Masaku7s, the annual rugby tournament that has now become the most ultimate social event outside Nairobi County, ‘HAPPENED’ over the weekend and no one certainly expected the tremendous turnout of fans.

Last year, the event, which has now grown to international standards; attracting teams from foreign countries, drew in about 14,000 fans but the turnout in this year’s edition was more than double the previous number.

It’s estimated that on Saturday, 65,000 fans turned up for the Tusker After Sevens Party, held at the Machakos Golf Club, not forgetting the hundreds that were stuck up in the huge traffic snarl up within the county.

Since the event took place last weekend, Masaku7s has been the hottest topic in the country, drawing discussions on social media and even making it to radio breakfast shows after controversy erupted from the occurrences of the three day occasion.

A section of church leaders in Machakos town complained of alcohol abuse and misconduct among the revellers which they say tainted the town.

Kenyan Bloggers as usual, did their role in fanning the buzz about Masaku7s with most of them going to extents of lifting photos from the internet that had nothing to do with the event, just to give readers something to talk about.

NACADA Chairman, John Mututho has blamed governor Alfred Mutua for failure to control alcohol consumption in the social event and proposed for all jam sessions admitting children under the age of 18 be banned in order to protect the youth.

MASAKU MODERN DAY SODOM AND GOMORRAH?

Mututho went further to state that he has videos showing what happened in a church compound in broad day light on Saturday, citing the incident as “worse than what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah”, the ‘sin cities’ that are spoken about in the bible.

Since then, social media has been abuzz with the vibe surrounding #Masaku7s even though views remain divided. Critics condemn the event for the gross misconduct among the youths while some on the other end, mostly those who attended, are of the opinion that nothing that happened was out of the norm for the typical Nairobi crowd as the misconduct is the order of the day in Nairobi.

Below are some of the views shared on #Masaku7s on social media;

Said: Wretchedness where is this generation heading to?

Martin: this is clearly being exaggerated (sp) some pics are more than a year old in the internet!

Karimi: these kids of today!!What happened to fearing HIV, Pregnancy, God and your mother?

Emily: After reading all the posts about masaku 7s, about Sodom and Gomorra etc, I am left wondering, why do WE Kenyans have such a fake sense of morality? I mean the issue here is not Masaku7s, it’s the young people around us, transport the same kids to another event, in another part of the world and they will behave the same exact way, so the question is, who is raising our kids? They are making these choices based on their upbringing and if we don’t check them as their parents, sisters, brothers, neighbours etc they will keep doing what they know best, which is drinking, and misbehaving etc.

Wambui: it’s even sadder when older men (30-40) attend these functions with early 20 girls as their date. Who will teach who?

Stephen Musyoka: Kenyans are thirsty for information, and blogs are ready with fake content.
Sex sells. Go figure

Xavier Jerry Nato: Haki it’s just irritating when people could not dig pictorial dirt from Masaku 7s and resort to download pictures from the internet to excite. I wasn’t in Machakos myself and I don’t know what went down but don’t give us lies so kindly stop sharing that nonsense coz it’s all fake.

SINS THAT GO ON IN SOCIAL EVENTS

An article by George Korio, titled SINS THAT GO ON IN SOCIAL EVENTS, which was published in Pulse Magazine in April last year, brought to the limelight the immoral issue that take center stage in popular social events in the country but no one seemed to care. Why now? One might ask.

“Social events have become the new cool and the days of club partying seem to be a thing of the past as young fun lovers opt for the trendier social events, which seem to be a launching pad for fashion, new artistes and everything showbiz, as Pulsers bond. From pioneer monthly social event Blankets and Wine to The Mingle and now The Circle, event organisers are making a kill from the new phenomenal as corporates wrestle to swing in partnership sponsorship.

Even as the event’s organisers strive to maintain sobriety among the thousands who throng these venues to unwind, our investigations reveal that substance abuse is also becoming a norm with fresh ‘cool’ innovations of the marijuana cookies, sweets, cakes and other junk munchies as well as drug laced shisha becoming the new high in town,” the story read in part.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

It’s evident that there is some moral decay in today’s youth but #Masaku7s is not the problem and it’s about time people started paying attention to the elephant in the room.

In Nairobi, people get away with so many ills because it’s a modernized city and some things can pass but thanks to conservative backgrounds like Machakos, at least the society is forced to address such issues, just when did the rain start beating us?