Court keeps Bahati waiting for 6 hours to testify, and when it reached 4pm, hearing date was postponed

Gospel musician Bahati on Tuesday, March 10, was left furious after he spent at least six hours at the Milimani Law Courts waiting to testify in a lawsuit he had filed against fellow artiste Peter Blessing. Bahati took Blessing to court over allegations that he defrauded him of his Ksh2.039 million.

Bahati, whose real name is Kevin Kioko, arrived at the Milimani Law Courts at 10am Tuesday, and waited for the hearing of the case he filed against Blessing.

However, when 4pm reached, Bahati was told by Magistrate Bernard Ochoi that the deadline for testifying had elapsed, and, therefore, he would have to return to court on a later date to testify.

Magistrate Ochoi set April 9, 2020 as the new hearing date -- which is a month from today.

At 4:20pm, Bahati left the court premises furious, ruing his wasted day.

On January 28, 2020, the 26-year-old artiste sued his fellow musician, Peter Blessing, on allegations that Blessing obtained Ksh2.039 million from him by false pretense.

Peter Blessing, 20, was arraigned before Milimani Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku.

Bahati, in his statement, told the court that Peter Blessing approached him in 2019, and told him [Bahati] that he could produce music videos for the Barua star’s record label, EMB. Bahati said he paid Peter Blessing Ksh2 million up front.

On the day when he was supposed to start producing the music videos, Peter Blessing allegedly declined to show up, saying he “was no longer interested in working with Bahati”.

Peter Blessing, who denied the allegations, said he and the Mama hit-maker had never entered into such a contract.

Blessing, through his lawyers Festus Mbati and Francis Karanja, said, contrary to Bahati’s claims, it was the EMB Records founder who actually owed Blessing Ksh1 million.

Peter Blessing, whose real name is Peter Manyalo, was signed as an artiste under Bahati’s EMB Records in 2019. The contract, Blessing said, was to last at least 20 years.

And after a year of being signed under the stable, Peter Blessing, who grew up in Voi, Taita Taveta County, left the record label, accusing Bahati of failing to pay him his dues amounting to Ksh1 million.

Bahati, as a result, sued Peter Blessing for reneging on a legally-binding agreement, and obtaining money from him under false pretense. Bahati said the wrongs committed by Blessing occurred between July 4, 2019 and January 5, 2020.

Peter Blessing was on January 20 released on Ksh200, 000 cash bail or a bond of Ksh500, 000, with a hearing date for the case set for March 10, 2020.

Peter Blessing, through his lawyers, claimed he never received any formal contract from Bahati which asked him to be a producer at EMB.

Three witnesses have been lined up to testify against the accused.