Gospel singer was mistaken as male Westgate terrorist

 

     Gospel artiste and pastor, Rozzie Wachanga who was one of the Witnesses during the West Gate terror attack,   adress the Nairobian Journalists in Dandora. This was on 30/09/14. PHOTO BY PIUS CHERUIYOT

 

Gospel singer Rose Wakonyo Mukere was busy preaching to villagers in Kirinyanga when she received a call informing her of the Westgate mall attack.

She had never been to the mall and hence, had no idea where it was. The caller was a female faithful at her local Hosanna Church of Kayole, where Mukere is also a pastor.

Wakonyo never gave much thought to the disturbing news, instead, immersing herself in crusade work that had taken her to the slopes of Mt Kenya in Kianyaga village.

“I did not know where Westgates was. She (caller) told me it was in Westlands,” recalls Wakonyo, whose stage name is Rozzie Wachanga.

What she did not know was that a few days later, she would be linked to the bloodbath, which claimed 67 lives, leaving hundreds of others maimed.

That was on September 21, 2013, when heavily-armed terrorists stormed the mall.

On September 23, anti-terrorism police officers visited Wakonyo’s family at their home in Mukurwe-ini, looking for the singer who has produced six albums since venturing into music at the tender age of 14.

Wakonyo’s older brother, Pastor Silas Mukere, shocked her with news that police were looking for her over the Westgate attack.

The officers, after obtaining the singer’s number, called her requesting for a meeting the following day at the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit HQs in Nairobi.

An initially numb Wakonyo left her house in Mowlem, where she is raising her son and girl aged 14 and 13 respectively, and met five anxious church elders.

She was interrogated after being shown a copy of her waiting ID card. Apparently, it had been used by one of the Westgate terrorists identified as Abdi Noor to register two of his mobile numbers.

“They claimed that the owner of the mobile number registered in my name was a terrorist who had died in the mall,” says a bewildered Njeri, wondering how the police failed to recognise she was female, while the alleged terrorist was a man.

After about two hours of questioning, Wakonyo was released and told go home pending further communication.

“They told me to go home and eat (sic) Christmas until a later date, when they would get in touch with me,” says the 30-year-old at her small iron-sheet shop in Mowlem.

On August 5, Wakonyo was taken to a Nairobi court alongside four men—Hussein Mustafa, Adan Dheg, Kiban Abdalla and Mohammed Abdi, who were accused of murder and assisting the terrorists.

Wakonyo appeared as a witness and denied any link to the attack and later an officer assured her that “...my presence would not be necessary anymore,” the singer recalls.

But when her photo was splashed in one of the local dailies, a day after she had appeared in court, she was inundated with calls and messages from friends, relatives and fans, who could not believe she was part of the attack.

Church members and residents flocked her house in disbelief. This after all, was their beloved pastor, neighbour and role model. How the terrorists got hold of her ID card puzzles her to date, since she lost it in mid 2013 and had applied for a new one.

“They should investigate how and why my ID was used, yet I am a woman and the terrorist is a man. The police did not find my number in the suspect’s phone contacts,” says Wakonyo.

She sacrificed her education to help her father, Bishop Michael Mukere, to take care of her four siblings after the death of their mother.

She sings in Kiswahili and Kikuyu with her favourite song among fans being Ndakarakare Ndarakiuwo, loosely translated to ‘don’t be annoyed when I am being blessed.’