Popular vernacular musician Junior Kotestes passes on

A popular Kalenjin vernacular musician Junior Kotestes who last year emerged as the highest overall earner of royalties of the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) is dead.

The little known artiste whose real name is Kiptesot Sang caused a stir in the local musical circles last year, after he beat established mainstream popular musicians like DNA, Nonini, Collo, Nameless and others to be highest paid musician by MCSK. He was awarded KES 463,884 as royalties by MCSK at a colourful gala.

The artiste who hailed from Emurua Dikirr Constituency, Narok County passed away on Wednesday afternoon at Tenwek Mission Hospital in Bomet, where he was admitted for two days. Speaking to The Standard, Joel Rop a close friend of the deceased musician said Kotestes has been unwell for the last one month. “He has been sickly for some time but he kept performing for his fans.

He was at Kass Night for a performance late last month. But he got sick shortly after he got home. We took him to Kaplong Hospital for treatment,” said Rop. “His health situation deteriorated last week. We rushed him to Bomet hospital on Monday and it was realised by doctors that he had severe Pneumonia.

We sadly lost him at around mid-way yesterday,” he explained. Many of his fans took to social media to express their shock on the sudden death of the young and promising entertainer. Chitab Koret a Kalenjin singer and friend of Kotestes condoled with the family and friends of the fallen artiste noted that his gap in the entertainment circles will be hard to fill.

“My brother Junior Kotestes RIP, You will be greatly missed by your fellow Kalenjin artistes. You have left a very big gap. Fare thee well brother,” he posted on Facebook. Kotestes will be remembered for his witty and sometime lewd lyrics filled with sexual innuendoes, which some fans enjoyed as they had hidden messages.

Some of his popular compositions include; Twolyot, Tumotet elele, Twolyot Cheptugeniot, among many others.