Joyce Waithera. [PHOTO/Standard]
A female musician from Kilifi county has claimed that President Uhuru Kenyatta has not yet paid her for the Tano Tena song.
She claimed that although she was the owner of the hit, nobody from Jubilee has made a follow-up to see that her services in the Uhuru Ruto Tano Tena song receive their due.
However, the song has been widely attributed to Central Kenya musician Ben Githae who is said to have received a huge reward from President Uhuru Kenyatta including a Head of State Commendation to boot.
But the Kilifi musician Joyce Waithera asserts that she wrote the song herself after Jubilee's forays into the Coast during campaigns.
“I wrote the song, complete with the Uhuruto Tano Tena refrain. I paid Sh12,000 to record it at Johari Productions in February,” she said as reported by The Nairobian.
Waithera added that she even performed the song at Jubilee rallies in Kilifi.
“I performed the song together with a group of women, with the hope that organisers would hire us as part of their campaigns.
“I arranged to have the CD with my song handed over to Jubilee Kilifi coordinator, and the party gubernatorial candidate Gideon Mung’aro who promised to listen to it and pass it to the party’s headquarters.
“We then started dealing with Mung’aro who would step in to cater for our logistics after a long day of campaigning,” she added.
On his part, Githae has denied copying the song from Waithera.
“Tano Tena was a greeting and slogan among Jubilee circles, and no one can claim to own the rights to the phrase,” he said, although admitting that his song was done much later on April 4.
Waithera is now asking for President Kenyatta's intervention to ensure that justice is done.