Nairobi News

A court has acquitted a local musician of defrauding gospel singer Kelvin Kioko, popularly known as Bahati, of Sh2 million by pretending that he was able to produce music videos.

Milimani senior principal magistrate Bernard Ochoi exonerated the musician, Peter Munyaru alias Peter Blessings, after finding that the case was civil in nature and cannot stand as a criminal matter.

The magistrate also found that no case had been established against Mr Blessings by the prosecutors.

In his evidence, Bahati had told court that Mr Blessings signed a contract in 2019 to work at his label, EMB Records, and promised to have all returns from his music go to the studio. The court heard that Mr Blessings did not honour the deal and that he defied their contract by leaving the company.

A court witness, Mr Bahati’s manager Lawrence Munyao alias Weezdom, testified that EMB records had spent more than Sh2 million on the accused in order to continue producing music for the stable.

But after analysing the evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses in relation to the charges leveled against Mr Blessings, the court ruled that the accused had no case to answer.

The magistrate also wondered why Bahati did not file a civil case against Mr Blessings and termed the charges pressed against him as abuse of court process.

He further ruled that the prosecution failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove the offense of obtaining money by false pretences. He found that investigations conducted by the police were very “casual in nature.”

Mr Blessings was charged that on diverse dates between July 4, 2019 and January 5, 2020 at EMB Records studios in Nairobi, he obtained Sh2,039,000 from Bahati with intent to defraud by falsely pretending he was able to produce music with the said studio.