Veteran Kenyan singer-cum producer Reuben Kigame has opened up on the pain of losing his first wife.
Speaking to Jeff Koinange, Kigame, who has produced over 20 albums revealed that he never questioned God on why he went blind but on why his wife died.
“I ask Him why He took away my wife in a road accident in 20016. I had learned to live without sight, but I had never learned to live without my best friend. I can handle blindness but I can’t handle that one (her death),” said the motivational speaker and mentor.
''I am now remarried and enjoying my life with Julie, my new wife and mother of our three daughters with Mercy and a son I’ve had with her. I love my children. They never see a ‘blind father.’ They see ‘their daddy!’ That makes me walk tall,'' he said during a previous interview.
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Kigame was dealt yet another blow after a radio station he was running was shut down.
“I used to run a radio station but because of a couple of things I cannot discuss I had to shut down. And I asked Him ‘Lord, I thought we were changing lives you and I?’ One door closes and another one opens.”
Loss of sight
Born in 1966 to a tough mother, Kigame suddenly lost his sight aged three. One day, while sitting at dinner table, he reached out for a plate and couldn’t see a thing.
According to Kigame, the loss of sight did not hinder him from reaching for his dreams, courtesy of his mother’s upbringing.
“My mother was tough lady in discipline and tough-hearted too. Our father was a run-away, absentee father. She raised seven kids by herself.
“Even when there was nothing to live for, she had to make sure that we go on. She taught me that even when you don’t have, you must look like you do haves,” said the author of two books.
Presidential ambitions
“If God gave me one wish it would to be the president because I see a lot of what they (politicians) don’t see, and I see it differently.
“If given the chance to be president t I would only do three things:
“One, I would ensure that everybody understands the people come first. If I’m going to sleep at State House and there’s a family of six living in a one-roomed house in Kibera, I shouldn’t be president if I can’t do anything about it.
“I wouldn’t invest in anything else till I ensure that family lives a dignified life. And I don’t care if I have to be a dictator to achieve that, people first.
“Number two, do they have food? I would probably collapse to hear of someone dying in Turkana because of lack of food under my watch. I would be ashamed.
“The last thing I would deal with, is heath. If we can assure people that they are dignified, they can achieve everything.
“The difference between my aspirations from the president’s Big Four agenda is that I don’t want to hear of plans if someone is going hungry. I wouldn’t build another stretch of the SGR, but instead invest that money in the fundamentals of life,” said Kigame.
Scholarship and mentoring
Besides music, Kigame has poured his life into research, mentorship and scholarship, “My faith keeps me going, and I don’t guess about it. Whosoever beliefs, God receives.”
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