Simba, Yanga fans, and car alarms causing hell
In our residential area we are being disturbed by two things: sound from a car alarm, and post-match cheering from football clubs’ fans especially Simba Sports Club and Yanga Sports Club when the two teams play. Our neighbor has installed a car alarm in his reconditioned cheap car and whenever anything passes by even if it is a rat or a cat, the alarm rings and creates disturbance to the entire neighborhood. The same neighbor runs a bar close to his house and whenever Simba and Yanga play, the fans of the two football clubs meet there at the bar and when one team scores a goal you will hear the fans shouting, pounding, clapping, whistling and hooting. What can I do to stop these noises in our neighborhood?
EB, Arusha
The Environmental Management (Standards for the Control of Noise and Vibration Pollution) Regulations, 2015 controls noise and vibration pollution. It is an offence under the Regulations to cause loud, unreasonable, unnecessary or unusual noise that annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others. Unreasonable or loud yelling, laughing, clapping, shouting, hooting, pounding, whistling or singing constitutes noise pollution under regulation 12 (2) of the Environmental Management (Standards for Control of Noise and Vibration Pollution) Regulations, 2015. So the owner of a bar who fails to control such noise from the fans in his bar commits an offence if such noise exceeds the permissible maximum level specified in First Schedule to the Regulations.
Regarding the noise from car alarm, the maximum noise level allowed from a vehicle, be it from a car horn sound or car alarm sound is 78 dBA. A car owner who allows his car to emit sound above that level is committing an offence. In determining whether the shout from the football fans or the sound from the car alarm amounts to an offence the following factors must be considered: the time the noise is emitted, the proximity between the place where the sound comes from and the residential areas or hospital or school, level or intensity of the noise and whether it is recurrent or not.
Since your neighbour is likely committing an environmental offence, you can report the incident to the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) or your local authority. The NEMC has the power to impose necessary sanctions including closing the bar and ordering the removal of the alarm from the car. In case of disobedience of the order of the NEMC, they can arrest the offender and charge him in a Court of law with competent jurisdiction.