Cheap booze and a lot of chaos: The trouble with Nakuru's redeemable events

It’s about time we just said it as it is, redeeming events are not Nakuru’s cup of tea. Hear me out. There’s no way we can keep having people complain about theft and fights after every redeemable event, yet we still pretend everything is fine.

Over the weekend, I received an invitation to the Captain Morgan event at Nakuru Sports Club. Judging by the hype and the way things were looking, I could already tell it was going to be a big one. Initially, I accepted the invitation. 

On the day, however, I realised that the ticket prices were quite reasonable, starting from as little as 450 shillings. Sounds reasonable, right? To make the deal even sweeter, the tickets could be redeemed for alcohol.

For one ticket, you’d get a 'ka-quarter', and for two tickets, a full 'mzinga'. However, when I found out about this, I politely declined the invitation, mainly because of my previous experience at the Walker Town concert, where tickets could also be redeemed for alcohol. 

During that event, my friend and I had to stay alert and stick to the back because fights were breaking out everywhere.

To make matters worse, the police were patrolling and arresting people for theft. I even saw some of them being bundled together near the gate. So I knew the Captain Morgan event would be no different, especially since the ticket prices were lower than for the Walker Town concert.

As I suspected, my friend later told me that there had indeed been fights between both boys and girls. In one instance, a bouncer was beaten by a group of men while trying to break up a fight.

One of the event organisers explained that the main reason for holding such events is to promote sales and increase brand visibility. 

“Most of the events are company projects meant to promote our products. For our latest event, we had a designated redemption tent while also offering a variety of other products,' the source noted.

Regarding security, the source added that they always ensure there are enough security personnel. However, sometimes the turnout is larger than expected, which can overwhelm the security team. Nevertheless, they said that every redeemable event serves as a learning experience that helps to improve future ones.

Simon Kamau, the curator of the Kikuyu Festival, said that he stopped hosting such events due to security challenges and the inconveniences that came with them. 

He explains that, while redeemable events may promote a specific product, not all customers may prefer that particular brand. This can result in the loss of potential clients.

'Sometimes a customer might not buy anything else during the event and only use the redeemed product, which can affect sales targets, particularly for vendors,' they say.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Nakuru has also seen an increase in standard ticketed events, not cheap ones. Nowadays, most events charge at least KES 1,000 as the minimum entry fee, and many of them have managed to maintain order and attract the right crowd.

If you’re planning to attend a redeemable event in Nakuru, especially one involving alcohol, make sure you’re well prepared: stay alert, keep your katululu close and keep your eyes open. Or better yet, be ready to throw a few punches if things get messy.

As for me and my household, we’re steering clear of any such events for now, unless Nyashinski and Bien are headlining, of course.