Bebe Cool undermined my leadership at the Federation - Kenzo

Singer Eddy Kenzo has added another chapter to the long-running saga of why fellow musician Bebe Cool walked away from the Uganda National Musicians Federation (UNMF), and this time, it is all about who gets to sit at the top.

According to Kenzo, Bebe Cool is not exactly the type to happily play second fiddle. If he is not calling the shots, Kenzo suggests, he would rather not be in the room.

“Wherever Bebe Cool doesn’t gain, he won’t participate. I am telling you. He won’t be anywhere where he is not a leader,” Kenzo said.

The irony, perhaps, is that the two musicians were part of the team that birthed UNMF, with Kenzo taking the federation’s overall leadership while Bebe Cool was handed the finance docket. But according to Kenzo, that arrangement did not exactly make for a happy musical marriage.

“At the federation, he was the head of finance, yet I was the overall head, so he moved out of the federation,” Kenzo added.

In other words, there was a big chair—and apparently only one musician wanted it.

Bebe Cool, however, has previously offered a different version of events, disputing some of the explanations surrounding his departure.

In a 2025 interview, he said the federation had drifted away from the objectives that had initially brought its members together. He also questioned the handling of funds, arguing that although he headed the finance docket, he was not involved when government money was received by the federation.

And so, depending on whom you ask, Bebe Cool’s UNMF exit was either about leadership, direction, or money—or perhaps the classic combination of all three.

Kenzo sees the leadership structure as a key reason for the fallout, while Bebe Cool has pointed to what he described as changes in the federation’s direction and concerns over financial management.