Zambia cancels Koffi Olomide’s show for assaulting a dancer

Zambia has cancelled a planned concert by one of Africa’s biggest musicians, Koffi Olomide, in a row over an alleged assault in Kenya on one of his dancers.

It follows the Congolese rumba star’s deportation after footage of him kicking a woman in front of police and camera crews was aired on local media.

The footage of Friday’s incident at Nairobi’s international airport sparked outrage on social media.

Kenyan authorities deported Olomide, 60, and three of his dancers on Saturday to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa, following a public outcry over the incident.

Speaking to BBC Afrique on Friday, he denied kicking anyone and said he had tried to “stop” a “girl who wanted to fight the dancers I came with”.

The video shown on Kenya’s KTN News shows police intervening to stop the apparent attack on the woman.

In 2012 he was convicted in DR Congo of assaulting his producer and received a three-month suspended prison sentence.

In 2008 he was accused of kicking a cameraman from DR Congo’s private RTGA television station and breaking his camera at a concert in Kinshasa but a reconciliation was later brokered.