General Defao in trouble again

By Harry SagaraTrouble never seems to stop haunting Congolese dance maestro, Le General Matumona Lulendo Defao. Last Friday he was hauled out of his hotel room in Nairobi Kenya and ushered into a fully packed nairobi Courtroom to answer charges of fraud totalling to Ksh 594,400 (about sh13,076,800). Apparently he had obtained credit from Palacina Residential Hotel in Kilimani, Nairobi where he had been staying since October last year. The Daily Nation reported that Defao pretended to the hotel authorities that he could pay the services rendered to him during his stay and thus the charge. Defao is arguably the best act on stage among the bevy of Congolese musicians worldwide. He has been dubbed the king of Kiliwanzenza, a dance style he introduced into this world single handedly. The Nation report stated that Defao appeared in court dressed in his usual snazzy way. A black jacket and black shiny shoes. He does not speak English, so the presiding magistrate, Wanjiru Karanja, posponed the case up to today when a French translator shall be brought in. However, defao caused unrelented laughter when he had just entered the courtroom. He kept on shouting ‘Not Guilty!’ prompting the magistarte to ask him; Do you understand English? A question to which Defao answered ‘Not Guilty’ prompting further laughter. Defao’s woes are not new. In 2000, Jeff Richardson and Patrick kanyali (now with Speke Resort Munyonyo) signed up Le General Defao to perform in Uganda. He had a succesful show at the Nile Hotel gardens on valentines day and he really wowed the crowd with his Sala Noki hit. The arena was full to the brink and it was all a bissful affair. Then Defao was staying at The Nile Hotel while the rest of his band was at Namboole hostel. Hope Mukasa of Sabrina’s contracted him to perform at sabrina’s. The Kayali’s refused to pay Defao’s outstanding arrears on the premise that he had breached the contract they had made with him and performed at Sabrina’s. the whole thing culminated into a fist fight where Defao physically punched Richardson and took him to CPS. The next thing we heard was Defao writing to President Museveni about his being fleeced. Soon Richardson and Kanyali went under cover causing more trouble for the Congolese star. He and his band was literally starving. They had no money to buy food and even pay their bills. Soon the issue reached the attention of Lt. Gen Salim Saleh’s aide Juma Seiko and out of pity he advanced Le General about sh7m to sort himself out. In the mean time, the Kanyalis refused to pay him the money they owed him. ends