If the idea that someone can pretend to have a head without a body and charge people to see him was funded by taxpayers, then the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would be accused of looking the other way on one of Kenya’s longest running scandals.
But at the Nairobi International Trade Fair which ends today, the more things change the more they remain the same. Take the bodyless head for instance. In reality, it is just a person seated below a table with the head, surrounded by some pinkish cotton wool to feign blood, protruding on top.
Or better yet, a dreadlocked person with his head protruding through a plastic basin whose bottom has been cut but being advertised as a mermaid. Then next door there is a woman being marketed as the shortest person in the world.
Mind you, people pay Sh20 to watch such crazy acts and from the length of the queues, show goers are yet to get enough of such gimmicks years after they were introduced at agricultural shows. “I do not have teeth,” said the ‘head without a body’ while flashing his blackened mouth when I asked if he eats.
“So how do you eat?” I asked.
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“Even if I eat where will the food go? Can’t you see I don’t have a body?” he responded.
It is hilarious to think that people actually pay money to watch such obvious tricks but what will the show be if there were no such crazy acts. So popular are such side shows and exhibitions that in 2002, the Agricultural Society of Kenya (ASK) decided to rename the Nairobi Show to Nairobi International Trade Fair.
Making sales
Although agriculture is supposed to be the main attraction, the show has over the years grown into a carnival for exhibitors to display their products and make sales. “The primary objective of giving information to the farmer has been lost by the organisers who have turned it to a cash-generating avenue,” complained Michael Mbuni.
While officially opening the show on Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta challenged the private sector to support Kenyan technological startups, adding that the government is also promoting policies that support innovation. “Innovation and technology in agriculture and trade are at the cornerstone of my administration’s commitment to job creation through manufacturing; and ensuring food security for all Kenyans,” said the president.
“The government is further implementing measures to encourage more private sector involvement in post-harvest handling and value addition to maximise revenue in the agriculture sector which has been allocated Sh57 billion in this year’s budget,” he said.
Nevertheless, the tired repainted buildings, school buses, dust and the tens of thousands of school children strolling from stand to stand is proof that the show is still popular. It only appears smaller if you visit it as an adult compared to how endless it used to feel when you were a child. All exhibitors still give away cardboard hats, everywhere you look there is a scout or girl guide and the president still rides around a top a modified Land-rover. This presidential tour is not considered complete until he buys a bull at an astronomical price like he did on Thursday.
And although the current attendance numbers are yet to be made public, last year, 700,000 people visited the seven-day event. Additionally, the show attracted 350 local and international exhibitors with 95 foreign countries participating.
One thing that has not changed however is the DS Sounds night club which operates day and night and is a permanent fixture in all the agricultural shows countrywide.
