Read on Twitter
Today is May 17 and the name Stella is once again in the lips of Kenyans.About 30 years ago,a young man fell in love with a young girl who was then a student at Kenyatta University.The young man was named Mwamburi and his love was a bright ambitious girl named Stella..
Thread
Thread
He came from Taita,She came from Kagundo.The relationship took of well with the two enjoying the little trappings of the youth and every now and then riding around town in Mwamburi's aging car.But,just as he was considering setting down for an enchanting life with the girl..
Of his dreams,Mwamburi got the shock of his life when in the early years of the 1990s,Stellah ditched him for another man.Heartbroken,he went to the studios and together with his Everest Kings bandmate Abdul Muyonga,recorded the hit song 'Stellah',released in 1995 as an..
album cover.EVERGREEN that song went on to become an evergreen number,taken to top by Mwamburi's emotional refrain to Stellah to "come back" to him,and sustained at the top of the charts by the cosy place love stories occupy in creative arts and pop culture.A lot of kenyas who..
will today be humming this song do not know what ,other than evergreenness-or what some may call the staying power-the song means to Mwamburi.The story had actually started a few years before 1995,when a sprightly,creative and energetic Mwamburi settled in Nairobi from Mombasa..
to nurture his musical dream. At age of 15,he had cobbled up his own musical group,Mombasa International Band before,in 1998,joining Simba Wanyika Band,the popular musical group headed by the Tanzanian Kinyonga brothers, Wilson and George.Two years later,he left Simba Wanyika..
where he stayed until 1986,when he formed Mavalo Kings.SCHOLARSHIP In 1988,he joined hands with Muyonga and changed the band name to Everest Kings.Stellah,on the other hand,had moved to Nairobi to study at Kenyatta University.Fate drew them together,the bond strengthened by..
their youthful struggles,the strong Chemistry between them and the pregnant promise of tomorrow.And then,one day,Stellah informed Mwamburi that she had recieved a scholarship to study in Japan.(This is where,I guess,I should inform you that i am piecing this bits together from..
an interview Mwamburi granted me in Nairobi a few years ago.He was not available for comments on tuesday,even though his college Abdul Muyonga informed us he is well).Stellah came from a poor family and could neither raise the fair to Japan nor the money for upkeep.
Mwamburi seeing a chance to prove his love,and riding on the naive promises made in the midst of the madness of the youthful romance,decided to step in and prove his worth."I sold my car and few personal belongings and gave the money to her to travel abroad,"he said during the..
interview in Nairobi.Stella travelled to Japan,from where he kept Mwamburi well apprised of her progress via mail.But the regularity of communication soon became an agonising trickle.ENTOURAGE Stellah would,much later confess to Mwamburi that she had started dating her college..
principal,"a stout,short man",as Mwamburi describes him in the song.On May 17,1992, the day she was scheduled to return to the country,Mwamburi took a colourful entourage to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to recieve her.His heart,however,sunk to his knees when Stella,now..
married,approached him carrying a child from her relationship with the college head,who was in tow.After the initial shock,Mwamburi tried rationalize the turn of events,but to do that he needed the input and reasoning of Stella.She explained to him her vulnerability in Japan..
and how it had somehow led her to the man when would be her husband.FRIENDS "we remained friends,"he said. "We kept in touch after the JKIA incident,and once or twice she attended my gigs in Nairobi."on Tuesday,that eternal friendship,and Mwamburi's decision to share with the..
world his heartbreak,inspired a viral message on social media. "Kwa wale tunaopenda Rhumba," it read, "Kesho ndio siku ile Stellah alirudi.(For those who love Rhumba,tomorrow is the commemoration of the date she came back).That friendship ,too, is the reason Mwamburi's and..
Muyonga's hit song,arranged in a captivating reggae voice is hummed and shared on social media today.28 years after the pain at JKIA. Twende tumlaki Stellah! (Let's go receive Stellah!)
Should women really exist?
