This archive report was first published on 20 August 2019.
On Sunday night, Kenyan musician John De'Mathew tragically met his death in a car crash. According to his friend Mike Rua, De'Mathew was a troubled man in his final hours.
De'Mathew, real name John Ng'ang'a, was a renowned musician with over 50 albums and 300 songs to his name. He was also the Chairman of Tamco (Talented Musicians Cooperative).
On the day of his death, De'Mathew attended a fundraiser in Gatanga organized in support of fellow musician Peter Kigia's ailing child. He spent the whole day with Mike Rua, who shared the last moments they had together.
However, Rua was overcome with emotion during a live interview with the media, requesting to cut it short. He revealed that De'Mathew was emotional and had cried a lot before leaving Gatanga for his Nairobi home.
“We spent the whole of yesterday with him and we talked a lot, about music, about rights for musicians as he was the Chairman of Tamco,” Rua narrated.
De'Mathew's final moments were marked by tears, with Rua recalling, “The last moments, he was crying and crying I don’t know what was the problem because we talked about some issues we had some controversies here and there (pauses and sighs). I don’t think it is the right time to talk about this thing, kindly call me sometime later.”
De'Mathew died about thirty minutes after leaving Kigia's home when he rammed into a truck along Thika Road, near the Blue Post Hotel.
