City lawyer Donald Kipkorir has revealed what happened to him last week when he visited Shamba Café & Shop in Loresho.According to the lawyer, the black waiters at the restaurant treated him like trash as they glorified wazungu.
Here is the lawyer’s narration:
Goodbye Shamba Cafe & Shop
Yesterday, I asked five of my friends, two of who live abroad that we meet at Shamba Cafe & Shop in Loresho for late afternoon lunch. It was my second time going there. When I went first time nearly a year ago, there was racial profiling, service was horrible & we were served lunch after nearly three hours! I thought that with time, they have fixed teething problems.
I was the first to arrive around 3pm. When I walked in, I saw over ten waiters all over & near the bar counter. None came to show me a table. I picked out someone who looked like a supervisor & asked for a table for six. He told me that there was no table available. Bit I saw three empty ones. He told me they were booked for 5pm! I told him that we were coming for late lunch and will be done before 5pm. He let me take the table.
When my friends arrived, I told them of my experience in getting the table. I knew that Shamba engaged in racial profiling when it begun. It wanted to cater for mzungu and muhindi clientele. I thought it had changed. As we observed, when a mzungu or muhindi customer came, three waiters will rush with menu at hand and showing them tables. I had to ask for my menu. So, were all my friends.
Anyway, we really enjoyed our food. We took several bottles of wine though their wine selection is only about four or five and un-rated. When we left at 7pm, those who were supposed to have booked the table hadn’t arrived!
What saddens me about places like Shamba, though the owner is Mzungu, all the waiters are black and it is the waiters who do racial profiling. I doubt the owner wants that. Kenyan waiters who work in a mzungu restaurant think they are pleasing their Boss by making the customers “non black”. I have seen so many restaurants like that in Kenya going under. The pricing of the restaurants is sufficient to attract clientele of certain economic class. Each restaurant has its customers. Like shops have own set of customers. But to use race as a business ethos is counter productive and leads to failure in the long run. No business based on race has survived.
Anyway, I will not go to Shamba again. I give a business two chances. I already gave Shamba.