Light dims on Kisumu city's 'Bottoms Up' club

Closed Bottom-Up club Kisumu after 43 years in service. [Harold Odhiambo, Standard]

"Bottoms Up Club" popularly known as Octopus has closed its doors after 43 years.

The club that rocked the lakeside city in the 1980s and 1990s shut down its business and the premises now turned to a hardware.

At the peak the Covid-19 outbreak which affected business, the proprietor had scaled down operations of the popular joint, only for the space to be leased off to a new entrant who set up a hardware shop.

The famous graffiti on the has now been replaced by the name of the hardware, signaling the final nail in the iconic club's coffin.

Its fall adds to a growing list of nightclubs in the lakeside city that have been forced to shut down due to the hard economic times brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In April, another famous joint, Buddy's Bar and Grill, at the United Mall closed after nine years in operation.

For Octopus, residents had been hoping that the club would reopen its doors after it closed early this year due to the restrictions imposed by authorities to contain the spread of the virus.

In an interview with its proprietor, William McTough, at the peak of the Third Wave of Covid-19 pandemic, he said that he would consider resuming business if he failed to get an investor to lease the building.

Yesterday, social media was awash with pictures of the iconic club after it became clear that it had finally closed down.

The building that used to house the famous club is now home to Asembo Bay Paints General Hardware.

“We'll dearly miss you. Go well our beloved OCTOPUS,” posted Robbie Odongo, a netizen.

Residents have decried the Covid-19 restrictions that have made it difficult for night clubs to stay afloat.

They claimed that the 7pm curfew introduced a few weeks ago to contain surge in Covid-19 cases in the lakeside city has only made the situation worse for businesses, especially night clubs and bars.

In its heydays, the club was the face of nightlife in Kisumu’s 24-hour economy.

Since it was established in early 1978 by three brothers, the doors of Octopus had only been closed once when the country’s first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta passed on.

This was before twilight girls took over the place and heralded a new era for a club whose foundations was grounded on decency in a bid to change the region’s nightlife with a buzzing disco experience.

It was a pub frequented by the who-is-who in the region who would spend a fortune to enjoy the unrivaled entertainment it offered as it engaged international artistes and Congolese bands.

Back then, a visit to Kisumu would be incomplete without a visit to Bottoms Up Club and it was like a paradise for those who loved nightlife.

This is where top government officials, diplomats, wealthy businessmen, sportsmen and celebrities who happened to be in Kisumu would have a taste of nightlife.

It had one of the best sound systems in Nyanza and was the home of some of the region’s top DJs. The design was one of the most attractive architecture that lured customers of all kind.

And to spice it further, the club installed one of the first-ever seen disco dim lights that attracted even more customers keen to hide from paparazzi.

In a past interview, McTough told The Standard how he has struggled during the Covid-19 period to keep the club afloat.

For a businessman who had endured a lot, including the 2007/2008 post-election violence which almost brought the club to its knees, the pain of the collapse of the club is written on his face.?

Not even the success of his other enterprise Scottish Tartan Hotel which is adjacent to Bottoms Up Club gives him joy as he laments about the tough economic times brought by the Covid-19 restrictions.

However, the fall of the club had been long coming following the emergence of new clubs that threatened the traditional pubs that had ruled the city’s nightlife.

The new nightclubs introduced new innovations to attract customers, including hosting live-bands as well as injecting a flair to the nightlife.

The younger generation also had a hand in in the collapse of Octopus as youths who prefer the Western lifestyle opted for the modern joints.

And with the developments, twilight girls who also gave Octopus the clout in nightlife business also started devolving their services to the new entrants, leaving Octopus high and dry.

This got worse for the club when Covid-19 hit the country and compelled the government to introduce restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

With the club forced to close its doors early because of curfew, revenue has been hard to come by, prompting its owner to shut it down.

About 45 employees who were employed at the enterprise lost their jobs with the closure of the night club but McTough says he is trying his best to incorporate them in his other businesses.