Kuwait Municipality announced on Wednesday that it had cut electricity supply to four properties in the Capital Governorate after discovering they were occupied by bachelors in areas designated for family housing. The inspection tour, carried out in cooperation with relevant authorities in the Doha and Sulaibikhat suburbs, formed part of ongoing efforts to enforce residential zoning rules, the municipality said in a statement. The campaign also resulted in two formal citations and nine warnings for additional violating properties. Ghanem Al-Shammari, head of the municipality’s inspection tour team in the governorate, said the team had identified houses in residential zones being used for bachelor accommodation.
Al-Shammari stated that the properties had previously been issued warnings with no response received, prompting the power disconnections. He added that the municipality would continue to apply all supervisory measures to ensure compliance with applicable regulations on housing. The official stressed that further action would be taken if such violations persisted in those areas.
Al-Shammari expressed appreciation for the collaboration of state agencies involved in the tours. He specifically thanked the Ministry of Interior for securing the sites during the disconnections and the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy for its assistance in implementing the procedures. The joint operations align with broader municipal campaigns across Kuwait’s governorates to address illegal bachelor housing.
Such enforcement stems from Decree Law No. 125 of 1992, which prohibits non-family groups from residing in private and model residential neighborhoods, according to repeated municipal statements. The regulations seek to maintain the family-oriented character of these areas while preventing excessive strain on electricity, water and sewage systems from overcrowding. Municipal officials have noted that property owners renting to bachelors face escalating penalties, including fines and service cutoffs, until full compliance is verified through on-site inspections.
Similar campaigns have produced significant results in other parts of the country in recent years. In Farwaniya Governorate, municipal teams cut electricity to 21 properties housing bachelors over a 14-day span in December 2025, with 38 warnings issued in the same period, according to municipal updates. These actions typically require violators to sign pledges, vacate the premises and remove any physical modifications before power can be restored.
Kuwait Municipality data from earlier operations indicate that hundreds of properties have faced disconnections for similar violations since 2023, when more than 400 such cases were recorded in one six-month period. The campaigns involve coordination among the Ministry of Interior, the Public Authority for Manpower and other bodies to respond to resident complaints and uphold urban planning standards. Al-Shammari reiterated that the municipality remains committed to monitoring and acting on all reported breaches in family residential zones.
