KENYA: Popular Reggae Band Arrested For Noise Polution During Performance

Popular Kenyan reggae band Gravitti found themselves on the wrong side of the law after some National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) arrested them and confiscated their equipment sighting them for noise pollution.

The incident occurred on Monday night (last week) during a performance at Nairobi's Uptown Grill in Kilimani, but according to the band members it was all foul play.

“The Nema guys stormed the joint claiming that we were committing noise pollution by producing 103 decibels of sound. It was very unclear on how they arrived to that conclusion. The minimum amount of sound a jet can make on landing is 106 decibels,” the band’s lead vocalist Jah told Word Is.

This led to the arrest of four band members among them the lead vocalist, a guitarist and two female back-up vocalists.

“We were driven to the City Hall Annex where our equipment was stored before being taken to Kamukunji Police Station where we spent the night. The following day, we were taken back to City Hall to be arraigned in court only to be informed that the charges had mysteriously been dropped.”

To add on to the suspicion NEMA officials denied knowledge of the incident saying, “it was not by our officers. That has to be an issue to do with the county government.”

Now this raises the question, is Gravitti band the first among many casualties to follow in the near future or was this a big mistake that will not happen again?