Qute Kaye was the teenage heart-throb back in 2008, but one look at him now and you’d be scared to think you’ve ever crushed on him. With piercings in every possible place, greed-red eyes, hungry lips, and ashy faded skin. His lanky frame looms beneath tattered clothing…a shadow of his former self. On Thursday he was nabbed stealing car lights and social media was thrown into a daze. He looked miserable, which is fast becoming his signature look since his breakdown at Miracle Centre Cathedral last year during 77 DOGS when he apparently got saved. However, I was drawn to wonder how exactly he had gotten to this point hence shifting my magnifying lens to his now microscopic life.
The theft
While I was dumbfounded, clutching my invisible pearls and sipping on lemon ice tea after the theft story broke, some Ugandans who have known Kaye over the years were hardly surprised. Apparently, theft was the major cause of his downfall. Credible sources informed me that Qute (who is not so cute anymore) has a tendency to carry things that don’t belong to him, a behavior he has always had and which led to him getting blacklisted. A famous comedian who has for long been close to the former hit singer intimated that it’s not the first time he had been caught stealing. “It didn’t come as a surprise because I know him; he even stole a laptop from the church and ran away.” This also explains why he left Miracle center after Pr. Robert Kayanja had been generous enough to give him a car! While social media continued to roast him, I wondered whether he was stealing to cover costs of his pregnant girlfriend, fellow faded artist Pretty Glo…who knows?
The drugs
Kaye’s drug abuse can be optically diagnosed from a mile away; from his past social media posts; the rag-doll hairdo’s, numerous piercings, fast yellowing teeth, darkened scorched dry lips and bloodshot eyes punctuate his once boyish glowing face. It was easy to tell he was on a downward spiral consuming a cocktail of narcotics, which he eventually confessed to last year at Miracle center.
Celebrity stunts or genuine apology?
He survived spending Thursday night in the cells of Nateete police station after a social media celeb known as Mycor Lu paid his bail and posted a series of photos on facebook of them in a car. Later former Health state minister, Hon. Mike Mukula pledged to lead efforts to rehabilitate him. A few hours later he was on TV flanked by a number of celebrities, making public apologies for his unfortunate behavior. All these social media appearances and media take-outs seemed a little suspect to me. It’s like he was being used as a PR stunt without real help coming his way.
Bible-thumbing fear mongers
Following the media backlash, many church goers took to social media to classify his memes as a grave sin. With the #IStandWithKaye, they launched attacks warning everyone to leave him alone to avoid God’s wrath! Others were of the view that this was a direct attack from the devil himself with the aim of bringing down 77 DOGS and The Kayanja Ministries. If these humorless mortals are the same people supposed to rehabilitate him, then I guess we should say extra prayers for him. Qute Kaye needs medication, love, phycho-social (for his kleptomania and joblessness) support and a good sponsor (to help rehabilitate him from addiction). I wish him a quick recovery and the very best.
