U.S-based Kenyan musician accuses Otile Brown of conning him Ksh.80K

An upcoming Kenyan musician based in Minnesota, United States, has now come out to accuse high flying artiste Otile Brown of swindling him out of Ksh.80,000.

According to Alberndra Mwanakendra, real name Albert Oino, he reached out to Otile Brown last year about a possible collabo and the ‘Woman’ hitmaker agreed.

They then switched contacts and took the conversation to WhatsApp; where, on November 25 (as seen in screenshots shared with Citizen Digital), Mwanakendra shot the first text to Otile saying “Nashukuru sana kakangu, hii ndo namba yangu…”, to which the superstar singer responded with a link to his then collabo with another upcoming Kenyan artist.

Mwanakendra replied to this with: “Bonge la hit kakangu! Dah! Hatari…” and the two continued the conversation.

Otile reportedly quoted the said amount of money as allegedly demanded in payment by two top Kenyan music producers who were supposed to work on the track.

Otile would, afterward, occasionally send Mwanakendra videos of himself in the recording studio purportedly ‘cooking’ the song.

According to screenshots, Mwanakendra eventually sent the singer money to his personal line in the following installments; Ksh.5,500 (November 11, 2021), Ksh.45,200 (November 26, 2021), Ksh.22,200 (November 30, 2021), and Ksh.5,000 (January 15, 2022).

These transactions total Ksh.88,000. However, as Mwanakendra told this writer, the Ksh.5,000 he sent Otile in January was a funeral contribution for when the singer lost his grandmother.

Otile would then, after receipt of the money, respond to Mwanakendra’s messages on and off, sometimes claiming he was travelling in and out of Kenya for performances and hence did not have the time to check his inbox.

When the ‘Just in Love Music’ record label boss eventually went silent on him, Mwanakendra had enough and did not want the collabo anymore, he just wanted his money back.

On Friday, December 31 last year, Mwanakendra texted Otile saying: “Hey bro please send me my money back (Ksh.80,000) before date 1st this coming new year. I respect you so much…Now you neither pick my calls nor reply my texts. Please keep your words.”

To which Otile responded with; “Yoo…Vipi kaka…Nimekuwa busy…Is not that staki kushika simu, nafasi ndio sipati freshy ya communicating bro…Sahii tuko na event Coast…today upto tomorrow…”

Otile then promised that his management would “process” Mwanakendra the money as soon as they were done with the Coast gig and were back in Nairobi.

But, according to Mwanakendra, they did not, and Otile went silent again, until into this year.

And so in early March, Mwanakendra would text Otile again as follows: “Hello brother. My album cover is officially out for my function set on March 12th 2022 in Oro Lounge Minneota USA from 5pm to 9pm. Please you can send me my money (80K) to enable me finalize some arrangements.”

Late that same month, he would again text him saying: “Hello bro, if collaborating was a problem why don’t you send back my agreed amount of money that I sent you via Mpesa (Ksh.80 thousand). It is now more than four months since we had the agreement and you so silent. What is the way forward?”

Citizen Digital first reached out to Otile Brown’s manager, Noriega, who said he was not aware of any such arrangement between the singer and any upcoming artiste.

 “Otile cannot con anyone, I don’t even want to be rude but why would he need to con someone Ksh.80,000? Otile is a brand, he does not handle any business by himself, the management does,” said Noriega.

He then asked for the phone number to which Mwanakendra claimed to have sent Otile the money, upon receipt of which he dismissed it saying it was not the singer’s actual phone number.

 “I know Otile’s number off head, and it is not that one. Anyone can save anybody’s number with any name on TrueCaller, so that’s not justification for anything. That person (Mwanakendra) should follow the right channels for such an allegation, let him report to the police,” he said.

Citizen Digital then called the very number to which the money had been sent, as per the screenshots in our possession, and which the management had so strongly denied as belonging to Otile, and guess who would so calmly pick up the phone on the other side? Otile Brown.

“Namjua Mwanakendra, tulikuwa na collabo na yeye, ata niliambia management. Bado ipo. Atulie tu,” said Otile.

Mwanakendra now says he has since sent his representatives in Kenya to file a police statement and institute legal proceedings against Otile Brown.