ombija, who attended a meeting between bar and restaurant owners and residents in Kileleshwa, affirmed that plausible measures were being enforced to effect a resounding solution for the noise problem.
However, he noted that bar owners were at times faced with residents who were hell-bent on frustrating them.
The Citizen TV news anchor was responding to remarks from Kileleshwa Member of County Assembly (MCA) Robert Alai who castigated him for offering to soundproof some of the homes of the complainants.
Ombija opined that such measures offered a better solution as opposed to shutting down his premises.
Ombija argued that whereas some of the concerns were genuine, some of the residents intentionally rejected feasible solutions and resorted to blackmail.
"I have a neighbour who wanted us to shut down because I did not give her a landscaping job."
"We reduced our volume completely all other neighbours were ok with our attempts, except her so I offered to go the extra mile of soundproofing as a last resort she still refused," he stated.
Ombija, a bar operator in the high-end government, opined that for a business premise to be shut down, or measures of such magnitude to be undertaken, at least half of the tenants in a building ought to file formal complaints with the authorities.
In addition, he called for Alai and the county leadership and estate associations to be impartial when handling the matter of nose complaints.
"There are genuine complaints which must be addressed but there are also malicious accusations that must be called out. One person's word can not be used for blanket condemnation."
"Yesterday, great steps were made between the bar owners and residents' associations on how to address the issues. "Your accusation is devoid of context because you were not present," Ombija stated.
The exchange between the TV presenter cum businessman and the MCA comes weeks after 43 clubs in Nairobi were shut down over noise complaints.
