Nyege Nyege Festival To Refund Over 4,000 Kenyans After Uproar

Nyege Nyege festival organisers have announced that they will refund revellers who attended the three-day event in Uganda after many of them, including Kenyans who attended the event, had raised questions regarding the state of accommodation.

During the event, revellers had raised concerns regarding the nature of the temporary houses put up to accommodate them, especially those who had to travel from Kenya, reported to be over 4,000.

Those who booked them complained that the structures were poorly built and maintained, and the matter was made even worse when they had to use temporary toilets and bathrooms erected alongside them.

An image of 2022 Nyege Nyege festival accommodation units. /TWITTER

The organisers in a statement on Monday, September 19 explained that negligence by the contractors in charge of accommodation was what led to the poor state of the houses. 

They apologised for the eventualities and promised to work on improving the accommodation side of the concert in future editions.

"Nyege Nyege Festival apologizes for any shortcomings in regard to on-site accommodation at the festival. We genuinely regret any inconvenience caused and we will make sure we improve future editions.

"It is unfortunate that the service provider called Afro Avenue who was contracted for on-site luxury accommodation did not deliver as promised and also sold illegitimate camping accommodation through his company that we found out on the day of the festival," it stated in part.

The organisers added that they will file legal action against them as they work towards securing the refunds.

"These actions greatly disappointed the festival and our esteemed clients. A civil action will be filed against them and the festival is in the process of securing refunds." the organisers added.

The houses were reported to have cost Ksh94,690 (3 million UGX) for three nights, that's around Ksh31,563 per night on average.

Much of the criticism regarding the accommodation came from Kenyans over that weekend and they argued that they were not getting the kind of treatment in exchange for the money they spent.

"I have seen the living conditions at Nyege Nyege. I’ve never been happier to be at home while my friends are perambulating," social media influencer, Brian Mutinda commented.

"Ata heri watu wa bus (At least those who used the bus) had already accepted the struggle. Imagine flying in for Nyege Nyege only to go survive those conditions," MonyqueXO weighed in.

This year's edition had featured a number of Kenyan acts such as Benzema, Exray, Boondocks Gang, DJ Hanuman, Mr Lu, DJ Magnum, MGM, Mr Fabz, Sylvia Saru among others.

Nyege Nyege was initially suspended by the Ugandan government over concerns that it promoted immorality but Ugandan Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja stated that the event would go on as planned, but only under strict conditions.

In its infancy, the Nyege Nyege festival began as Boutiq Electronique parties that were thrown at the late-night Tilapia club by Derek Debru and Arlen Dilsizian back in 2013. It later went on to become a full-blown festival with its first iteration hosted in 2015 at an abandoned resort in Jinja.