Sales volumes at a leading entertainment joint in Kakamega town have sharply dropped after a remark by area governor Wycliffe Oparanya linking it to the spread of the coronavirus disease among health workers and county staff.

Responding to complaints by health workers about lack of the Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), Oparanya singled out the entertainment spot located next to Bukhungu Stadium and patronised by his staff and health workers as the ‘super spreader of corona disease in Kakamega town.’

“Whenever you go there at night you will find tens of health workers crowding and drinking recklessly,” he said, noting that as professionals, medics should know better the dangers of handling patients casually.

When People Daily visited the joint, yesterday, we discovered that the glamour that previously defined it was no more.

Depressed business

The hordes of revelers and hangers-on who patronise the club daily were nowhere to be seen.

The club’s manager Sam Owidi was at pains to deny Oparanya’s assertions that it was a Covid-19 hots pot, saying there was no evidence to support the claims.

“Five members of my staff were rounded up through contact tracing, and tested for Covid-19.

The result was negative…that is why we are still operational,” he argued.

Specs Launch has gained popularity among the town’s high and mighty in the past five months when it broke protocols and remained operational even after an April government ban on bar and restaurant businesses to curb the spread of corona disease.

“This is a club, a preferred meeting point for the high end members of this society. Our clientele includes politicians, doctors, county government staff and the business community,” boasted Owidi.

The People Daily also learnt that the club is a joint ownership venture of four young entrepreneurs including the Lurambi CDF manager Julius Oketch, his Luanda counterpart Gregory Otaalo, ICT specialist Roy Mulemi and Joel Adolwa.

Yesterday, Otaalo admitted that the governor’s remark had ruined their business, adding they were currently operating at less than 40 per cent capacity. “Although he did not mention the joint, we are suffering the stigma.”

Four MCAs including the Kakamega deputy speaker Soita Kasaya and over 75 health workers, mostly nurses have tested positive to coronavirus in the past fortnight, bringing the caseload for Kakamega to over 400.