TBT: HOW THE ARMENIAN BROTHERS DUPED THE KENYAN MUSIC INDUSTRY
When the Artur brothers, Margaryan and Sargarsyan made news in 2006, accused of being mercenaries, they only appeared in the political pages in the news.
But after many back and forth stories about who they really were and what they were doing in the country, the news slowly faded away.
But they wanted to remain in the headlines. So they decided to invade the Kenyan music industry.
They devised a smart plan of having parties in their massive Runda mansion every Friday. The invite only parties were simple, you come in, take pictures, have plenty of nyama Choma and all sorts of alcoholic drinks.
They invited Kenyan top musicians then like a the Longombas, Redsan, Kleptomaniax, STL, just to mention but a few. They also had controversial businessmen on their guest list, like the Akasha brothers and Kamlesh Pattni.
They also had a list of top entertainment journalists invited to cover the parties. They would provide a van from the CBD to ferry the journalists to their home and back to the CBD later. The party started at 6pm and would go all the way to midnight.
The scariest part was that if you bumped into them in the party, they would call you by your name, even though you had never met before. They took their time to know each and every journalist who was on the guest list.
The parties went on for several weeks, and their stories moved from the political to the entertainment pages.
But what was their agenda? Nothing! They promised musicians big deals like setting up state of the art music studios and taking their music international.
One night, a Nation media photojournalist Charles Kamau, gave them a lecture as the party went on. He actually told them that they had no serious agenda for the music industry and they just wanted to party and be in the news. The Artur brothers were just laughing out loud during the dress down in their living room.
The following day, at about lunch time, the Artur brothers drove to Nation Centre, and parked their car outside Jamia mosque. They rang Charles, inviting him out for lunch. Charles declined their offer.
The next thing we heard that was the Artur brothers were being deported to Dubai.
JOHN MOSH MUCHIRI
