Raha Fest has threatened to suspend future entertainment events in the country following chaos that erupted on New Year’s eve at Uhuru Garden.
Through a statement, the organizers of the event condemned action by those without tickets to force themselves inside Uhuru Gardens terming the incident disappointing, regretful, and retrogressive.
They continued by hitting back at Kenyans who have recently created hashtags to call out the government on issues they don’t agree with such as #occupyparliament saying that they are causing a unhealthy sense of entitlement among many.
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According to the organizers, such mentality is causing panic among artists ad organizers labeling Kenya as a unsafe environment to host events.
“We write this, admitting that Raha Fest of 31st December 2024 might be our last event in Kenya…As has become customary in recent times, we have observed a growing trend of some Kenyans exhibiting unhealthy and deeply worrying entitlement towards events.
They believe they should not buy tickets to events and are entitled and deliberately willing to “occupy” events. This trend is disappointing, regretful, and retrogressive,” read the statement
“This behaviour poses immense danger for all, especially people who have spent their hard-earned money to pay for these events. This entitlement poses immense danger to the artists, who must perform in a safe and secure environment, potentially seeing Kenya as an unsafe environment for them. This entitlement poses immense danger to organizers, security personnel, vendors, sponsors, and investors, to name a few.” they said
They however hailed past events that they have organized in the country including that of Davido and King Promise saying they were never compromised on standards.
“As a brand, we have never compromised on standards. Our first Raha Fest in March 2024, which had Davido and King Promise as headliners, set the standard on what festivals should be in Kenya. We proceeded to organize other events in the same year; Raha Rave (headlined by Ruger), Ayra Starr’s live-streamed event, and Raha Pull-up (headlined by Daliwonga), leading to a 4-day Raha December program.
At all these events, we never compromised on standards, despite the immense challenges of organizing these events in Kenya,” said Raha Fest
