Nairobi has shut down a Chinese restaurant that denies African patrons entry after 5pm. The owner has also been arrested after the “no Africans” policy provoked a social media outcry.
Zhao Yang was arrested for operating the restaurant without a valid license and could be imprisoned for up to 18 months or fined more than $1,000 if found guilty.
“We have established that the restaurant did not have the licences and I have ordered it closed until the management complies,” said Evans Kidero, governor of Nairobi, in a statement.
Kidero explained that the owners of the restaurant do not have documents to show that the building was no longer being used as residential, but commercial, which is required in Nairobi. The restaurant also lacked a valid liquor licence and failed to comply with public health requirements on food handling.
“[…] the restaurant will remain closed until they comply with all set rules and regulations.”
The management of the restaurant defended its policy through relations manager Esther Zhao, who said that: “We [the restaurant] don’t admit Africans that we don’t know because you never know who is Al-Shabaab and who isn’t”. She added that “The Chinese people who stay here or come to dine want to feel safe.”
A report by Daily Nation beamed the spotlight on the ‘racist’ policy of the restaurant in an article published on Monday after its reporters who went there at 7pm were turned back. The indignation of social media users across Africa was expressed via the hashtag #noblacksallowed.
@BBC_WHYS #NoBlacksAllowed Why is it so easy for racists to target Africans, even in their own country.
— Samuel T Kubi (@Tymensk) March 25, 2015
@gmutizwa It is embarrassing. Sad to see that it is now a license issue. I hope the racist profiling isn’t overlooked #NoBlacksAllowed
— Mary Tororeiy (@MadreMaryT) March 24, 2015
Chinese will never be our friends. They are wired to look down on blacks. They love us for the roads tenders and ivory! #NoBlacksAllowed
— Donald B Kipkorir (@DBK017) March 23, 2015
A reporter at Standard Media Group shared his experience at the restaurant earlier this month on Facebook. He said it reminded him of the Norfolk or New Stanley of the colonial era. “I keep warning that China will colonise us one day and it’s now happening right here,” said Mosoku Geoffrey. This past January, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi carried out a five-nation tour of Africa to promote closer ties between the continent and China. “We absolutely will not take the old path of Western colonists,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Chinese Central Television while in Kenya, promising that his country will not follow the path of “Western colonists” in Africa. The policy of the Chongqing Restaurant has, however, been alluded to as the new form of imperialism critics have related China’s presence in Africa to.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights has urged Kenyans who had been barred from the restaurant to make a formal complaint as it plans to institute a civil suit.
