NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 27 — Popular entertainment joint in Nairobi’s Westlands, the Alchemist Bar, is yet again on the spot after the facility’s bouncers were caught on camera manhandling a female reveller barely a month after the club was temporarily shut down following allegations of discrimination and noise pollution.
In a now viral video, a female Alchemist bouncer is filmed dragging the woman on the floor at the facility’s entrance as if trying to somehow get her out of the club as other security guards look on.
The reveller then returns to the entrance this time appearing to fight a male bouncer who leaves her to proceed before she is blocked by two other bouncers. She later sits on the ground and is left alone on the side of the entrance.
A Twitter user identified as Mwikali who posted the video on Sunday then claimed that two bouncers later asked her to delete the video once they noticed that she had filmed the drama.
“However, the bouncers didn’t stop there. At the end of the video, you can see some people realizing that I’ve been filming. In the moments after, two bouncers came upstairs and demanded that I delete the video,” Mwikali said in a Twitter post.
“I refused and I asked if I could leave but they stood in front of me, and one of them tried to grab my arm. I told them not to touch me and that I wanted to leave. They stood in front of me and said they would get the manager first,” she added.
However, Mwikali said that when the manager arrived and was briefed on the situation, he told her that she “did not have to delete the video but he would check with what was going on downstairs and let me know.”
Though the circumstances surrounding incident remain unclear, a section of Kenyans once again came out to condemn the incident and called for the Club’s shutdown.
In May, the facility’s operating license was suspended following an incident where a bouncer was videotaped purportedly sending a black patron out of the queue which appeared to only have non-Blacks.
“After careful consultation with Nairobi County Government, The Alchemist has agreed to close its doors while a thorough investigation is conducted over the next few days,” a statement from the club indicated at the time.
The club further said that “the probe will determine to determine if the guests in question were denied entry and if there was a policy in place to have separate lines for guests.”
In the video posted on Twitter an unidentified person in the background could be heard saying, “So there is a white person line and a there is a black people line.”
“I swear hii ni racist vibaya (This is too much racism),” a second person could be heard saying.
The video elicited anger among Kenyans forcing the club’s management to issue an apology saying it was aware of the incident and had reached out to the individuals to get more information on what transpired.
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