A concert that was to be graced by Congolese crooner Koffi Olomide has been cancelled.
The promoter of the Koffi Olomide concert that was set to be held on December 11th at the Waterfront Mall Karen in Nairobi says those who had booked tickets for the show will get their refunds.
In a statement, K. K. L. Wesley, the CEO of Aces & Light Company said that fans who had booked for the highly anticipated concert that their money will be refunded in full.
“It is by keeping with the wisdom of ensuring quality, quantity and palatability that Aces and Light have decided to take a hiatus in the efforts to host the much-anticipated concert by the legendary Congolese musical Quartier Latin International Orchestra led by Mopao, Koffi Olomide. This hiatus shall enable Aces and Light to better organize our planned concerts or to ensure it meets the expectation of all music lovers amongst the Kenyan music connoisseurs,” he said.
Female dancers
In 2016, Congolese singer Koffi Olomide was deported back to his country on Saturday morning after he allegedly assaulted one of his female dancers. Olomide who was scheduled for a concert on Saturday at the Water Front Mall Karen was captured on a video kicking one of his female dancers causing uproar on social media leading to his arrest in 2016.
The singer later shared a video apologising to Kenyans for his incident when he kicked one of his dancers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). In 2018, another planned performance in Kakamega town which was to mark the end of the 5th Devolution Conference was also called off.
The singer was set to bag an estimated Sh25 million for the performance at Bukhungu Stadium. The musician was arrested outside a local TV station and deported after an outpouring of protests when a video of him assaulting one of his dancers at JKIA went viral. Since the JKIA incident, Koffi, who has a history of explosive relations with some of his band members, with numerous accusations of beatings and other forms of cruelty, has tried to repair his damaged image by apologising to the women of Congo, Kenya and the world in general for his display of anger.
Koffi, who has nearly 300 albums under his belt, with a string of hit songs, including Papa Plus, Andrada, Fouta Djalon and Micko, is the founder and leader of Quartier Latin International Band. Besides Fally Ipupa, Koffi also mentored the sensational Ferre Gola in the band.
In the apology video of 2016 video, the Congolese musician also thanked the Kenyan government which he said had lifted his persona non grata declaration, promising to return later this year for a show-stopping performance.
“Jambo Kenya, this is Grand Mopao, Koffo Olomide, first I apologise, and sincerely I’m sorry for what I did wrong. Everybody was affected by what I did, so I apologised. I want to say thank you to the government of Kenya because the government endorsed me to come back to the country. I missed Kenya so much, the country of my life. I miss Kenya so much. Soon I will be in the Country to meet my fans one by one for Selfie, and we will announce the date for the coming back for the King of Africa in Kenya,” he said.
Deportation
He thanked his lawyer Prof George Wajackoyah, who at the time of his deportation, protested saying the musician was “treated like an animal”. The lawyer claimed that the Kenya government had deported the musician and his dancers to Congo “even without their passports”.
“Thank you very much my lawyer George for what you did, for what you have done. I thank the Kenyan Government for allowing me to come back again. I will be in Nairobi very soon, I will be happy to talk with the media and then we announce the show coming back. I love you and respect you,” added the singer.
This is not the first time the singer’s concert has been cancelled, in 2020, a letter dated January 24, 2020, purported to be from the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, said that the Selfie hitmaker had been granted access to come to Kenya to perform at an unspecified date, the show was later cancelled.
The letter was in response to a request to revoke orders from July 23, 2016, which barred the artist from ever stepping foot in Kenya after he was deported.
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