Nyee festival: Event built around unusual delicacy draws just 12 attendees

Kiomboyo’s unorthodox event, held to celebrate a peculiar culinary experience, performed so dismally that he became a case study on how to plan events, do proper marketing, read the room, and execute a novel idea.

Dubbed “Nyee Festival,” Kiomboyo’s event was meant to honor a peculiar delicacy made purely from goat testicles — a one-of-a-kind dish enjoyed globally and said to have numerous benefits, including high protein, healthy fats, and vital vitamins.

The event, scheduled to be held indoors at the Nice Digital City premises, was billed as a spectacular year-ender, inviting people to try the meal as well as enjoy musical performances from leading Mugithi stars.

The event poster even featured leading names in the Mt. Kenya entertainment sphere, including Karangu wa Muraya, Bishop Ben Kiengei, Mbote, Kaluma Boy, Dada Sarah, and Samidoh.

However, on the day of the event, Kiomboyo sat at the venue’s entrance for hours on end, watching in utter dismay as time dragged on, with no one making an entrance or even stopping by out of curiosity.

Still hopeful, Kiomboyo lingered, thinking that maybe the crowd would eventually turn up later in the evening.

But deep into the night, not a single soul could be seen walking into the venue, leaving the organizer embarrassingly perplexed.

Across the decked-out tables, Kiomboyo’s special goat testicle dish sat untouched, with nobody lining up to have a taste or bothering to sample the peculiar meat platter.

By nearly midnight, only 12 people had finally made their way into the venue — all of them, surprisingly, arriving in donkey carts — prompting Kiomboyo to compare the turnout to Jesus’ twelve disciples.

“I waited and waited, and by 11 p.m., there were 12 people at the hall with their donkey carts parked at the entrance. It reminded me of the 12 disciples in the teachings of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Speaking to Kameme TV, the entrepreneur also revealed that he had sourced his goat testicles from far and wide — Nairobi, Isiolo, and even Tanzania.

“I even managed to get hold of the Tanzanian market and brought with me 15,000 goat balls. This was on top of the 8,500 goat balls I had sourced from the Kenyan market. Unfortunately, I only sold 2,000 goat balls,” he lamented.

After the disastrous turnout, Kiomboyo was forced to bury the remaining stock — over 21,000 goat balls — unsure of what to do with them.

“It broke my heart that after all the investment I had made, I was forced to bury them all,” he revealed.

The unconventional businessman also shared that he had spent over Ksh 100,000 planning the festival and regretted the massive losses he incurred.

“Planning events is not easy. I spent so much on all the critical things, including a public address system, security, the hall, ushers, stage setup, TV sets, posters, and planning,” he said.

The business personality, with a striking Kibaki-style haircut, has since become a running joke across Mwea’s online gossip platforms, with many digging into what could have caused the disaster.

While many agreed that goat balls are not necessarily a very enticing dish, some also blamed the businessman for failing to do his homework: doing little to push the event, being overly confident, and introducing a rather strange idea to people still not acclimatized to such a bizarre delicacy.