Whisky, bullet, and a grudge in Kisumu bar

As he walked away, he dropped something in my whisky.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

I once interviewed this peacock of a CEO for my column in this newspaper. Ugly information came out post-interview. Turns out he had lied about certain things, putting himself on a pedestal.

Feeling cheated, I wrote a stinging blog post about him. He wasn’t amused. Actually, he was pissed off.

We never quite met again until three weeks ago in Kisumu’s Da Bar when he joined a table, I was drinking with a friend he happens to be friends with.

He had a beautiful female on his arm. “Maybe we should bury the hatchet,” he said, ordering a bottle of whisky. We touched glasses and said, “bygones remain bygones.” Then we proceeded to have a fun time.

But then something weird happened. Later in the night, we moved to Kisumu’s hottest and infamous club called Alleyways Beer Garden. A place with a reputation.

It’s in the CBD, in an alley near the Easy Coach bus station. It’s the after-party joint. It was cramming and bobbing with revellers.

Its where good intentions go to die. You don’t go to Alleyways to be prim and proper. You go because you are unwound. And you don’t go expecting a seat.

We waded through a sea of humanity (this is not hyperbole) and finally found a spot along a corridor leading to the toilets. The music and the energy made everything else irrelevant.

At some point, my friend got into a light testerone match with a strange guy who had bumped into him on his way from the toilet. You know, men comparing cajónes, nothing serious.

As he walked away, the inebriated CEO looked at him, dropped something in my whisky, and said “Give him that.” I looked in my tumbler and it was a bullet. A bullet. The hell? I asked him. He drained my whisky and took his bullet. I was disturbed.

I don’t know if it was a message to me or the other fellow. Were we still beefing? But what I know is Alleyways seems like a place where something wild and memorable like that would happen.

PAYE Tax Calculator

Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.