Ohangla musician Atomy Sifa has opened up about how he found himself in the difficult situation of having to beg for financial help on the Internet.
Before his fall from grace to grass, Sifa was among Luo musicians who were reaping a lot from the music loved by the communities surrounding Lake Victoria.
In an exclusive interview by phone with a Radio Jambo reporter, Atomy Sifa admitted that in his life he never thought that he would go public on the internet and cry for people to help him financially.
But he has been forced to do so after his career hit rock bottom, a situation that he blames on a theft incident that occurred in his big business in which he had invested almost all of his capital.
Atomy Sifa said that he would not be asking for financial assistance if thieves had not broken into one of his leisure clubs in Homa Bay County last year.
The artiste claims that he had invested Ksh17 million in the bar business, but unfortunately, thieves broke into the bar and stole the goods, including art instruments, which made him bankrupt and brought him back to zero.
“I had a bar at Rockcity Jungle Resort, and now the thieves came and stole all the televisions, stole the capital as well as all my musical instruments. They brought me back down so much that now I can’t get up. Since then my bar closed its doors because they carried all the capital of 800k and everything. I built the club with Ksh17 million,” Atomy Sifa claimed.
“All my money ran out because I invested all my capital there and I bought some instruments. It’s like spending money to build something and then it’s stuck. I had not taken any insurance because I had just opened it. At that time, I was in the process of getting insurance and a license, and everything was carried away,” he added.
Atomy Sifa is a very popular name in the Luo music scene having hit the headlines back in 2017 when he composed and performed a song praising retired President Uhuru Kenyatta. He, later on, disclosed that he was paid Ksh6 million to write the song dubbed ‘Uhuru Nyale’ (Uhuru is capable) which was critical of Raila Odinga.
This is the same song that almost cost him his life after he was almost lynched in his village by villagers who were irked that he composed a song praising Uhuru Kenyatta as opposed to composing a song for ODM Party leader Raila Odinga.
The song ‘Uhuru Nyale’ forced the Luo singer to move to Tanzania after he received numerous death threats from Raila Odinga supporters.
Related: Luo singer Atomy Sifa: Magufuli helped me when I fled Kenya after insulting Raila
