Kenyan Singer Alvindo Has Deleted the Viral Music Video for 'Takataka' As Police Launch Search for His Arrest
The song was recently banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board.
Ezekiel Mutua of the Kenya Film Classification Board has once again wielded his power to suppress freedom of expression and the arts.
Mutua has recently banned media and DJs from playing "Takataka"—the latest hit from singer Alvindo, according to TUKO.co.ke, saying that the song's "crude lyrics against a perceived ex-lover" was an infringement of the law.
Despite this decree, Alvindo released the music video for the song instead of showing up to court, removing it days later after Mutua tipped Kenyan police to begin a search for his arrest.
Faith Oneya explains in an op-ed for theDaily Nationthat the hurt lover in "Takataka" tells the woman, "whose heart is 'as dirty as the devil's' that he will 'bewitch her and attend her funeral while laughing as she is buried." Lyrics like that, for Mutua, "glorifies violence against women as a normal reaction to rejection."
Alvindo has explained that it was not his intention for "Takataka" to go viral, but was a way for him to express his hurt feelings over an ex who broke his heart. "That song was actually inspired by a girl who rejected me and cut me off on every social media platform. So I decided instead of depressing myself to suicide I would make a song," he says in an interview with comedian Churchill.
Take a listen to "Takataka" below.
In response to Mutua's tweet justifying the ban and the subsequent hunt for Alvindo, Kenyans once again cite his decisions as hypocritical.