For the better part of Friday afternoon, Kenyans widely shared a viral video of a cleric, dressed in a cassock, seemingly blessing the new Quiver Lounge entertainment spot in Kenol, Murang’a, while an assistant followed him closely while holding a bowl of holy water.
The priest, whose name and parish are yet to be identified, is seen walking alongside a few individuals, whom we have now learned are investors and local politicians, as he sprinkled holy water using his priestly fly whisk.
Once the video hit the internet, several Kenyans on Twitter took issue with the presence of men of the cloth in the opening of nightclubs.
But in an exclusive interview with Citizen Digital, Quiver Lounge’s General Manager Joseph Ng’ang’a denied claims of seeking out the services of the priests on the material day, clarifying that the men of God had been asked to come and bless the mall as a whole and not Quiver Lounge in specific.
“Quiver Lounge happens to be one of the many businesses on which the new mall sits. The businesses there range from supermarkets to petrol stations, as you’d expect in any mall. Therefore, the mall owners, who also happen to be the proprietors of Nokras Hotels and Magunas supermarkets, simply sought the services of the Church in dedicating the mall to God. And that’s how Quiver Lounge was captured in viral videos while the priest did his thing. This was absolutely not a Quiver Lounge initiative, but that of the mall owners under which the club falls, ” he said.
In a phone call to this publication, Peter Mbugua, owner of Quiver Lounge, also maintained that the mall was being consecrated and that, by virtue of Quiver Lounge being a tenant at the premises, the misconception was unavoidable…
But while Peter maintained that he had no prior knowledge of the coming of the priests and did not seek their services, he also added that he has used men of God before to bless his businesses and that he finds nightclubs a business like any other and that asking God to bless it warrants no controversy.
“We have always sought pastors to pray for our nightclubs every time we open a new branch. This is a business like any other. There are a lot of risks in nightclubs – people can be stabbed to death with bottles, there are knives involved, fires in the kitchens, and stampedes too. We always ask God to protect us from hazards and we also channel a lot of our profits to the Church. I don’t see any controversy in asking men of God to bless a new nightclub. “
