Hustlers Family The Kenyan Bongo Crew With a Flick In Tanzania Movies

Hustlers Family Crew L to R, Wycliffe Mwita (DXL), Chacha Mwita (Chacha Kongo), John Chacha (Mnati),Joseph Mosiabi (Junior Michapo).

Hustlers Family a crew of two brothers and their cousins from Kuria area in Migori County have rocked the music scene with bongo songs.

The brothers John Chacha (Mnati) and Joseph Mosiabi (Junior Michapo) started the crew started the crew in April 2005 but due to education they have been struggling to pick up and incorporated their two cousin Chacha Mwita (Chacha Kongo) and Wycliffe Mwita (DXL).

All of the crew members made a break through after acting in a bongo movie Mtambo Wa Pesa Bandia part 1 & 2 produced by Tivoli Studios in Mwanza, Tanzania after the producer was interested after they released their latest video album Yatima.

In the movie Chacha Kongo acted as a spy selling espionage from a company, Mnati acted as Superintendent of Police, equivalent to OCS in Kenya while DXL and Junior Michapo acted as thugs.

“We were approached by the producer after producing our latest video album and were performing in Musoma and Mwanza in Tanzania to act in the movie and after it had a mild review we acted in part 2 last year,” Mnati says.

Mnati who is the oldest of the crew members said he started singing in 2005 and has released three songs so far Alice when his lover he had educated to college left him, I Wanna Love You and Yatima which talks about orphan children in the society.

The rest started singing between 2001-2010 when they were still in school and only took music and the crew serious in 2010 when Chacha Kongo was the last o finished high school.

“After 2010 we took music seriously and have managed to have shows in Migori, Kisii, Trans Mara, Kilgoris, Isebania and in Tanzania,” DXL said.

In the video album Chacha Kongo has a song Maria and Mama, DXL has Anis Nipe Majibu while Junior Michapo has Vera.

The album has been produced by ‘Sifa Films’ production based in Nairobi

The crew say that music has been a major source of income to the family and has brought fame to the family which has been a major boost in their business as they run a popular pub called Mnati in Kehancha town.

“We have managed to get good audience in town we perform where we get about 30,000-50,000 for performance which helped in producing our songs,” Mnati says.

He added that as the only singing group from Kuria and their Bongo genre of music they’ll break into the national scene and plan to land more movie roles in Tanzania.

Manuel Odeny © 2013

I only have one wife- Machage

Kuria Member of Parliament and Roads Assistant Minister Dr Wilfred Machage has said he has only one wife and hasn’t divorced her as claimed in a section of the media.

Machage who was speaking when he hosted Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka in his back yard during his two day campaign which ended on Friday termed the allegations as false and planted by his political adversaries.

“I have only one wife and I have not divorced her for anybody and the unfounded claims are set to tarnish my name by detractors,” Machage said during a rally at Kegonga area in Kuria.

During the visit by the VP, Machage’s wife was at their rural home to welcome the visitors.

Machage’s statement comes after it was written online that he had divorced his wife and is planning to marry former Royal Media Services reporter Angela Boke who now works for a local NGO in Migori County.

Machage added that Kenyans should not pay attention to the claims which are un-founded and lack credibility as he only has one wife saying his political detratcors might have instigated the rumours.

Locals say the claim has been politically instigated as Boke is the sister of Dennitah Ghati a Women Representative aspirant in Migori County on an ODM ticket and is set to tarnish her image and Machage’s reputation among electorates.

Kuria man jailed for 7 years for stealing five cows

By Burning Splint Writer

A Trans Mara man has been jailed for seven years after a court found him guilty of stealing five cows worthSh150,000.

The accused, Stephen Chacha is said to have stolen the cows belonging to Samuel Murget at Ngoperai area of Trans Mara on August 18 last year.

Appearing before the Kilgoris Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochieng’ the complainant told the court that on the fateful day he discovered his cows were missing while driving his heard home in the evening after grazing them.

He added that he immediately informed his neighbours who searched the animals to no avail before reporting the matter to the area chief who reported the matter in the neighbouring Kuria East district where the animals were spotted.

