Bien Reveals Why Sauti Sol No Longer Performs At National Events

Sauti Sol’s lead singer, Bien-Aimè Baraza has cleared the air on the reason behind the band not performing on national events.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Nairobi News, Bien revealed that Sauti Sol opted to stop performing at government’s events because they could be paid peanuts. He revealed that the last time they performed at a government event, they were only paid Sh.40,000. They divided the sum amongst themselves but they swore to never involve themselves with such events.

“We will never perform in any public holiday celebration because the government cannot afford to pay us. It is the bitter truth. We were young then, growing in the industry. We distributed amongst ourselves and that was all,” Bien said.

The band have also been avoiding to support any political party in Kenya. The ” Inauma” hitmaker further noted that he will never involve himself with politics since his call is to give people hope and make them to feel loved.

“We will always stand with the people. My call is to give people hope, sing for people to feel loved and not politics,” the artist said.

Last year, the band was involved in a legal wrangle with Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya Coalition as the party was unveiling Martha Karua as Raila Odinga’s running mate. The political party played “Extravaganza” song without the band’s consent. Sauti Sol took legal actions on the party over copyright infringement.

“We did not give any consent for its use in the announcement of their deputy presidential candidate. Furthermore, our authority to use the composition, which is one of our most distinct compositions, was neither sought nor given.Using our song Extravaganza without our consent is blatant copyright infringement as directed by section 35, CAP 170 of the Copyright Act of Kenya,” the band said in one of their statements.

In it’s response, the political party stated that they were only appreciating the band’s work as they are globally known for their great work.