Former gospel artist and Groove Award winner, Kevin Kioko Bahati, has opened up about the decline of gospel music in Kenya in recent years.
Through a series of posts on his Instagram stories, Bahati stated that Kenya will remain a stronghold for producing gospel artists, but it may become challenging for the country to produce top gospel artists as it did ten years ago.
The artist mentioned that God has shifted His favor to countries like Nigeria and Rwanda because, according to him, Kenyan evangelists who were favoured began to show pride, internal strife, and others became mere puppets.
“Kenya was and will continue to be a part of the gospel revival, but we may not be in a position to produce significant gospel brands as we did ten years ago. Why? Because God has shifted that favor to Nigeria and Rwanda…”
We look up to people like Sinach and my friend Israel Mbonyi. It’s not that Kenya lacks good singers or good gospel songs, no. The truth is that the talents God nurtured in the church have turned into mutual hatred among themselves,” Bahati said.
The artist stated that there are many puppets in the church compared to the secular world.
“There are more puppets in the church than in the secular world. When someone succeeds, people quickly unite to bring them down in the gospel industry rather than in Gengetone.”
I don’t like to talk much about church matters, and I know they know themselves. They will say I’m seeking attention, but the truth is I fear approaching this industry because I know how they hate each other,” he said.
Bahati admitted that he is not more righteous than others online but said one thing he knows is that everyone needs to apologize and humble themselves before God.
One thing I know is that we need to ask for forgiveness and stop being puppets so that God can take us to another level. Otherwise, I pray that God continues to lift Arbantone as we pretend to be deputies of Jesus and you are puppets,” he concluded.