Mpasho Exclusive: Shailja Patel Confronts Caroline Mutoko Face-To-Face In An Explosive Exchange Of Words

Piece by: Uncle Chim Tuna
Exclusives

A few weeks back, the story broke about Tony Mochama, one of Kenya's most celebrated poets, authors and writers was being accused of sexually molesting yet another celebrated and reknown Kenyan poet of Asia extraction, Shailja Patel. And the lines looked long when it came to serving Tony Mochama a.k.a Smitta Smitten his barbs as feminists from all walks of lifes -some even surfacing from their physically abusive marriages just long enough to bash Tony.

This inturn led to some fierce backlash from male quarters as Robert Alai took to his website Kahawa Tungu to bash the feminists for "raping" Smitta Smitten. It was quite the battle of the wordsmiths this!

But one person took a more tempered approach to the entire scandal and that was celebrated radio queen Caroline Mutoko. In a video that Mpasho exclusively obtained Caroline Mutoko clearly states that having known Tony Mochama while they were growing up, she would be disappoint and gravely so to find out that the allegations proffered against his person are true -if indeed they are proven so.

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Shailja Patel saw the video and she wasn't too please by it. In her perspective, Caroline Mutoko was going against her, an allegedly violated woman, to side with the alleged perpetrator. Shailja Patel allegedly sought out Caroline Mutoko and proceeded to attack her:

"Why would you say you don't believe me?"

Shailja asked. To which Caroline Mutoko responded,

"What did I say? I told you I grew up with Tony -and I remember my version very clearly- I said I would be very surprised and very disappointed if this was true. Anyway, Tony has a wife, how would he feel if someone did this to his wife?"

To which Shailja Patel responded,

"Are you trying to say that men in relationships do not do such things?"

Caroline Mutoko's response was,

"The biggest culprits of harassment are men in committed relationships which is stupid."

Shailja jumped in to say,

"Then what you should have said..."

Caroline Mutoko wasn't playing around when that statement was said. If you know Caroline Mutoko, then you know no one tells Caroline Mutoko what to say. Not even Sonko. Caroline Mutoko walked away.

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When I reached out to Caroline Mutoko for a comment, she said that indeed, she took exception at being told what her opinion should have been. She reiterated that no one can tell her what to say and added that she got the worst vibes from Shailja.

"It's as if she wanted me to play judge, jury and executioner  in HER favour. I grew up with Tony. Nothing is going to change that fact. Like any rational person, since I can't say the incident happened or not, I was there for heaven's sake - I am waiting to see the outcome when it has it's day in court."

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