Popular city bar Alchemist is trending for all the wrong reasons. The bar is accused of discriminating against black people and Africans.
This is after a video emerged on social media on Sunday May 29, showing a black man being stopped from using an entrance that had allegedly been reserved for the Whites and Indians.
The bouncer could be seen turning away the man who was in a white T-shirt while directing him to join a line that was reserved for the black people.
“This is racism, there is a white persons’ line and there is black people line, the guy has just been turned away, I will post this on twitter tomorrow” one of those who recorded the video could be heard saying.
How will we ever beat racism if we are racist against our own selves. Last week when I went to Alchemist there was a line for white and Indian people separate from the blacks’. One black guy tried using the line akachujwa immediately. This is sad really pic.twitter.com/GcY2oPkcmI
— Slim daddy (@murgormurgor) May 29, 2022
Alchemist has however denied the racism claims saying that they have only one main entrance into the bar.
In a statement shared on Facebook, said that the viral video was not the actual happening of the events that took place.
The bar explained why the man was turned away saying that he was not denied entry into the club as it had earlier been reported.
“We have reviewed footage from the alleged incident and we’ve shared it for everyone to see.There is one main entry into our venue where all customers who are entering for the first time must go through. As you can see from the footage, the line is composed of people of all different backgrounds. We have NEVER had a policy of segregating lines.
There was a group of customers who had stepped out and were re-entering into the venue. The security allowed them to come in through the exit line in order not to clog about the main entrance. The video that was shared by a private individual made it appear that another customer was denied entry – that’s simply not true. You can see from the clip that he also went through the same gate after having a conversation with another individual,” Alchemist’s statement read.
The bar accompanied their statement with CCTV footage to clearly indicate what transpired.
This is not the first time that the Westlands-based bar has faced such accusations. Back in 2016 and 2018, several twitter users accused the bar of reserving areas for Indians and whites only and the black people were not allowed.
Racism (or self hate) in Kenya’s hospitality industry. Blacklist The Alchemist, @JuniperSocial. What’s your story? pic.twitter.com/mynTZsdILI
— Muthuri Kinyamu (@MuthuriKinyamu) May 16, 2016
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