Willie Oeba says he has been threatened over spoken word piece
By Mustafa Juma, July 8, 2025Kenyan spoken word artist Willie Oeba has revealed he is facing threats following the release of a piece of spoken word that has been deemed provocative.
Taking to his official X account in the wee hours of Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Oeba stated that someone had reached out to him with threats.
However, he vowed not to pull down the said piece as instructed by the unnamed person who approached him in the wee hours.
“Getting threatened in the wee hours of the night for a spoken word piece is nasty business. Hiyo mtanimaliza before I pull it down!!’ he stated.
Near-assassination incident
This comes just days after Oeba revealed the personal experience that pushed him to take his craft and activism more seriously.
Speaking during a popular podcast on July 4, the artist recounted a near-assassination attempt that occurred in 2017 when he had gone to Nakuru Town to buy a birthday cake for his mother.
He recalled being approached by a visibly drunk police officer who cocked a gun and pointed it at his head. Oeba had been mistaken for a member of a notorious criminal gang known as “Confirm,” which was at the time terrorising residents in Nakuru.
“I was almost shot in 2017 for mistaken identity in Nakuru. I began spoken word in 2014, and on January 21, 2017, my mom’s birthday, I was going to town to pick up a cake for her birthday. I had on sweatpants and a sweatshirt, like the classic stereotype, because there was a gang in Nakuru dubbed “Confirm,” and they were looking for someone who looked like me,” Oeba said.
In a moment of quick reflex, he struck the officer’s hand, causing the gun to fall, and then ran into the road. The gun was left behind on the ground.
He later reported the matter and followed up with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), but justice was never served.