Nation Newspaper Gets Put On the Spotlight for Allegedly Fabricating A Story

Nation Newspaper has found itself on the wrong side of the spotlight for allegedly fabricating a story.

The article which appeared on Buzz Magazine claimed that a promoter Bernard Kioko of Bernsoft Interactive  and P-Unit had a serious spat over payment. It was said that the falling-out was because P-Unit had not pulled a big crowd as expected and Bernard was not keen on paying them.

Bernard has come out to rebuke Nation the writer of the article and rubbish these claims saying that:

I would like to set the record straight on a misleading report that has been published in Sunday Nation Buzz Magazine. The writer of the report did not contact Bernsoft prior to the story and we are shocked at the creativity in the story considering how afar away from the truth the same is.

First, Bernsoft Interactive was not involved in the planning of the Nakuru event dubbed “Bachuss to Nakuru” at Rafikiz. I as Bernard Kioko was involved in identifying the artists and celebrities that should be picked and the social media marketing of the event. All other aspects of the event, including payments and operations was handled by the club Rafikiz. I proposed P-UNIT to Rafikiz and linked P-UNIT with the Rafikiz manager Kizzy. From the onset, I made it clear to P-UNIT that I had no role in payments.

P-Unit made direct discussions with Rafikiz and agreed on payment terms. I understand that they were paid 50% in cash the day before the event and the balance was to be paid in cheque. During the event, there was an unrelated issue to do with the sound and police wanting the sound regulated due to what they told us was a complaint from Prof. Owuor who was residing at Merica Hotel. Due to this sound control by police, no meaningful performances could take place without creating damage to the artists brands as well as subjecting the revelers to bad experience. Although the police had asked us to wait until 1am, there was no improvement and so we ultimately chose to not allow performances.

When P-UNIT arrived at the venue, they found their cheque for the other 50% was ready waiting for them. At no point was P-UNIT told about not being paid for any reason whatsoever. Further, the event turnout was more than our expectation despite the sound challenge. Even if the event turnout was low, that would not have been an issue because Rafikiz had committed to making payment irrespective.

By the time we were departing Nakuru on Sunday, every person involved in the event had been fully paid for their role and as agreed.

On the matter relating to royalties payment for Gentleman song, Bernsoft does not sell any P-Unit content and has not done so for over 2years now. Further, Bernsoft is a part owner of the Gentleman song alongside P-Unit and other parties. Anyone selling the song should make payment to Bernsoft in the same way they would need to pay P-Unit and the others.

I would like to re-iterate that there is no beef or misunderstanding between Bernsoft and P-Unit and the press reports are untrue from unfounded sources.

We find it unprofessional on the part of the author of the story to write misleading information that has damage to music industry brands that have great cordial working relationship. We are left to speculate what interest the author has in this kind reporting.

Bernsoft has spent huge amounts of money in the last 5 years investing in helping nurture music talent and supporting artists – PUNIT included. We have spent many resources advocating for the welfare of the artists and in many cases we have done this with no support from Nation Media Group or the writer of the story. It would help if Nation Media and the writer can focus on helping grow the music industry by reporting true accounts of events instead of making sensational reports for what we imagine is the desire to make better sales of their newspaper.