Kigeugeu tag returns to haunt its author in cells

Jaguar wanted freedom, but prosecutors did not want him even “One Centimetre” away from custody.

In the end, the magistrate ruled that the musician and politician, whose real name is Charles Njagua Kanyi, should stay in police cells till Tuesday.

And the prosecutors must have smiled to know that he was “Going Nowhere”.

“Ona sasa maisha imegeuka, sasa nalindwa kama benki, (See how life has changed, I am now guarded like a bank)” he sings in his 2018 song ‘Timika’ featuring Prezzo (Jackson Makini).

DETENTION

But you can bet anything – even the latest Sh9.8 million Jaguar F-Pace car – that he was not foreshadowing the tightened security in his detention cell.

He must be posing in the enclosure wondering how the world around him has become one big Kigeugeu. There were days when he was bosom friends with President Uhuru Kenyatta, as evidenced by numerous photos of camaraderie between him and the Commander-in-Chief.

In those days he was even appointed to the Nacada board with the blessings of the President. He was a real Kipepeo then, soaring high.

But the MP in charge of the constituency that is home to State House seems to have run out of favour with the powers.

This is more so after his controversial remarks about foreigners competing with locals in small businesses, where he threatened to mobilise his Starehe constituents to beat up and eject traders from China, Tanzania and Uganda.

DRAMATIC TIFF

“We will invade those shops where they work and eject them, beat them up and take them to the airport,” roared the lawmaker.

“The Immigration department will be taking them from the airport to where they came from.” Those remarks threatened to start a diplomatic tiff with Kenya’s allies and Jaguar was in trouble.

In the wild, jaguars are swift cats with hunting capabilities so advanced they can kill alligators by delivering devastating bites to the skull.

On the other hand, a Jaguar car is famed for its speed and power. But the Jaguar who won his MP seat through the Jubilee Party with 61,266 votes was turned prey on Wednesday when he was arrested outside Parliament.

Sunday, he will be spending the fifth night as a guest of the State. By now, he must have learnt that such a stifling environment is tougher than the one he depicted in the video to his song ‘Kioo’, where he mingled with prisoners clad in their uniform.

CROSSING BORDERS

To kill time awaiting the Tuesday date, he might perhaps hum his tunes — which some critics say are wanting in terms of compositional variety.

He might hum ‘Nimetoka Mbali’, which he sang in 2009 with Tanzania’s AY (Ayodeji Richard Makun) and bragged about how he was crossing borders more than his rivals. That was two years before he released his breakthrough song Kigeugeu.

Jaguar might wonder whether today AY will consider doing another song with him, given what he said of Tanzanian traders.

Or maybe he might use the time to reflect on his rise from a boy growing up in a poor family, frequently being sent home for lack of fees in his days at Senior Chief Koinange High School.

He may chuckle at the thought that what kept teachers calling him back was his singing prowess, given that he was the soloist of the school choir.

TEMPARAMENT

He might even introspect on his temperament. He has fought in public before, with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino at Parliament Buildings.

He has been accused of killing people through dangerous driving. He might even replay in his mind the controversial speech whose message prosecutors say was inciting. Could it have been done better? “Najiangalia kwa kioo nijue tofauti ya jana na leo (I’m looking at myself in the mirror to know the difference between yesterday and today),” he sings in ‘Kioo’.

Maybe, he might use the time to look at the man in the mirror and wonder whether there are situations where he has been pouncing like a jaguar in the wild rather than vamoose like a Jaguar on the roads.