CELEB BUZZ: Bahati's popularity takes a hit

Poor Bahati! Poor Diana Marua too! Kenya’s favourite couple is currently Kenya’s 'most hated' couple. So much has gone wrong in just a few days.

In the not-very-distant past, Bahati aka Mtoto Wa Mama was the automaton of radiance and uprightness. He was on top of his game, riding high with his reality show and Instagram posts that were as adorable as a seven-day-old Chihuahua. In the blink of an eye, he has had a warp-speed fall to the bottom of popularity ratings. He is now public enemy number one.

HATE MESSAGES

Over the last week, the singer and his wife have been the recipients of the most intense social media hate ever directed to Kenyan celebrities. Even Willy Paul must have been reading the comments on the couple’s posts and thinking, 'Wow! People hate me but they don’t hate me like that. This is something else.'

Diana has been age-shamed and called an evil woman while Bahati has been called just about every possible censorship-worthy word. You might think that Bahati’s fans are mainly born-again Christians but that appears not to be the case because the comments have been nothing but full-blown insults. Logically, no saved person would insult their idol like that.

DK Kwenye Beat must be glad that the focus has shifted away from him. He is no longer the most hunted prey in this ecosystem of fan vitriol.  

So what’s the genesis of the furore? I mean, where do we even start with this ‘holy’ drama? I guess it’s best to start at the very beginning and keep it going.

You must have heard the story in distorted bits so let me summarise it for you.

Bahati had a concert in Thika on the 31st of December where many other gospel artistes were performing as well. There was apparently some sort of disagreement.

Mr. Seed left the concert, cut ties with Bahati and left EMB records. Initially, he was even wise enough not to mention the real reason for his departure to the public. He just said he was seeking new opportunities. Call that a holy lie but a mature lie.

Sadly, one Ringtone inserted himself into this family feud. He felt it was his duty to let the public know the truth. Apparently, one of EMB’s insiders had divulged the details to him and asked him not to tell anyone. He told everyone.

Isn’t it sad how Ringtone has transformed from a talented artiste who gave us marvellous jams such as “Tenda Wema” to a gossip monger who is so keen on other people’s affairs? What’s worse is that he even loves tagging all the popular blogs on his posts, just to make sure they don’t miss it.

So Ringtone disclosed what he was told happened at the concert, including claims that Mr Seed's wife had been disrespected at the concert; and when Mr. Seed was asked by Willy M Tuva whether the story was true, he admitted it.

RUN OUT OF BAHATI?

That’s what made Bahati an instant pariah. He could still be having a clean image in the eyes of the public if the story had remained in quarantine as Mr. Seed wished. However, fate had other ideas.

Ironically, Bahati’s name means luck when translated to the queen’s language but luck seems to have abandoned him this time.

Bahati will need a serious strategy to recover from this. The sad thing is that he doesn’t have many tools at his disposal to cover up the dirt. Whenever Willy Paul gets hit by a major scandal, he tends to make people forget it by releasing a good song. Bahati on the hand doesn’t release good songs that often. Apart from his social media influence and reality show, he really doesn’t have anything else to offer.

The best thing for him to do in my opinion would be to talk to Mr. Seed and have a public reconciliation. A public apology would act as the antidote to the poison being spewed by the public. If the offended parties no longer have a problem, the public will forgive too.

If they don’t patch up things, this might be the incident that dims Bahati’s shine for good.

Jay Z once said that no one wins when the family feuds but in this case, there will be an exception. Mr. Seed will win and Bahati will lose. In fact, Seed might just inherit all of his fans. How well he can do musically beyond EMB’s horizons is hard to tell but on the fame-meter, he will do better than he ever has.

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