Mike Sonko. PHOTO | NATION
The world of new money is gaining ground, with Kenyan celebrities flaunting their supposed riches in public, especially at special celebrations such as weddings.
The recent wedding of flamboyant musician Akothee, real name Esther Akoth, in Nairobi to her Swiss lover, Denis Schweizer, also known as Omosh, was the venue for the “newly rich” to show off how they are doing so well.
Gender Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa set the ball rolling by adorning Akothee in a necklace made up of crisp Sh1,000 notes, causing laughter and excitement. The wedding was held on Monday, April 10, 2023, at the plush Windsor Hotel on Nairobi’s northwestern outskirts in Kiambu County.
The musician, whose hit songs include Hayakuhusu, Oyoyo, Yuko Moyoni, and Djele Djele, was born in April 1983, and has found success in music and business. She owns Akothee Safaris, a tour company, and to give back to the community, she runs a charity organisation, Akothee Foundation. She is also active in real estate and is a prominent farmer in her rural home in Migori County.
Akothee has been named among the richest musicians in East Africa and did some memorable collabos with Tanzanian star Diamond Platnumz and Nigerian singer Flavour. Her song with Diamond, an equally flashy and successful musician and entrepreneur based in Dar es Salaam, with his own recording label and a TV station, is titled Sweet Love. With Flavour, she recorded the song, Give it to Me.
World of opulence
The venue and stunning decoration for her wedding seemingly confirmed a world of opulence, complete with a white horse-drawn carriage as the bridal limousine. The wedding theme of pure white and gold and the ambience of elegance and luxury were meant to portray the world of Kenya’s newly rich.
The guests, including Kisumu First Lady Dorothy Nyong’o and her Migori counterpart Agnes Ayacko, and wealthy Mombasa businessman and Eala MP Suleiman Shahbal, added to the class. Also present were lawyer and orator PLO Lumumba and radio personalities Jalang’o (Felix Odiwuor, the Lang’ata MP, also popularly known as Jalas) and Alex Mwakideu.
Content creators Terence Creative and his wife Milly Chebby showcased African kitenge designs. Terence wore a custom-made blue shirt and trousers, and Chebby matched that with a beautiful blue and yellow dress and completed the couple’s colourful showing with a blue handbag.
Blue Mercedes Benz
Jalang’o and his wife, Amina Chao, arrived in their sleek blue Mercedes Benz. But comedian Eddy Butita and his girlfriend Sadia stole the show when they made their grand entrance after landing at the venue in a chopper. Butita wore a black and white coat and black trousers, and his sweetheart chose to display a bit of flesh in a long thigh-slit dress.
Wading into the controversial proposal to tax content creators, President William Ruto joked that comedians Njugush (real name Timothy Njuguna) and Butita earn even more money than him, and yet he holds the highest office in the land. But he later ordered the tax on content creators in the unpopular Finance Bill, 2023 axed, as he praised Kenyan youth for taking to the online space to fend for themselves and their families. He attributed their success to a partnership between YouTube and the Kenya Government, which has enabled them to make loads of money.
Jalas has come a long way from a hawker, who initially found fame in the Papa Shirandula show, before going into radio and vying for the Lang’ata seat in the August 9, 2022 General Election. He has besides his flashy cars, also shown off his palatial home somewhere deep in rural Nyanza. He is the personification of the fact that talent is real wealth waiting to be exploited.
1 million subscribers
Another celebrity who is doing quite well is Jacob Obunga, who is better known as Otile Brown. He became the first Kenyan to clock 1 million subscribers on YouTube. The Dusuma hitmaker has been active on the platform since 2016. Last year, his songs, Dusuma and Chaguo la Moyo, became the most-watched YouTube music videos in Kenya. These views, of course, translate into cash.
When he is not leading street demonstrations flanked by muscular guards, and getting arrested and locked up in police cells, Eric Omondi, a former Churchill Show comedian, has also been showcasing his financial prowess.
In response to a colleague who doubted his real worth, Omondi joined celebrities who have been flaunting millions of shillings on social media to silence their critics. In a video shared on May 18, he displayed six tall cases he said contained millions of shillings in neat Sh1,000 notes. The first, he alleged, had Sh13 million.
He bragged: “I have worked for 16 years and I am wealthier than many other entertainers in Kenya. I made my first Sh3 million in 2008. This is money. This is what money is. I live with money. I sleep with money.”
Mike Sonko
Not so young, but also notorious for displaying his money and golden opulence in his office and residence is former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko. He did it again on May 15. Then, he showed off stacks of cash in six gold-plated aluminium cases in an online rant, which he said carried a mouth-watering Sh30 million. Sonko was responding to someone, who had claimed that the politician, who was impeached as the Nairobi governor, is broke.
He said in a video: “I have money to spend on my wives.” Sonko, who is known to be married to Primrose Mbuvi, did not reveal who the other wives are.
As they show off their money, which is not a sin, though rather gawdy, perhaps the celebrities should learn to use it well to create even more to spend and put away some of it for their future use.
Jaywanyama22@gmail.com
