Gunfire rocks Karoli concert

By Nathan EtenguGUNFIRE rocked Mbale Municipal Stadium on Sunday night when Tanzanian songbird Saida Karoli refused to perform over non-payment.The Police fired in the air after angry fans started hurling beer bottles at the stage. The incident occurred at around 8:30pm, nearly six hours after the fans had waited in vain for the show to commence.Karoli who arrived at the Stadium at 4:00pm, demanded to be paid before she could stage the show. She told The New Vision that Abitex Productions, the promoters, had not paid her for other shows held in Masindi, Hoima, Masaka and at Club Obligatto in Kampala.“Whenever I ask for the money, they claim that it is still being counted. These people are thieves,” Karoli said at Mbale Central Police Station.Trouble started when Karoli came to the stage and announced in broken Luganda that she could not perform because the promoters had refused to pay her a sum of sh7.5 m.Enraged fans started hurling bottles at the stage. Some of the fans walked away with plastic chairs belonging to a Pepsi Cola distributor in Mbale.“We cannot leave these chairs after we have been cheated,” they said.