The woes surrounding the late king of Benga’s family played out last year when his daughter Jane Waithira lost her son Victor Nganga. Although the youngster was named after De’Mathew, the late singer’s ancestral house, where he is interred, refused to give him a grave.
An up-and-coming performer Waithira urged other performers who have fathered children outside of marriage to make more plans for their kids because “he who goes for a journey does not ‘Muumagari nî wa njûa igîrî’ (a person on a journey should be prepared for any eventuality).
“As an artiste, I learnt a lot after the death of my father, I was denied a place to bury my 14-year-old son and ended up burying him at my mother’s ancestral home in Nyeri and this pained me because I have lived at Gatanga since I was a little girl and did not know any other place to call home,” explained Waithira, popularly known as Jane De’Mathew. She said she was informed that her father had sold his ancestral land to one of his siblings.
Father’s grave
“I was told that the only thing that belonged to my father was his grave,” Waithira said.Given the fact that many artistes have big names but end up leaving controversy and property rows after their death, Waithira advised fellow young musicians to jealously guard their wealth so that it serves them and their families in old age. Waithira said her father had four wives and eight children, and to save the agony that she went through after losing her firstborn son, her father ought to have planned for any eventualities.
