Sonko wants Alchemist bar shut down after viral video of alleged racism

By , K24 Digital
On Mon, 30 May, 2022 16:15 | 2 mins read
Revellers queue outside the Alchemist Bar in Nairobi. PHOTO/Courtesy
Revellers queue outside the Alchemist Bar in Nairobi. PHOTO/Courtesy

Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has called on the president to take necessary actions against the Alchemist bar for the racial segregation incident after the video goes viral.

Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko.

In the video, the bar is seemingly perpetuating racism against black people by having white and Indian revellers in one queue and blacks in another as they waited in line to get into the bar.

According to Sonko, racism is so old school and no Kenyans should be discriminated against on their own land.

He argues that his administration would not entertain such vices adding that the bar should be shut down with immediate effect.

Taking to Facebook, he wrote;

"It's illegal to discriminate against Kenyans on the Kenyan soil. Our freedom fighters died fighting racism. Under my administration, I will not have entertained such kind of nonsense. I call upon president Uhuru Kenyatta and his administration to take necessary action. Otherwise, this ALCHEMIST club in Westlands should be closed with immediate effect."

Sonko joined other Kenyas and specifically KOT to condemn the aggressive instance of racism that saw the city joint on everyone’s minds.

In their response, however, the bar responded to the claims and denied the accusations.

The joint's management explained that the premise only has one entrance and noted that there were a handful of black people in a queue which had a majority of white and Indian revellers.

They stressed that everybody was allowed in without being discriminated against based on skin colour.

"We have reviewed footage from the alleged incident and we’ve shared it for everyone to see. There is only 1 entrance line for people to come in from. There are people of every background in that line," Alchemist tweeted.