SINGER KIDUM DISCLOSES HOW HE SURVIVED DEATH WHEN 17 OF HIS FRIENDS WERE KILLED

Kenya-based Burundian singer Kidum Kibido shared his story of how he survived death when 17 of his friends were killed by the Burundian army during the war. Speaking in an interview, the singer said he and his friends had planned to sneak into a girls school and when the day came, he overslept and was left behind. 

Unfortunately, the young men were later shot dead by the army on grounds that they were going to join the rebellion. “We agreed we must go and visit the new girls school by sneaking from our school. We planned and when the day I overslept and my friends left without informing me. I got up in the morning and my friends had already left, I felt bad. while I was going about my business in school, we received information that my friends had been killed. They went through a forest and an informer told the army that there were young men who were going to join a rebellion and the army waited for them inside the forest and they were all killed,” he said. 

When the skirmishes intensified in Burundi, Kidum alongside his family was forced to flee Burundi in search of peace and he ended up in Kenya where he settled with his family. “I was given $60 and I set off for Tanzania, I had swollen legs because of heavy luggage and we slept outside in Dar Es Salaam. We tried to look for a church that would help us but it was unsuccessful but we got a Mosque, we were given pilau and a place to sleep but we were instructed to get up very early because of the morning service. After sleeping outside for a while, I decided to go to the Burundi Embassy and that’s where I got a ticket to bring me to Kenya,” Kidum recalled. 

He also spoke on what inspired his song, Mapenzi, “It has a personal experience tied to it, because I was going through relationship issues. The normal disagreements with my lover and it got worse and the relationship ended afterwards,” said Kidum. 

The singer also disclosed the meaning on his name saying, “Kidum means a 20-litre jerrycan of water. The reason why they named be that is because when I was born I was fat. When people came to visit my mom in the hospital they told her, ‘you’ve given birth to a ‘Kidumu’. But when my dad came from work he was told the kid has been named Kidum and he was against it and he gave Jean-Pierre.” 

Kidum also recalled embarrassing moments while performing on stage, “There’s a day I was performing in Burundi and my trouser got torn. A man from the crowd came onstage gave me money and he told me to buy an new trouser. There is also a lady who gave me her wedding ring in Kigali and later announced on radio that she is divorcing her husband, but I was coming to my family in Kenya,” he said.  

On running a band, Kidum says its hectic, “It’s hard and I wish I did something else because everyone is mad in their own way. To run a band you must be more mad than the members. Someone might arrive late intentionally or say they don’t have fare and you have been paid the previous day.”