Governor Kananu suspends Alchemist Bar trading license over racial discrimination allegations

The Westlands-based joint has been under fire for the past two days on accusations of discriminating against its black customers.

Speaking on Tuesday, Kananu directed for a probe of the reported incident and a comprehensive report to be tabled in her office within five working days.

She noted that discrimination should not be allowed anywhere in the country.

"We cannot just sit and watch our own being discriminated against and told to get off a club because they are black. It shall remain closed for now but I have put in place a multi-agency that is already doing investigations and give me a report and after the report, we are able to see what happened and decide on the way forward," she said.

The Governror added: "Tomorrow we are celebrating our independence as Kenya. It's not about Alchemist itself but the values we hold in Nairobi. We believe nobody should be discriminated against in any bar, hotel, office or anywhere. It is about international standards."

So far 10 officials have been arrested and arraigned.

Meanwhile, the club has temporarily shut down operations to pave the way for investigations by the Nairobi County Government.

A video surfaced online on Saturday where a bouncer was seen purportedly sending a Black patron out of the queue which appeared to only have non-Blacks clients.

In the incident captured by a patron in a now-viral video, the man recording the video is overheard saying: "This is racist, I swear!... So there’s a White people line and a Black people line?”

The Alchemist apologised for the incident on Sunday, saying, "To anyone that has felt aggrieved, we sincerely apologize and we look forward to sitting down together and addressing these issues head-on."