Esther Arunga Latest News: Now She Calls Church A Cult...

Esther Arunga Timberlake is back with a bang! And she is not just with her good-looking American accent husband but also has a two week bouncing baby boy called Sinclair Timberlake. A marriage certificate she showed to the press recently proves that she was married to Timberlake on 9th February 2010 and the two were joined together by the controversial Pastor Hellon of the Finger of God church.

But what is really amazing is that this time she is apologetic. She apologizes to Kenyans for belonging to the Finger of God church and being in all the drama that ensued as a result. She even calls the church she was a member of and defended so vigorously on National TV, a cult and she and her husband warn Kenyans to stay away from it because “it is a brothel” and “the things that go on in that church are shocking..”

And Esther even has an excuse for her behaviour. She says that she was under a spell from the dominating pastor Hellon who even wanted to be given the authority to name her child. It is not clear how Esther broke out of the alleged spell she was under.

Phew!!! What a turn around!! And once again Esther’s statement to the press leaves more questions than answered. For instance when did the Timberlake’s realize that the Finger of God church was in fact a brothel? Was it while they were there and allegedly under a spell? Or was it after they left? Also unclear is the fate of the woman who Mr Timberlake lived with for 11 years before he met and married Esther.

The Esther Arunga story held the nation spell bound for months on end last year. Many Kenyans asked themselves how such a bright talent destined for higher things in broadcast journalism would suddenly abandon her career and join a controversial church. More so because the multi-talented Esther was also a qualified lawyer.

Kenyans will already have forgotten the interesting way in which this whole soap-opera high drama first broke. The powerful Radio Africa outfit just wrote and talked about it and never quit until it became a national issue. Radio Africa is that outfit owned by a Ghanian that runs the notorious FM stations called Kiss and Classic. They also publish a daily newspaper called The Star which is where a nice lady reporter called Grace Kerongo first broke the story.

The approach taken by the chaps at Radio Africa was that they were concerned for “a friend and colleague” who had ended up in some cult. Now this is preposterous because if somebody who is your true friend goes AWOL, you don’t make her the subject of discussion on a popular breakfast show. You look for your cell phone call them and set up a lunch date or whatever. As it is none of Esther’s so-called friends and colleagues did that. Poor Esther, with friends like that she would be much better off in a pit and surrounded by the most dangerous snakes in Kenya. Methinks the chaps at Radio Africa were just doing their job in the current vicious war by the Kenyan media to grab the attention of the increasingly bored, distracted and better informed Kenyan audience who are a tad harder to con into some profitable media promotion.

But why did Ms Kerongo think that the Esther Arunga story was important and why did her editors agree? Let me start with the editors. From circulation figures most media managers already know that stories about Kenyan celebrities sell newspapers like crazy. Especially if it is a scandal of sorts and that is why Kerongo dug out all the gory details she could find (more on that in a second). Kerongo thought that this was a big story because Esther was a celeb who had resigned from her high-profile job at KTN as a news anchor to “go live with some pastor.” And this happened shortly after she had broken off her engagement to her finacee, Wilson Malaba in favour of (now the juicy gossip really begins) Quincy Timberlake Wambita Zuma who the press told us was already her lover. Timberlake is a Kenyan with an American accent and that is why hilariously it was at first reported that he was in the illegally according to the CID. But even at the time the cops were trying to get him deported, there were then unconfirmed reports that Timberlake's dad was infact a Kenyan of Luo origin.

And the soap got even juicer. The reason why Arunga broke off with her fiancée is because he reportedly made passes at 2 female members of the Finger of God church. Keep in mind the latest accusations from the Timberlake’s that this place is “a brothel.” And to make matters worse Mr Malaba had earlier used a log book of “one of Esthers’ cars” to get a loan from some loan shark. Meanwhile there were strong rumours that Esther was already pregnant from her new finacee.

At the time, she strongly denied those rumours which have now turned out to be true after all. Timberlake who is said to have changed his name several times over the years was already “married” (actually had lived with a woman for 11 years) and the union had produced two children.

Believe it or not, this “amazing” soap then swiftly moved from petty romance and office politics to national politics because Esther’s pastor Joseph Hellon suddenly declared that he would run for the presidency of the republic of Kenya in 2012 and Esther Arunga would be his running mate. Wow!!! Hellon now seems to have lost his running mate, if he still intends to stand.

