Sauti Sol. [Photo/hbr.co.ke]
There is no doubt that President Uhuru Kenyatta has been a stalwart of the Sauti Sol band, not sure if he still is. He has hosted members of the band in State House before. Social media is awash with photos of the President with the band.In 2014, Sauti Sol had a photo opportunity with the commander in chief and Ban Ki-Moon, the then United Nations secretary-general.In 2015, when Obama visited Kenya as president of the United States, President Uhuru invited them to serenade a dinner that he had hosted in honor of President Obama.That was at the height of Uhuru's admiration for Sauti Sol.It appears that that admiration has ebbed if the president's inauguration for his second term revealed anything about his relationship with the band currently.Sauti Sol were not invited to the grand ceremony.
And the president apparently has reasons why he did so.
In the build-up to the October 26 rerun, one of the band members posted on Twitter a tweet critical of Jubilee in which he disparaged the ''Tano Tena'' slogan as an empty one.The tweet did not sit well with the presidential communication team which had to post a counter-tweet.
Dennis Itumbi, in a rejoinder, tweeted that the slogan was not empty and that the Jubilee record could be defended.
Could this be the reason why this time around Kenya's biggest band was not welcome to perform in Uhuru's big day?
It could very well be.