A look into other instances Alchemist was accused of racism over the years

01 June 2022

• The Alchemist was opened in December 2015

• The establishment is owned by former Easy Taxi MD Peng Chen and his wife former news anchor Michelle Morgan

Another day, another miss as one of Nairobi’s most popular bar and hangout joints, The Alchemist, is in the limelight over racism allegations.

If you think this is a one-time little misdemeanor then you are wrong.

Also, you would think being in an African country the establishment would have some decorum but no that is just our thought train.

Over the weekend The Alchemist Bar in Westlands owned by former Easy Taxi Managing Director Peng Chen, his wife former news anchor, and BM Security heiress Michelle Morgan started trending on social media after another round of racial discrimination allegations was brought against it.

And this time round there was video evidence to back up the allegations.

The Chen's have, however, made no official statements in regards to the allegations or closure.

Michelle Morgan Chen is well known to many Kenyans as she is a veteran news anchor who graced our screens having anchored the news at both K24 and Ebru TV. She also has an aerial fitness studio in Kilimani area, Nairobi.

Even though the two are not deeply rooted in Kenya, it is widely unclear why their establishment is ever in the news over racial discrimination.

However, this is not the first time, since it was opened in December 2015 that the establishment is under fire for such misconduct.

It all started six years ago, yes my people. You read that right, six years ago! Barely a year after it had been opened.

In 2016, the establishment made its first of many to follow headlines when a guy on Facebook by the name of Wamathai claimed that he and his non-Caucasian friends had been denied entry because of their skin color.

Imagine being judged by your skin colour in your own country where like 80% of people look like you.

Wamaitha wrote, “At around 11 pm Saturday night, six of my friends and I made our way to the Alchemist Lounge in Westlands. However while at the entrance the bouncers informed us that we could not get in without giving a solid reason as to why, what shocked us more was that while we were still standing at the entrance trying to make sense of the situation, other ravers who were white were allowed entrance without any question,”

These allegations were seconded by a user identified as Dexter Findley, a white man who admitted witnessing black people being denied entry or being thrown out of the dance floor.

Nothing much was done then and things simmered down.

Fast forward to 2018 when another set of allegations was raised by a Twitter user, @Cynthia_Mbuthia, who said that two of her friends were told by bouncers that they couldn’t stand in a specific area of the club as it was designated “only for Indians and wazungu”.

The Alchemist bar did respond to these allegations, probably because of video evidence and the fact that Twitter had grown fierce then.

The establishment issued a statement stating that they had fired the bouncer involved.

Kenyans took that at the moment but it beats logic why fire someone who is following orders instead of rectifying your policies?

A few other claims have and there were made but they did not gather a lot of social media traction up until the 29th of May when a viral video of a black guy being chased by bouncers for being in a white people's line caught the attention of netizens.

In the said video that first made its way to Twitter, bouncers at the club entrance are seen ordering a black guy seen join the queue made-up of people of a lighter skin tone (whites and Indians) to get out of that line and join the ‘commoner’s line.

In the video, we hear a person shout,

"This is racist, I swear!... So there’s a White people line and a Black people line?” The individual behind the video can be heard protesting. We also see a bouncer.

“They might let him through because he has an accent,” he adds after which the bouncer is seen shouting at the patron, ‘Just go!’

"They have actually sent him back!" another patron exclaims.

However, the establishment of course issued a statement denying the allegations, stating that “the management has never had a policy of discrimination towards people that have walked through their doors.”

The statement continued, “The last few days have showed us that we have much work to do to hire a new security team and develop new systems and processes to ensure that every single person feels welcome.”

It has been six years, now is when y'all are realizing this? Interesting.

Nevertheless, the Nairobi County Government was not having it, probably due to the online uproar. The County Government revoked the establishment's license and shut down the premises as they conducted a probe into the misconduct.