Veteran Congolese musician Kasongo wa Kanema dies

Veteran musician Kasongo wa Kanema, former band leader of Orchestra Super Mazembe, has died.

The Congolese-born musician who has lived in Kenya for more than 30 years is said to have collapsed and died at his home in the capital Nairobi.

Super Mazembe rose to fame in the late 1970s and maintained prominence through the 1980s.

The band is best known for hit songs like Shauri Yako, Kasongo and Na Bimaka Te, which have withstood the test of time and remain popular especially among East Africans aged 30 and above.

Three years ago Kasongo wa Kanema broke down on television when he was asked about his team.

He recalled that they were initially a 13-member band - by 2017 only four were still alive.

The band started off as Super Vox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire), crossed into Zambia, and then Tanzania where it changed name to Super Mazembe before eventually settling in Kenya.

Kasongo wa Kanema’s death comes just three days after another popular musician and guitarist, Aziz Abdi Kilambo, died in a hospital in Voi, Coastal Kenya.

Kilambo headed the Orchestra Benga Africa and ruled the Kenyan airwaves in the 1990s with songs like Matata Sipendelei, Sina Kazi and Nyumbani ni Nyumbani.