Losing my wife was the darkest moment in my life - Gospel singer Reuben Kigame

By Jacob Ng'etich | 8yrs ago | 5 min read

For most people, being blind could spell the end of the world. But for Reuben Kigame, this is not the case. He revealed to JACOB NG’ETICH how his fate has made him become a better listener and more patient. The versatile singer, media owner, husband and father says his ambitions are to own the greatest TV station in Africa

How did you begin singing? I used to sing after family dinner, just before retiring to bed. I was about five years. My brother Philemon had different musical instruments and he allowed me to play with them. Little did I know I was preparing myself for a music future. In primary school, together with some of my friends, we formed a band and used to hold small gigs in school.

In high school, before I became a Christian, I played and wrote some songs for a secular group, Super Igniters. When I became a Christian, I established a small music team called the Ambassadors. We went to different parts of the country for missions. While at Kenyatta University, I joined the Youth For Christ music team and played guitar for them. We travelled around the country to numerous schools and colleges and to youth camps playing music and preaching.

When did your first recording hit the market? I recorded my first album in 1987 at Transworld Radio sponsored by a friend called Imbumi Makuku. I have since recorded 21 albums. I established the Sifa voices music team in 1996 to take on a totally new musical arrangement that aimed at writing songs for use in worship by the African church.

Why did you experiment with so many genres of music?

I just wanted to rock the boat musically and I did that many times. In the 1980s and 1990s when gospel music was mainly written in traditional choir style, I tried different genres for gospel music including reggae, balads, classical, country and Western, as well as Afro-fusion.

My fellow university Christian students as well as fellow gospel musicians criticised me because they thought I had backsliden. I also ventured into singing in English at a time when my producers advised that my music could not sell.

At one time, one musician told me I was putting too many chords into music, disturbing the comfort of the then musicians who wanted only three chords. They were to later admit that I had contributed to a positive growth of the industry.

When I released my collabo album with Modest Morgan from Tanzania, titled Njoo Sasa, because of its authentic rhumba feel, some people thought it was secular music and that I had lost the anointing. It was wonderful to start hearing serious musicians discuss it and people come to Christ through listening to it.

How about coping with blindness? I think it was the character Gloucester in Shakespeare’s King Lear who said that a man may see this world without eyes. There are advantages to being blind.

First, it is very hard to tempt me with visual pornography. I can always give my motivational speeches and lectures, sermons and other orations without minding about who is frowning at me. God has compensated me so much for my blindness. I listen to people better and tend to be a little more patient having gotten used to my condition. I consider it a privilege that I still have my other faculties.

You see, for every five things we blame God for not giving us, He has given us five thousand other wonderful things we don’t pay attention to. We should learn to count our blessings and name them one by one and it will surprise us what God has done.

How did you cope with the death of your wife? Losing Mercy on that tragic September 5, 2006 will remain the darkest moment in my entire life. You see, she was the girl of my youth. She was my confidant. She believed in me to the point that she once told a close friend of hers called Angela Omobe that she did not know what she would do in this world if I wasn’t in her life. She refused to go for her master’s degree although she was brilliant.

Her argument was that she was content with her undergraduate degree because, as she put it, she had all the education she needed to do the one thing she wanted to do in life, that is to serve me, the man she loved. It was hard taking care of the children after her death, but I did my best.

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.

Why did you set up a radio station, Fish FM? This has been the most daring venture of my life, but also the most discouraging. If I was to sum up my experience in media, I would use the word, ‘discouraging.’ To my knowledge, I am the only blind media owner in the world. It is a very competitive industry and both the government and private sector have completely ignored me. Nobody sees my vision. I expected that the corporate sector, advertising agencies and the church, where I belong, would support me to reach my goals. I have been stigmatised and even mistreated in the industry.

What plans do you have for the future? I want to see my kids through college, marry off my daughters to good husbands, make sure I mentor my son to be a great musician, orator and Christian minister to take over from me. I have started the Kigame Music Academy in Eldoret and hope to expand my music classes to the rest of the country.

I pray to the Lord to enable me expand the radio station and start the greatest TV channel in Africa. I also hope to finish the two masters programmes I am currently working on and proceed to do my PhD in Media and Performance. I want to be the best man in my wife’s life and the best father.

Do you plan to vie for the governor’s seat again?

Just in case anyone thinks I will run for governor again in Vihiga, the answer is no. I want to preach the gospel and mentor those younger than me in faith, media, music and performance. If you don’t know, I honourably lost in the last elections and left Vihiga to those whom the residents prefer as leaders.

You cannot impose yourself on people. I did my best, coming fourth out of seven, although nobody seems to notice what it took to run with dignity to the end and still get that position despite the stigma.