This Is Why Kenyans On Social Media Are Angry. And This Is Why They Are Saying In A Loud Voice…I Stand With Colour Festival.

Last Sunday,after the huge brouhaha that the outlawed Project X bacchanal elicited,yet another party was stopped from happening in far away Eldoret after the Police,acting on a tip-off from clueless scaremongering villagers,stormed the venue and brought all the activities to a grinding halt.

Everything was all system go before the police showed up to haphazardly throw an innocent event in limbo,leaving the organizers dealing with massive losses,confusion and even worry in a whole new town and with very little they could do.

After the audacious Project X bender caused massive outrage in Kenya,attracting the attention of the always sleepy KFCB oldies and the ire of the public,alot of events have subsequently been erroneously tagged as ‘Project X’ parties.

Ezekiel Mutua,the ignorant KFCB mouthpiece,even went ahead and foolishly declared that the Project X party was really a terrorist-recruitment exercise. Or some stupid Porn Hub annual general meeting. And everyone,surprisingly,believed the guy. As if terrorists are really that stupid.

Now,The Police quickly banned the event and vowed to arrest it’s organizers. Things happened fast with local media stations,led by Citizen TV,leading the massive media war against the Saturday 12th house party.

Quickly,any other party that happened before,around or after Project X was now being stupidly branded a Project X affair.

Some road trip to Masinga organized by a Facebook Group Mathree Culture was quickly called ‘Project X’ and badly disparaged on mainstream media.

Some house party in Lang’ata celebrating the KCSE results of some diplomat’s son was also foolishly called a pre-Project X party. And our silly media took it all in. Misinforming the public massively.

And now,yet another public outdoor event was also dubbed ‘Project X’ and the organizers hugely harassed in Eldoret both physically and mentally.

The Eldoret Police didn’t care that Color Festival was an outdoor event held DURING the DAY when the sun was still high and when nothing immoral could really be expected to happen. They still went ahead and banned the event,sent crowds away and cordoned off the venue in a bid to ‘protect the morals of the Eldoret people’. As if the even have any.

But the Color Festival is NOT even a depraved,all-night house party. Or a party as such.

According to the organizers,the Color Festival is an International festival with its origin in India known as the Holi festival of colours in India.

Colour Festival is an electronic dance music festival that incorporates the elements of bright and colourful powders from the Indian festival of ‘Holi‘ combined with modern electronic dance music showcased by both international and local artists/DJs.

Talking of the concept behind the Color Festival,one of the organizers said,

‘Thousands of patrons, dressed in white, will come together to share in music, dance, performance art and visualizations, with a uniformed ‘colour-splash’ which will take place every hour. After a minimum of 3 ‘colour-splashes’ the audience will be completely covered by the coloured powder, depicting a true ‘Rainbow Nation’ feel.

At this point, race/colour cannot be determined and all those in attendance will come together as one. We view this festival as a true ‘nation building’ experience!’.

Well,what about that can then be classified as immoral? Or as detrimental to the morals of the Country? If any?

Despite securing the venue and paying for it beforehand,even approaching the police about providing security at the first ever such event in Eldoret,still,the police pounced on the venue,scattering everyone away,throwing everything into disarray and declaring the festival illegal.

Infact,this is NOT even the first of such a kind of an event.

Color Festival (Kenya) was officially launched in Kenya in August 2015 by some three young individuals who were largely inspired by the Indian version of the festival and decided to replicate the festival’s general message of togetherness and unity in Kenya.

‘The event in Eldoret is not even the first Color Festival in Kenya. We did our first such event in Lavington last year (2015) at the Eden Gardens attracting over 2,000 youths for the inaugural event ,’ Malcom X,one of the event’s organizers said.

The 2015 Colour Festival In Karen.

‘It was a massive massive success that inspired us to do yet another one in Karen same year (2015), ‘ Malcom adds.’ And the Karen one,held at the Karen Village, was an even bigger success. We had over 5,000 youths in one of the biggest outdoor events ever held in Kenya. And yet nothing bad happened… No funny incidences,no one was robbed or raped or drugged or groped or sexually exploited. No one abused drugs or alcohol. It was a purely fun event that ended by evening. Without drama and the police can confirm this, ‘ Malcolm adds.

But when the organizers of the event decided to do the third version of the increasingly popular event,the police swooped in,disrupting everything and declaring the event a Project X in disguise.

Some clueless fellow from the top echelons of the Uasin Gishu Government even went on camera claiming that the organizers were just another bunch of spoilt youth with a project X mentality and depravity.

‘We did two similar shows successfully last year. With no drama. No nasty incidence or outlawed activities. The events were held in broad daylight. Right in the City Center. We even secured rights to hold the events with no problem. What would make us change the plan and go ratchet and wicked this year??? We were shocked. We still are. It’s crazy. ‘

Color Festival is the brainchild of the Yehlah Crew Inc. which comprises of 3 directors; Malcom x Andrew,Sanday Thomas & Dekit Kimani.

The organizers are now grappling with huge losses after the event was canceled even after they had spent massive amounts of money to book artists,DJs, hire a crew,venue and sound system etc etc.

‘We spent close to a million Shillings to organize the peaceful festival. All that has now gone to the drain. There were thousands of youth at the gate. They were all turned away. We’ve never incurred so much losses all our life. ‘ Malcolm lamented.

‘And now we are being compared to Project X. Can you imagine that!?? We are not even a house party. We don’t even do night events. We don’t even ask anyone to come naked. Or be ready to lose their virginity. Everyone goes home by 8pm in the evening. We are outraged! ‘ one of the organizers cries.

But if the Government is going to STOP events from happening indiscriminately,acting on a stupid whim,then even events like Koroga Festival,Sawa Sawa Festival,Blankets and Wine,Hakuna Matata etc but also be STOPPED.

You cannot just be shutting down parties just because the KFCB dreamers are raising hell. You cannot just walk up to a festival and shut it down WITHOUT any evidence of wrongdoings or contravention of the law.

That is both stupid and unprofessional.

And also against the rights of individuals to assemble or enjoy themselves.

Not every gathering of young people in this City is some Project X convention. Not every road trip that will happen over the Easter Holiday will be some planned attack on virginity.

No one is even a virgin anymore in this City anyway.

You cannot use the infantile mentality and tactics of a three-year old to moralize a Country.

Some people need to seriously GROW UP.

I Stand With Color Festival.

BELOW,Watch NTV’s coverage of the Eldoret incident.

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