B-Club, Nairobi found itself in the limelight on Friday, January 17, when Embakasi East MP Babu Owino allegedly shot a DJ at the popular upmarket nightclub.
The club is now considered a crime scene with a thirteen-second CCTV video having leaked showing a man in an orange shirt alleged to be Babu firing a gun. It also shows a man alleged to be the victim being dragged out of an elevator at Galana Plaza, Kilimani where the club is located.
Unknown to many, however, is the flashy, controversial tycoon behind the establishment frequented by the rich and famous - Rwandan national Barry Ndegeyingoma.
Known to his close friends and associates simply as 'Ndegeye', Barry moved to Kenya in 1994 from Rwanda during the genocide.
In multiple past interviews, Barry disclosed that he was a fashion designer in Kigali, Rwanda and spent three years in Kenya before moving to Belgium where he struck it rich.
"I started as a teenager making a few coins as a fashion retailer buying, customizing and selling second-hand clothes. I was also an artistes' designer," he told Standard Media Group-owned Pulse magazine in 2016.
Barry claimed that he got into the entertainment business in Belgium, hiring out sound and public address systems. He eventually ventured into other sectors including the petroleum and gold businesses.
"While in Belgium, my wife and I expanded our businesses to other countries like Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Dubai," he stated in the same interview.
Barry met his wife Samia, now a director of B Concepts Limited which owns B-Club Nairobi, in Belgium. She was a private banker at the time and helped facilitate high-powered business deals for the couple.
They opened nightclubs in multiple cities in Europe and Africa alongside other businesses.
"We managed to open high-end clubs such as Billion Club in Belgium that has a capacity of 3,000 people, Afrodiziac Club (also in Belgium) that accommodates 1,000 people, B-Club, Kigali and B-Club DRC among others, which are currently doing well," Barry stated in the Pulse interview.
In Nairobi, he gained a reputation for his impressive fleet of super-cars constantly spotted outside B-Club in Kilimani.
Vehicles in the collection include a Lamborghini, Hummer, Rolls Royce and a Ferrari.
Barry has in the past been accused of defrauding his business partners including in 2017 when two Kenyan event organisers claimed to have lost millions in a botched business deal with him.
The Friday gun drama has also raised eyebrows as Justice Loice Komingoi had ordered the club shut down alongside four others in the area; Space Lounge, Kiza and Explorer's Tavern.
The order was issued on October 27, 2019, after Kilimani residents moved to court against the clubs which they accused of playing loud music at night and denying them their right to a clean, healthy environment.
