Mike Rua’s Response To ‘Deportation’ Allegations.

I carried a story yesterday concerning the alleged deportation of Mike Rua, Mugithi Maestro. Mike is arguably one of the wealthiest artists in East Africa I believe, thus any story about him is bound to cause ripples in the music scene.

Following that post, there was a comment from his Facebook fan page. Whilst I cannot ascertain it’s authenticity, objectivity demands that I carry his ‘side of the story’. That is what I’m doing. Incase you missed my earlier post, read it here.

“MESSAGE FROM MIKE RUA HIMSELF:

“To all my fans, Please do not believe what you read on the Media. These are false publications reported by a UK website and now by Kenyan media who are willing to destroy one’s career with any opportunity they get. We had issues last week with the UK Work Permit which have been resolved by the event organizers although the situation has been solved very late past the date of the scheduled performance. I am very ready and willing to entertain my UK fans anytime this year during the public holidays and I promise energetic shows. I am now in Nairobi doing what I do best, and that is delivering to my fans. Thank You and God Bless.”

The Star today carried Mike Rua’s clarification to this whole debacle. Mike vehemently denied the allegations, stating matter-of-factly that on the ‘fateful’ day, he was in Thika. He explained that he had a listening party at Club Beat before heading to Club Image. The rest of the time he spent with family. He says that this ‘deportation issue’ was a ruse use dto placate his UK based fans. Exodus Events were supposed to deposit an undisclosed sum of money but failed to. Invariably, Mike Rua chose to stay home following the blatant breach of trust.

The article goes further to explain that Mike Rua actually attended a visa interview on wednesday April 3rd, but by then, the concert date had regretably come and gone.

His Facebook page also carried this status. “Hope you all enjoyed your Easter Holidays. I did enjoy mine too but would like to apologise to my UK fans, as with God’s plan..the event did not go on due to reasons that we are yet to find out. I am working with the Promoters to ensure a smooth entry the next time I am scheduled to perform and have enough time before the shows to rectify anything that goes wrong. I am sure, I will be joining My UK fans before the end of the Year. Happy Holidays Everyone.“

I was accused of not following journalistic ethics by sharing an unverified story. What I had done was simply post verbatim the story that was carried by misterseed.com, and a couple of local dailies. I actually googled the post to ascrtain it’s origin before I shared it.

Exodus Events carried this post on their Facebook page on the 28th of March.

“We are deeply sorry to announce that Mike Rua & his Drummer Muhamed will not be performing their Mugithi Easter Tour in Luton & Manchester this weekend as they have been denied entry to the UK at London’s Heathrow Airport by the UK Border Agency this afternoon. We as Exodus Events organizers are deeply sorry to anyone who had made prior arrangements to attend the event, and to the Venue Operators Tripple Em Foods and Club Elysee plus the Sound Engineer who had also prepared their services for this Tour. Mike Rua’s entry denial is beyond our control and our appeal could only be next week Tuesday which is too late. However, the event will still go on in Luton with free admission at Tripple M Foods with Djs Josh Paps and Djcymoh Cy. See you there
We will announce New Dates for the tour once the appeal is cleared. Regards“

I have put both sides of the story so that you guys make your own judgements, that is the objective thing to do. But just so I am not accused of being unethical by disgruntled fans like yesterday, I have included a screen shot of the Exodus Events status below as evidence.