Here’s a memo to all those Akothee bashers out there

There are confident women, and then there is Akothee. Akothee, the self-proclaimed ‘queen of Kanungo’ and the ‘president of single mothers’ is Kenya’s most controversial female musician.

To describe Akothee in a paragraph or even in 700 words would take a literary feat — one of Shakespearean magnitude — because only a 300-page book can do justice to her verve and buoyancy. But to write it, one has to retire to a cabin in remote Timau to pour out their soul on paper just to adequately describe this incredible woman, who is so full of life and confidence.

WITTY RETORTS

She is a hurricane of a woman, bubbling with intense energy and vim, and a proud single mother of five, whom she bore with different men — mostly rich, older, white men, going by her admission on social media. Her social media accounts are as colourful as her life. They are often punctuated by glossy pictures of her Cindy-Crawford-ish legs, clad in bright-coloured bikinis. You will also find pictures of her at the back of mean-machines, or even flying business class and drinking champagne. Akothee’s Instagram account is a comedy show, filled with inspirational texts for fans and witty retorts to her legion of haters. My all-time favourite Akothee one-liner was when a fan asked: “How do you get these rich men you have?”

To which she responded: “Just the same way you meet the poor ones. There is no formula!”

LEGION OF FANS

Her energy was recently displayed in its full splendour at the One Africa Music Festival in London. But Kenyans, in their usual element, conveniently ignored the fact that Akothee was the only Kenyan musician among top rated African musicians such as WizKid, Diamond Platnumz and Awilo Longomba, and instead chose to focus on her costume.

What followed was a series of nasty social media posts attempting to bully her out of her confidence. An idle and malicious Kenyan juxtaposed Akothee’s picture in her costume against Nigeria’s Yemi Alade (also a breath-taking beauty), and captioned it “Nigerians please give us Yemi Alade and we’ll give you Akothee...” The tweet went viral.

It was clearly meant to shame and embarrass a hard-working woman. Only fve years ago, nobody knew Akothee’s name yet now she is on the international stage commanding a legion of fans. I wonder what the person who tweeted this has achieved in the past five years — save for writing that tweet, of course.

#CALLPOLIS

However, what was meant to shame Akothee completely backfired when she came out guns blazing, sparing no hater on her path. In a lengthy and utterly hilarious social media tweet, Akothee called out her haters and left them with a one liner #CallPolis. Yes, Akothee told her haters to call the police should they feel offended by her attire, her music and her lifestyle.

True, Akothee may not be the conventional “beautiful” light-skinned woman with a sizeable derriere and a shiny, bouncy weave. She may also not be the best singer we have around (the jury is still out on whether she can sing or not). You may not agree with her lifestyle and her choices. However, whatever issue you may have with Akothee, you ought to respect one thing about her; her diligence, tenacity and staying power are admirable traits.

BUSINESS MAGNATES

Many hate Akothee not because they don’t enjoy her music, but because she is different. She has risen above circumstances and she has chosen, nay, decided to succeed in life no matter what.

Many hate her confidence, that she could be so confident in her own way, that she can wear whatever she likes and dance as if nobody is watching — and still drive home in the back seat of a fuel-guzzler. Some just hate her guts. I mean, how dare she be so gutsy, confident and bold.

If you ask me — considering her hard work and effort — Akothee is a far much better role model to young people than the many politicians and “business magnates” we worship. And, if Akothee still offends you, my friend, I have two words for you. As she says, Call polis!