(From Left)Collage of Kikuyu musicians Samidoh Muchoki, J.B Maina and Waithaka wa Jane.
Veteran Kikuyu musician John Boniface Maina, better known as JB Maina, has dragged fellow artists Samuel Muchoki, alias Samidoh, and Waithaka wa Jane to court over claims of copyright infringement.
At the heart of the dispute is money.
According to his management, the two artists have been using his compositions for commercial gain without paying him a cent, prompting Maina to seek redress in court.
It's a big name to go up against in Kikuyu music.
Maina's catalogue includes classics like Muiritu wa Kabete, Tiga Kumute, Njeri and Ndwara Cece, songs that have soundtracked weddings, matatu rides and local watering joints for decades.
His management moved quickly to get ahead of the narrative, issuing a public statement insisting the fight didn't start online and didn't start in court either.
By their account, the real story goes back further, to repeated attempts to sort things out quietly through management, direct talks and legal channels before anyone filed anything.
Those attempts, his camp says, did not go well.
"Some of those approaches were met with hostility and combative responses. In certain instances, JB was effectively told to do as he wished and was warned that pursuing the matter would have consequences for him," the management said in the statement.
When those efforts stalled and the music kept getting used anyway, his team says court became the only option left.
The statement went further, taking aim at what his management called an attempt to turn a private legal matter into a public smear campaign.
It pointed to insinuations tying Maina to the death of a musician he'd once worked with, insinuations his management described as serious allegations that anyone circulating them should be prepared to substantiate through the appropriate legal channels, not online.
His management also firmly denied that Maina had weaponised law enforcement against anyone, maintaining that the case has moved strictly through proper legal channels.
"JB Maina is an elder, an established musician and the creator and rights holder whose work is at the centre of this dispute. His objective has never been to destroy anyone's career, humiliate anyone or engage in an online war," his management said, adding that Maina remains willing to reach a fair, lawful resolution.
Maina's story starts far from any courtroom.
Born in Othaya, Nyeri, he moved with his family to Nakuru and then Nyahururu, where much of his childhood played out.
Music pulled at him early, but it wasn't until he was 15, fresh out of primary school, that he took the plunge, forming the Kirurumo Boys Band.
His real shot came almost by accident. At a pub in Nyeri, he crossed paths with accordionist Maranga wa Gatonye, who saw something in the young musician and handed him a small amount of money, just enough to get him to Nairobi to try his luck.
Once there, Maina linked up with Joe Mwangi of Mercury Records, working as a studio hand and occasionally filling in on stage when heavyweights like John Ndichu and Wahome wa Maingi couldn't make it to a show. Those stand-in performances became his training ground, sharpening a voice and stage presence that would later define his career.
From that unglamorous start, Maina built himself into one of the defining voices of Gikuyu music.
His songbook grew to include Kirindi, Alice Wa Ngoro, Wigirie Maithori, Wahakire Murungu Na Ki?, Mwanake, Kibiriti ni Kiu, Ndiragucokeria Burana, Mdosi (Fatuma na Nyambura), Tuhua Twa Rose (Lucy Ucio Weitire) and Kua Mwana (Oha Mwana na Tauru).
But it was Muiritu wa Kabete, dropped in 1990, that changed everything and pushed him into the national spotlight.
Since then, he's worked with Wyre on The Love Child and watched his songs get reinterpreted by artists like Makadem and Ayrosh.
To this day, his tracks remain among the most covered by one-man guitarist performers across the country.