Everything was going just fine for Joseph Hellon’s presidential campaign (can you imagine instant national attention and recognition for a man who had only previously been known to a very small clique of Kenyans as an amazing saxophone player inclined to Jazz) until the CID came calling and arrested Hellon, Esther and Timberlake. But fascinatingly Esther never made it to court and only Hellon and Timberlake were charged and then released on bail because the charge sheet was defective. It turns out that the fellows at CID did not do their due diligence and the Finger of God is in fact registered and yet the main charge against Hellon and Timberlake was belonging to an unregistered and dangerous organization. An interesting aside here is that I will never understand the law. Doesn’t freedom of worship allow you to worship who you want?

And so the amazing soap made in Kenya called Esther Arunga is still on. What will happen next? Who knows? Besides isn’t that what keeps otherwise intelligent and sane women glued to their TV sets like nothing else matters in this life?

PNU's top secret secret weapon: They don't want you to know about this just yet

What does Esther Arunga have to do with White Masais?

I live in Tanzania and do business in Nairobi and Mombasa

Make money easily using this brand new Kenyan site

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The other Explosive post by Sam Okello earlier today: Kenya's last chance

It is the season for think tanks

Okay guys what shall we tell the people?

Answer: Deny everything and throw a few names in; to confuse them even more and in a few days it will have blown over.

This is the typical discussion you will hear around any politician and their handlers virtually anywhere in the world. To Kenyanize this you probably need to throw in a few insults, a little bribery here and there and plenty of impunnity.
So the government has denied that it is trying to influence other African countries for a mass withdrawal from the Rome statute that created the ICC. Mere words from Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and others because the facts speak different.

Eldoret North William Ruto’s political henchmen and allies are all speaking the same language. They are denying that there is no political alliance in the works between the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kamba. Again the facts say different. Indeed some of this fellows denying actually announced the birth of such an alliance just a few months ago. Now the same chaps say it never existed.

Respected political analysts claim that President Kibaki will anoint PM Raila Odinga for the presidency as part of an elaborate deal involving Raila’s support (under the radar of course) of some important PNU priorities like dealing the ICC a blow it can never recover from. The facts speak different because the president’s think tank are spending considerable time grooming a surprise candidate whose name I will reveal later in this post.

Although the last presidential anointed, Uhuru Kenyatta did not win the presidency it is important to note that he was a political rookie who came in second with millions of votes. In other words support from the president almost automatically makes one a serious contender. Jomo Kenyatta did not anoint Daniel Moi as his successor. But by refusing to support the change the constitution group he implied his support for Moi, more so bearing in mind his rapidly deteriorating health. See details in my book Dark secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. (Book available for free HERE).

The trouble is that the general elections are only 18 months away and politicians are trying to get a steady footing, at the very least, ahead of those landmark elections. Yes incase you didn’t know, as per the new constitution the next general elections are due in August 2012. We are rapidly approaching the end of January 2011.

Folks this is the season for think tanks. Indeed yours truly has been consulted by numerous individuals in recent weeks (who just want to know my opinion) but I know they are reporting back to. I like playing Moi and appearing to be totally in the dark as to what is going on when I am talking to some of these fellows. Many times it helps a lot in gathering information. It works better than trying to look like a well informed intelligent analyst who already knows too much. I know a number of journalists who just can’t resist the urge to show how intelligent and well informed they are when interviewing news sources.

Never under-estimate the power of think tanks. The PNU one has naturally been trying to envisage what the scenario prior to the next general elections will look like. They seem to believe that Kenyan voters will be looking for a very clean man to be their next president. Somebody untainted by any previous scandal and yet somebody they can trust to give the nation a brand new start. I agree wholeheartedly with these analysis, indeed I started alluding to this scenario even before the 2007 general elections just take the time to read my posts at the time.

The president’s handlers have gone ahead and prepared a candidate for the anticipated times. One who will carry the day for PNU and her allies. That candidate is Reverend Mutava Musyimi. Don’t even think about laughing. Instead read this fascinating analysis on why this strategy looks like a sure winner. Personally one of the few arguments I have against it is the man’s age. Musyimi is 59. As I said last week, I agree with William Ruto that the next President of Kenya will be under 50 years of age and that one you can take to the bank.

What I can say, having closely followed many presidential campaigns, is that the race is decided in the last few weeks to the election. When the boys have been separated from the men and the race has been narrowed down to two probables. Many factors come into play to determine who this last two are. Usually plenty of unexpected things tend to happen and this is why it is impossible to predict at this juncture who the next president of Kenya will be.

This is that season again folks. Don’t listen to what they are saying. Instead carefully observe their body language and read between the lines of their statement while keeping a very close eye on the facts. And always remember that what they didn’t say is much more important than what they said.

Read this March 2007 predictive post I wrote; Will Mutava Musyimi contest the presidency?

Money making secrets: I live in Tanzania but do business in Mombasa and Nairobi