“We were informed by the area chief that the cows have been spotted at the accused home after which we went there and confirmed it,” Murget told the court.

But in mitigation the accused said he found the cows wondering in the grazing field without a herder and took them home for safety saying he “only took the cows to my home because they did not appear to have an owner.”

But in his ruling the magistrate found the accused guilty as charged saying since cattle rustling was rampant in the area causing conflict the sentence will “serve as a lesson to others with similar motives.

©An Anonymous Friend

Politics: Why Kuria will be a launch pad to enter ODM Luo Nyanza turf

Ndaragwa MP Jeremaih Kioni, the introduces UDF presidential aspirant Musalia Mudavadi at Mabera when the party opened it's county offices.

Since their inclusion into Migori County the Kuria community, a minority tribe according to numbers has enjoyed a lot of national political activity with the run up of the coming elections.

The palpable fear within the community of being locked out by majority luo tribe within the county has seen some leaders, including the current MP and Assistant Roads Minister Wilfred Machage, to unanimously vote for NO during the past referendum and some to request Kuria to be joined in Rift Valley.

This fear coupled with the versatility of the tribe in voting for their leaders in line with their respective clans of; Bakira, Abagumbe, Nyabasi and Burege have seen chosing candidates from their clans irrespective of the party.

“The Kuria area in both East and West districts have 33 councilors with ODM being strong in the county having 11 with the rest divided between the score of PNU affiliate parties, Kanu and even Kenya Social Congress, a party associated with Mukaru Ng’ang’a having a civic seat” Tobias Range the Kehancha mayor explains.

Range says this dynamic politics makes it hard to predict the voting outcome of the Kuria area which within Nyanza bloc in the 2007 general elections gave President Mwai Kibaki 23,000 votes against PM Raila Odinga’s 19,000 votes.

Now with this versatility national parties with a keen interest to try to log out ODM’s grip from South Nyanza are using Kuria and Kisii area as a launching pad to infiltrate within Luo Nyanza which are hard to convince to get another party.

“The areas of Homa Bay and Migori counties are seen as hardcore ODM zones which has made politicians seeking to open their county offices in Migori to meet the IEBC guidelines to do so in Kuria which together with Kisii area may be instrumental in campaigning in Southern Nyanza” Patrice Musabi the Siabai councilor in Kuria East says.

To show the potential of the area, within the past two months the area have been a flurry of activities with New Ford Kenya presidential aspirants Eugene Wamalwa and United Democratic Front’s Musalia Mudavadi; and Kanu chairman Gideon Moi having a extensive road campaign in Kuria while giving a wide berth Luo section of Migori county.

Within this period UDF opened their county offices at Mabera town where Mudavadi was made a Kuria elder and christened ‘Mwita Chacha’, New Ford Kenya opened county offices at Isebania town while Kanu which has its National Vice Chairman and Kuria East legislative aspirants Shadrack Manga, who is also a former MP, opening two offices in Kehancha and Ntimaru towns.

This follows prior opening at Kehancha of Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Movement-Kenya county offices and ODM Kuria branch offices with the activities expected to hot up with the run up to next general elections.

“With the demand by constitution to get at least 5% of votes in each counties there is a possibility of Kuria being an alternative in Migori County as a launching pad for parties hungry for votes in ODM turf to use it as a major base to campaign within the area” Thomas Mwita Maeta ward Kanu councilor and ward respective aspirant in next election explains.

Additionally internecine rivalry within the clans brought by cattle rustling and frequent war for land and posts can also be used by politicians to get their party officials to be elected irrespective of the party as long as they get the right member of the clan to stand.

But ODM sensing this loophole has resorted to ‘soft-politics’ of embracing the Kuria community within the county as neighbours brought together by the new county offices.

“We have an office in Kehancha specifically for Kuria region and also our county chairman John Meng’anyi Magaiwa is from Kuria, a post he took in the grass roots elections even when some politicians wanted to field a luo for the post” Joseph Olala the ODM county secretary says.

There have been options within local ODM party members to give an ‘acclamation ticket’ between the majority Luo and minority Kuria which fear being with elections being just a rubber stamp for their choice