North Side Blues Be Gone: Paintballing on Thika Road Has Arrived

Has work been getting you down lately? Are your days spent between being caught in traffic, office hassle and a lack of a personal life? If your weeks are a long, drawn out endeavor of thankless monotony, then it may be time for you to let off some steam before you self destruct.

Relax, for those of you suffering endless traffic on Thika Road during rush hour, there’s somewhere where you can escape for a bit from the mundane. That place is Shooters Haven Paintball off of Mirema Lane in Roysambu. Manager Charlie Odongoh has been handing out instructions at the range since it opened in February of this year and knows the Thika Road crowd is in for an insane rush, “It’s a one in a million thing,” he explains while letting off excess air pressure by firing one of the guns in the air, “there is just nothing like it on this side of town.”

For those of you unfortunate souls who haven’t taken the plunge into paintball before, here’s how it works. You get some adrenaline junkie friends together (buying liquor is optional, but it helps in suppressing the fear) and head over to the field.

Once there they’ll trick you out in the gear that will simultaneously arm and protect you. Shooters Haven gives you a coverall (sort of a janitor’s jumpsuit/serial killer uniform) a face mask and an air pressured gun with a hundred small rounds filled with paint. Divided into teams, colors are assigned and the seeds of a feud are sown.

The format is more-or-less capture the flag, but gone is the innocent version that kids play. In its place is a form of mock combat that seems all together too real at times, with chaos, personal insults and small canisters of paint whipping and curving into obstacles and players alike. So does it hurt? “Not really,” says Odongoh with a grin, “only for a minute when you’re hit.”

The game should come with a warning; paintball is all out addictive and devilishly fun. It’s infinitely more satisfying than any video game (after all life should be lived).

This may just be the most fun you can have on a weekend in Nairobi. After the first round is fired you’ll be searching for excuses to skip out on obligations to fire away as often as possible. The cost is 1,000 per person, and for that 100 paintballs are yours. For those that get trigger happy, a re-fill (available during the match) runs for another thousand.

Paintball is gaining popularity fast in Nairobi so be sure to make reservations early by calling Shooters Haven at 0707946707 or checking out their Facebook page.