diff --git a/socketio/kafka_manager.py b/socketio/kafka_manager.py
index 1ec896e..7bb1bcb 100644
--- a/socketio/kafka_manager.py
+++ b/socketio/kafka_manager.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class KafkaManager(PubSubManager):  # pragma: no cover
     To use a Kafka backend, initialize the :class:`Server` instance as
     follows::
 
-        url = 'kafka://hostname:port/0'
+        url = 'kafka://hostname:port'
         server = socketio.Server(client_manager=socketio.KafkaManager(url))
 
     :param url: The connection URL for the Kafka server. For a default Kafka
@@ -35,31 +35,20 @@ class KafkaManager(PubSubManager):  # pragma: no cover
     """
     name = 'kafka'
 
-    def __init__(self, url='kafka://localhost:9092/0', channel='socketio',
+    def __init__(self, url='kafka://localhost:9092', channel='socketio',
                  write_only=False):
         if kafka is None:
             raise RuntimeError('kafka-python package is not installed '
                                '(Run "pip install kafka-python" in your '
                                'virtualenv).')
-        self.kafka_url = url
-        self.producer = kafka.KafkaProducer(bootstrap_servers='localhost:9092')
 
         super(KafkaManager, self).__init__(channel=channel,
                                            write_only=write_only)
 
-    def initialize(self):
-        super(KafkaManager, self).initialize()
-        monkey_patched = True
-        if self.server.async_mode == 'eventlet':
-            from eventlet.patcher import is_monkey_patched
-            monkey_patched = is_monkey_patched('socket')
-        elif 'gevent' in self.server.async_mode:
-            from gevent.monkey import is_module_patched
-            monkey_patched = is_module_patched('socket')
-        if not monkey_patched:
-            raise RuntimeError(
-                'Kafka requires a monkey patched socket library to work '
-                'with ' + self.server.async_mode)
+        self.kafka_url = url[8:] if url != 'kafka://' else 'localhost:9092'
+        self.producer = kafka.KafkaProducer(bootstrap_servers=self.kafka_url)
+        self.consumer = kafka.KafkaConsumer(self.channel,
+                                            bootstrap_servers=self.kafka_url)
 
 
     def _publish(self, data):
@@ -68,7 +57,6 @@ class KafkaManager(PubSubManager):  # pragma: no cover
 
 
     def _kafka_listen(self):
-        self.consumer = kafka.KafkaConsumer(self.channel, bootstrap_servers='localhost:9092')
         for message in self.consumer:
             yield message