Wahito: Kanda Bongo Man and the story of his Kenyan beauty

Many years before Pepe Kalle went waxing lyrical about going back to Zimbabwe just for his Christina, Kanda Bongo Man had not only done the same for his Kenyan lover but had planned to marry her.
The Kwasa Kwasa maestro from Inongo in DR Congo was on a tour of Kenya in April 1991 when a striking beauty caught his attention.

She was irresistible and Kanda Bongo Man bowed his hat like in the song, Bili, and scored a relationship. But this, and other political events, was the start of his troubles with authorities in Kenya.
During the 1991 tour, president Daniel arap Moi had a rally in central Kenya and the crowd was only “one metre”. A week later, Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi was filled to capacity as Kanda Bongo Man performed. Moi wondered aloud who Kanda Bongo Man was that he could draw such a large crowd, including his own ministers.
And, as fate would have it, Moi’s all-powerful Internal Security permanent secretary Hezekiah Ogengo Oyugi asked that Kanda Bongo Man performs at his private home on his daughter’s birthday. In Uganda, foreign musicians are often ‘diverted’ by tycoons for private engagements.
But the King of Kwasa Kwasa told Oyugi that he had committed to perform elsewhere. Oyugi’s word was law during the Moi regime and he was incensed that Kanda Bongo Man could refuse his request.
In his book Absolute Power, Jonah Anguka, the former Nakuru district commissioner, says the Kwasa Kwasa musician had his performance permit withdrawn and his visa cancelled. What followed next were heavily armed guards deployed at the hotel where Kanda Bongo Man was staying. They had instructions to not allow the musician out of their sight until before midnight when they would escort him to the airport for his deportation. Fans who turned up at the hotel were blocked from accessing the musician or his entourage.
A year later, Kanda Bongo Man released a six-track album, Sana, with songs; Muchana (Zouk Love), Bili, Tokei and Nzambe. But it was the last song that sent tongues wagging. It was titled Wahito, a 4:48-minute runtime song structured around the slow placating solo guitar of Nene Tchakou with Kanda Bongo Man’s mournful voice almost swallowed in the background.
Bolingo Wahito, Wahito love me (My love, Wahito. Wahito love me). Yekozala somi, mpo na ye? (She looks calm, but why?) Moninga na ngai, ehh. Ngo Wahito? (My friend, eeh. Why Wahito?). A typical Kanda Bongo Man zouk song had such limited lyrics but relied more on Tchakou’s guitar and enticing bridges. Wahito, the song leaves many wondering if Wahito the woman had broken Kanda Bongo Man’s heart at the time of its recording.
Kanda Bongo Man was yet to respond to our queries about the same.
However, for years that followed, Kanda Bongo Man was not allowed to step inside Kenya as rumours flew around that he had been caught in the arms of president Moi’s mistress. Others said it was a powerful politician’s mistress. The majority, though, maintained that the woman at the centre of his deportation was Catherine Kasavuli.
Kasavuli is a celebrated news anchor, the first to do a live news bulletin with KTN. At the time of the rumours, she maintained that she had never met Kanda Bongo Man.
In 2002, Moi retired and with him the powerful politicians. Kanda Bongo Man was only too eager to return to Kenya that he jumped at the very first opportunity. At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) where a minister had taken Kasavuli along to meet Kanda Bongo Man, the Kwasa Kwasa musician denied knowing her and apologised for the inconveniences his name had caused her.
Kasavuli had met the man she had for years been linked with yet the man didn’t appear settled. There was something weighing his heart.
In an interview with a local radio station during his 2003 tour, Kanda Bongo Man was teased with the question of Kisavuli and he finally let the cat out of the bag, saying in a rejoinder that the only woman he had feelings for in Kenya was Wahito and that they had planned to marry before issues cropped up.
He also confessed that since his 1991 deportation, he had on three occasions tried to sneak into Kenya, only to be stopped at JKIA each time and deported. Sneaking to meet his Wahito.
Turned out that Kanda Bongo Man had returned to Kenya three years too late—his sweetheart was taken. Rose Wambui Wahito had married Mombasa businessman and politician Suleiman Shahbal in 1999.
At long last rumba fans who always wondered what the Wahito song was about could finally piece together the story. It also began to make sense to fans why Shimita Lukombo el Diego of Soukous Stars had composed a song titled Rosy in which he praised ‘Rosy Wahito’.
Wahito herself has never been settled in marriage and in December 2015 filed for divorce.
In the documents filed at the Kadhi’s court in Nairobi, Wahito said the marriage was solemnised on June 18, 1999—after cohabiting for three years.
Kanda Bongo Man lives in Manchester, UK.