Tuku family speaks on ‘thieving’ Kenyan singer

By Trust Khosa

Tuku Music stable has initiated legal action against Kenyan pastor Antony Musembi who did a rendition of Oliver Mtukudzi’s cover Todii without their consent.

Pastor Musembi has been roundly condemned by music lovers across the continent for his stance after he jumped the protocol.

Daisy, widow to the departed music icon and national hero Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi, confirmed the development saying her legal team was handling the issue.

“We are on it, our legal team is handling the issue against the Kenyan musician who did not follow the right channel.

“For finer details, you can talk to Walter (Wanyanya) who has more details,” she said referring H-Metro to the Tuku Music spokesperson and last manager for the late icon.

Contacted for comment, Wanyanya said he could not say much since has issued a statement.

“You can follow the statement we issued on Tuku Music and there you can get more details,” he said.

In the statement, Tuku Music stable condemned the Kenyaan musician for ‘theft’ and copyright infringement.

Below reads the statement from Tuku Music:

TUKU Music stable RE: Todii cover by Pastor Antony Musembi featuring Esther Musembi

On Saturday the 18th of April 2020 Pastor Antony Musembi through his Youtube channel and his Official Facebook Page released a song and music video titled “Todii Cover”.

The original song was indeed composed and written by Dr Oliver Mtukudzi in support and with a message of awarenesses and stigma around HIV and Aids.

Dr Mtukudzi was at the forefront in raising awareness about various health issue affecting women and children and also very active in efforts to reduce the number of deaths

and new infections on HIV and AIDS . We believe that he would have been doing his duty today helping those affected by the COVIDC -19 pandemic that we all face today because of the Corona virus.

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We were notified about the cover version of the song “Todii” on the 19th of April 2020 and after watching it we immediately reached out to Pastor Athony Musembi via his Facebook.

We did not get a response from him and after contacting our colleagues we managed to get his phone number and management made contact with him and we are waiting for his official statement

Via email.

We have listened to his version of the song and we understand that it will help raise awareness in Kenya where Pastor Athony Musembi is from and possibly to other parts of Africa.

Dr Mtukudzi considered himself an African musician who just happened to have been born in Zimbabwe and Kenya was and will always be home to Tuku Music.

Music and the arts as a whole are a great tool to quickly and effectively get critically needed information to those that need it especially during the pandemic that we face today.

We encourage all artists and creatives to play their part in using their influence to urge those within their reach to practice all the measures in place for us to flatten the curve and save lives by doing so.

Pastor Athony Musembi however did not seek rights and permission to use the song for the Covid-19“ awareness cover version for the song “Todii” and he has shown willingness to rectify the mistake and will work with our publishers and legal team to make sure the necessary paperwork is in order.

We believe his version of the song will compliment efforts to flatten the curve in the fight against Covid-19 in Kenya and in Africa.

We encourage artists to follow the correct protocols when they need to use copyright protected material to avoid unnecessary issues that can arise from violations of these protocols.

We stand together as Africans in this fight against the Covid-19 virus and we encourage you all to please follow the guidelines from the relevant medical authorities and we will all win this war.

STAY HOME, STAY SAFE – LETS ALL PLAY ACTIVELY PLAY OUR PART IN THIS FIGHT. Thank You. H-Metro