A Kisii woman has stirred massive online debate after claiming she is the biological mother of celebrated Kenyan musician Bahati. The 52-year-old woman, identified as Mama Nyambeki, made the revelation during a viral TikTok Live session, presenting what she said were old photographs and personal items to back her story.
Speaking emotionally on the livestream, she claimed she never died—as Bahati has always believed—but was separated from her newborn son due to poverty.
“Mimi ni mama yake muimbaji Bahati, sikukufa lakini walininyima mtoto wangu kwa sababu nilikuwa maskini sana,” she said.
Bahati, born Kevin Mbuvi Kioko, has for years shared his emotional story of growing up in the ABC Children’s Home in Mathare. According to the singer, his mother died when he was seven, and his father later remarried and drifted away—events that shaped his difficult childhood and rise from hardship to fame.
But Mama Nyambeki’s claims paint a different picture. Broadcasting from her rural Kisii home, she alleged she gave birth to Bahati in a local clinic in 1993 and was forced to give him up because of financial and family pressures.
“I held him close for those first months, but life tore us apart. I searched for years, hearing rumours of a talented boy from Mathare who sings like angels. Now I know it’s my son,” she said tearfully, holding what she described as a faded birth certificate and a beaded baby necklace she claims belonged to Bahati.
As the online frenzy grows, Bahati’s team is yet to issue an official response.
