With the new dawn of modern-day benga music, a lot of artists are drifting from the actual Benga to do songs just for fun or the celebrity name tag.
However, various artists have shown huge potential to replace the departed benga maestros. One of those artists is Samuel Mwangi Mutua better known by his stage name Wa Maritha.
Being a 7th born in the family, he grew up in a strict Catholic Church setting. His father, Peter Mutua was a teacher while his mother was a businesswoman hence prompting young Samuel to follow their footsteps.
Samuel Mwangi Mutua During A Video Shoot¦¦ Wamaritha, Facebook.
Young Samuel would spend most of his early childhood with his mother and siblings since his dad would be sent to distant places for work commitments.
Mwangi’s love for music started at childhood as he would be among the Sunday School children presenting at the annual Catholic music competition.His sister would also take him to music related shows and his love for music grew stronger.
One day while in class 5, young Mwangi attended a dance held in his village by popular musician, Waithaka Mboci. Since he was not of age, his plans to attend were halted and he left for home crying.
Two weeks later, there was a music function that was held in his area again, but as it was then, young boys were not allowed to attend. But young Samuel had a plan. This time round he sneaked in by putting on a dress, pretending to be a girl and had fun of his life.
The thrill was however short-lived after being spotted and given a thorough beating before being chased from the event. Later on, he joined a music group in his school where they played ‘Nguchu‘ , winning them numerous awards.
He then later on joined Ndekei high school but dropped out of school. After dropping out of school, Samuel left Kiambu and moved to Murang’a town in search of a job.
He met with one of his cousins who worked as an artisan and started working with him. However, the job was short-lived since Mwangi never liked it from the beginning.He then moved to Thika where he met Mr. Kiriga.
But as fate would have it, he never stayed for long.Samuel later moved to Githurai but lady luck was not on his side. Things got tough and he later moved back to his parents’ home.
Wamaritha posing for a photo¦¦ Facebook.
He was warmly welcome and after a chat with his dad, Sam was given some cash to start a business.He ventured into cereals business in partnership with his elder brother, Mwalimu Muna who is also a musician.
Their joint business was however short lived since misfortunes seemed to be following young Samuel.Mwalimu Muna, Samuel’s brother, knew legendary Benga Musician Kamaru.Muna introduced Sam to Kamaru and he started selling VCDs in the year 2004.
In his venture, he met a friend, Steve, who pushed him into doing music where the duo would sing Psalms in Churches.Kamaru would later challenge Samuel into doing music. But few months later, Sam was left hanging after Kamaru closed down his shop.
Wa Maritha never gave up, and through support of a friend he met at River Road Nairobi, he released his first album dubbed as ‘Nyarari‘ (Kikuyu word for a beautiful lady) in 2008.
In 2009 he released a new song ‘Kiura‘ (Literally means frog) and was just played briefly on mainstream media.Around 2010, Wa Maritha took a break, and in 2011 he released another song ‘Bedroom’ which did not do well.
However, after 10 years out of stage, Mwangi Wa Maritha is back with bang! He has new songs lined up, and is promising his fans a successive release of entertaining music.
Some of his songs are;
Ndutura: https://youtu.be/Gg85p8MB-Sk
Ndwari: https://youtu.be/AP-JC4quWyI
Gitonga: https://youtu.be/NH8V8YXDuYY
Thuti: https://youtu.be/BCqXCSp2pOw
Samuel is a 40-year-old married man with kids.
