By Ogova Ondego
Published October 19, 2019
A popular Tanzanian gospel singer is not only back but she appears to be hellbent on generating controversy as she reasserts herself on the music scene.
The message and lyrics in the new songs are not just more general than evangelistic, but beg questions whether Rose Mhando is re-inventing herself, going mainstream or leaving behind the type of music that catapulted her to the pedestal in the Kiswahili-speaking world of Christian music.
The very first controversy appears to be surrounding the song Kenya Ulindwe (May God Protect Kenya) whose melodious and rhythmical chorus on Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s fourth President, may border on ‘worldly’ praise-singing and thanksgiving much like what is found in the Kenyan benga and Congolese rhumba in which the artists heap praise on their benefactors .
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In a manner not unlike what the Swahili would describe as Aisifuye mvua imemnyea (They that praise the rain have reaped from it), Mhando sings:
Shukrani zangu kwa taifa la Kenya
viongozi wa kenya
na wananchi wa kenya
kwa kuokoa maisha yangu
Uhuru
Baba Uhuru
We Uhuru
Yabarikiwe malango yako
Ulindwe
Kenya ulindwe
Milele ulindwe, ifanikiwe mipango yako
ibarikiwe mipaka yako
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Mifuko yako ulifungua
mikononi ukanipokea
Kenya ukanihurumia
yabarikiwa malango yako
Mikono yako ulikuchua ukanisaidia
Kenya ulinihurumia
Uwezo sina
mali sina
nakuombea
Uhuru
Baba Uhuru
Rais Uhuru
Yabarikiwe malango yako
Narudia Uhuru
tena Uhuru
wewe Uhuru
ifanikiwe mipaka yako
Uhuru yabarikiwe malango yako
ifanikiwe mipaka yako.
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So where is the problem? What is wrong with thanking Kenya the country, the leaders of Kenya, the citizens of Kenya, or the medics of Kenya for receiving, taking pity on and nursing Mhando back to good health and to her singing career?
The song was composed, recorded and produced at Jawabu Studio in Machakos on the eastern outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It was published on YouTube on September 24, 2019 and readily connected with thousands of viewers, thanks to the wide publicity it has received in local media.
The song is posted on YouTube by Kamba Gospel singer Stephen Kasolo with the message: “This song has been Authorized by Rose Muhando to be in this Channel. Thank you His Excellency president Uhuru Kenyatta and All the Kenyans for the Love you showed me during my sickness in Kenya . Now am safe and ready to work for the Lord. For skiza sms 7634125 to 811 (Uhuru Part) Sms skiza 7634126 to 811 (Uhuru Verse 1 Rose Muhando) Lets support Rose Muhando Kindly Subscribe to our Channel” below it.
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But two days after the posting of Ulindwe Kenya on YouTube, on September 26, the same song, now titled Bariki Kenya, is posted on the channel of Jawabu Studio with the message–“This music is still in the hands of the producer Basil Jawabu studios..0714555601 “–and harsh tags–#RoseMuhando #BarikiKenya #NgommaGospel #BasilProductions–accompanying it.
A day or so later the Jawabu Studio’s video is pulled down by YouTube over what is said to be copyright infringement and the message–‘Video unavailable. This video contains content from Ngomma VAS, who has blocked it on copyright grounds’–is posted in its place.
That is when the producer of the song, Basil Siali (real name John Shisia Muse), cries foul, saying Kasolo has ‘stolen’ the song from his studio before Mhando has paid the production fee.
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Saying “Rose walishikana na Kasolo wakaninyang’anya huu wimbo na kuuweka kwenye YouTube bila idhini yangu,’ Siali says what Kasolo published on YouTube was the sample he had sent to Mhando for feedback as he continued to work on the song for release.
“Nilianza kuishi na Rose Mhando kama mama yangu 2018,” Siali, who says he set up Jawabu Studio in 2013 and started working with Mhando two years later, in 2015. says.
Siali’s Jawabu Studio is behind Walionicheka song by Ringtone and Mhando and nine other songs whose production value he estimates to be about Sh500 000 (about US$5000).
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He says he wrote the second verse of Ulindwe Kenya, a song he says Mhando had wanted to dedicate to Official Opposition leader, Raila Amolo Odinga, but that he had successfully persuaded her to dedicate it to Kenyatta as the President of Kenya.
Both verse two and the chorus of the song, Siali says, is his own creation. Moreover, he says, Mhando had wanted the song titled Walionidhulumu (My Oppressors) but that he persuaded her to give it a more conciliatory tone.
That she may have wanted her song titled Walionidhulumu may not be in doubt, going by titles such as Walionicheka (Those who mocked me) and Wanyamazishe Bwana (Silence them Lord) which Mhando gives to some of her latest songs in her come-back.
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When things came to a head, Siali, who holds the copyright to the song via a certificate issued by Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), says Kasolo sent him Sh10000 via Safaricom’s M-Pesa but that he returned the money insisting that the only terms agreeable to him would be a ’50/50 commercial rights’ to the song with Mhando, not Kasolo.
Going by her own admission in a testimony on Oracle1 TV channel on YouTube, Mhando has not paid for the production of her music at Jawabu Studio
“Ingawa sikuwa na shilingi hata moja mbali na kutaka kurekodi,’ Mhando says on Oracle TV with Preacher Lucy Natasha, “producer aliniambia tu ‘Rekodi tu. Hakuniuliza chochote yule kijana kwani aliniheshimu’.”
She says she recorded an entire album in the studio of the ‘kijana’ she does not name but who shesays welcomed her to record with the words, ‘Mama karibu Studio’.
