You can call it whatever you want; lack of information or knowledge about abiding by contracts or simply greed.
I am talking about a trending topic over a week ago, where Kenya’s Mugithi star Waithaka Wa Jane, found himself in trouble when he was arrested at a German airport where he was going to perform at the German edition of the Kikuyu cultural event, Ngemi.
Reason for the brief arrest? He was going to perform at an event where his visa sponsors, Connect Africa, in collaboration with Rafikis Entertainment, did not know about.
To brief you, Connect Africa secured four visas for Waithaka Wa Jane and his team to do a planned Europe tour.
However, Waithaka secured a performance at Ngemi without informing the visa and Europe tour sponsors, which went against the contract, as I have seen.
In a letter sent to the German embassy in Nairobi on August 11, Connect Africa requested issuance of visas to four individuals; John Waithaka Mwangi (Waithaka Wa Jane), Dickson Nyathore (DJ Dibul), Simon Mwangi (singer/guitarist), and Paul Kuhia (drummer).
The request for visas was from late September to early November this year. This was regarding the Europe tour the four were supposed to headline, fully catered for by Connect Africa. The visas were eventually issued.
They were meant to start from two German cities of Hamburg and Frankfurt; then to head to Helsinki, Finland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Berlin, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Munich, Germany; Amsterdam and The Hague, Netherlands; Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; and finally end the tour in Milan, Italy, and Rome, in that order.
This weekend, they were meant to be performing in Antwerp, Belgium, on Sunday, October 12.
According to Waithaka Wa Jane’s social media accounts, he will be performing tonight at the Opal Lounge in Rongai, Kenya.
For his European tour, he was meant to earn an accumulated figure of 38,500 Euros, which is equivalent to almost KSh6 million. Each show had a different negotiated performance fee.
So what exactly happened here?
It is not hard to tell that when Waithaka secured the visas, the organizers of Ngemi in Germany found out, hired him to perform immediately. Waithaka never bothered to inform the visa sponsors and boarded the plane with his team.
Then the visa sponsors found out about it and attempted to stop the performance by getting him arrested at the airport. Did they have a right to do so?
Yes.
In performance contracts where visas are involved, the sponsors own the artists during the entire period the visa is valid. That’s the law. How about in a scenario where an artist secures a separate performance during the period? Can they jump on the opportunity?
Of course, yes. But only after notifying the sponsor and the contract is renegotiated. I have seen this particular contract and it states that clearly.
So it looks like Waithaka did not do due diligence, a simple win-win situation, which has caused the cancellation of the entire European tour, costing millions of shillings.
Artists or their teams, need to read contracts properly. In my opinion, if you look at the names of the persons who got visas, there was no manager involved. Unless the singer or the drummer doubled up as managers.
Credit: John Muchiri
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