Tomorrow 7th June 2012 will be exactly two months since the passing away of Tanzania's jewel and most favourite actor Steven Kanumba. His lifetime work and legacy is a treasure that young and aspiring actors will always look up to, he was someone that most young actors wished to become in the future. Kanumba was among a handful Bongo celebrities whose works as artists changed their lives as well as the lives of a lot other people that he helped morally and professionally in his short life. He passed away too Soon.  |
| Elizabeth Michael "AKA" Lulu |
But let us not forget that in any society, whenever a tragedy like this happens people always tries to find "the bad guy" the person who will bear a blame for why what happened actually happened, a place to unburden their sorrows and frustrations. In some cases they get the right bad guy, but in some cases they simply dump everything on the closet person 'to the bad guy" that they get. In Kanumba's case that person is Lulu.
I know most people would not want to hear this, but Lulu's life also ended the day Kanumba died. From the moment she was arrested for murder, her life as she knows it came to an end. This teenage girl will never again know the freedom of simply being free. It does not matter whether she will be acquitted of the charges or convicted, her life is over. She simply will never be able to live a carefree life that she was used to, this society as I know it will always be pointing fingers at her as the girl who killed Kanumba, it does not matter if she did it or not.
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| Lulu |
Lulu has not been very "society friendly" for a long time. She is known for scandals in nightclubs, bars, under-age drinking and a lot of other things that any parent will not wish to see on their teenage kids. Society saw this side of Lulu, and they never got a chance of seeing what she would have become when she grew up because of what transpired on that night of 7th April.
But I have done some research, and you will be shocked to know how many child star's lives have been scandalous. I actually just decided to base on Hollywood, with child starts like Macaulay Culkin, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Olsen Twins, Miley Cyrus, and even Michael Jackson. All these people and there's a lot more in Hollywood itself have lived their lives from childhood as stars. Constantly under tight microscope of the media, and they never have a normal childhood. Never
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| Lulu at Kisutu magistrate court |
Now some of them simply walked through all that to adulthood "scandal free" like Selena Gomez, some of them went down with scandals and later rose above them and made it to adulthood with their careers intact like Britney Spears. Some simply swarm in scandals all their lives to death like Michael Jackson, and some went down and never rose again like Macaulay Cucklin. All these people, if you ask them they will tell you what it feels like to live under public and media's scrutiny. So who knows, may be Lulu would have gotten over all her rebelling behaviours and became a sensible adult some day? or may be she wouldn't have, I guess now we will never get to know.
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| Lulu, thinking |
Back to Lulu now. I say Lulu has had a rebelling teenage. Most of the things she has done is what is being done by 80% of teenage girls nowadays. Yeah yeah yeah, no parent wants to hear that, but that is the truth. We can point fingers because all humans are good at that, but if you are a parent you better be damn sure that you actually know what your kid is capable of before you start pointing fingers at other people's children. Simply because you have not seen your teenage kid on the cover of "udaku paper" it does not mean she is clean, it simply means she is not famous that's all.
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| If only she had known! |
My heart goes out to Lulu, whether she killed Kanumba or not is irrelevant. Unless enough evidence to change my mind have been discovered, that is my stand. And it will be so until the truth has come to light. Most people will want to believe that Kanumba was a saint and that Lulu is a devil, but I have seen enough people to know nothing is ever that black and white. People are never perfect.
I have gone through several blogs, most of them owned by women. And the only kind of news that they are reporting about this issue is Lulu's bad side. This girl contacted UTI (urinary infection) in prison, and the next day I saw a paper with a headline which reads that she has contacted a life threatening disease in her female organs. Can you believe it? in this country 80% of women have contacted UTI at one point or the other, and I do not see them appearing as headlines on news papers.After all a person's medical condition is supposed to be "confidential" right? so how did they come to know of this?
And people were buying this paper, and the news paper company get richer and richer on a daily basis. Anyway, its no secret that these publishers are like devils who feasts on other people's misfortunes, especially celebrities(Wema Sepetu, Sinta, Lulu, Kanumba, Wolper and Uwoya are just some of them), but still I personally think that these publishers are soulless, and I mean all of them, the owner, the editor and his whole team. Since the passing of Kanumba these people have had only one topic "Kanumba" at least if it is not him then it is Lulu then, which is also Kanumba related anyway. You wonder how people forget so easily how it feels to be at the other end of the sword, but as long as we are not yet dead then we are yet to pay for our sins, time will come.
I believe that everybody has got the right to be heard, and before condemning this girl we should hear her side of the story. Her case is being adjourned on every mention, her bail is being denied, and no body says anything about that, nobody wants to look bad right?Just like how the majority of Tanzanians have chosen to condemn Lulu, I choose to believe in her Innocence until proven otherwise, after all I am a lawyer, at least I understood that part in my "rules of natural justice" classes.
Truth has a way of coming to light, and I believe in Lulu's case it will come to light eventually. In the mean time the best I can do is wish for her to be strong. It may be be stormy now, but It can not rain forever.
~ I'm Just saying ~
