Ephraim Nyondo denies having a hand in Martse death, threatens to sue the family

Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s Public Relations Officer Ephraim Nyondo has denied having a hand in the mysterious death of well-known music icon Martin Nkhata, popularly known as Martse.

On Saturday, the social media was flooded with a video of Martse’s brother Jeromy Nkhata accusing Bushiri’s PRO of having a hand in the death of his brother.

In the video clip, Jeromy released a conversation of Martse and Ephraim Nyonda, claiming that after the conversation his brother started seeing weird things.

But Nyondo has distanced himself from the claims and he has threatened to sue Martse’s brother.

“I am going to bed a comforted and encouraged person–thanks to friends and families for your lovely and gracious messages and calls. You are appreciated.

“I am just coming from a long call with my boss, Prophet Shepherd Bushiri. He has, on point of deep insistence, asked me to forgive, move on and focus on my career. He cited several verses of comfort, underlining that I should learn from how, over the years, he has triumphed such adversities through the power of forgiveness,” said Nyondo.

He added: “However, though I agree with him, as my spiritual leader and boss, I must underline that, as a person, I also have a life and career. I have family and I have three kids that, one day, will be troubled to learn about these damaging stories written about their father.

“For this, I have to clear my name. And I will.”

Below is the full message;

I knew late Martse in 2016 when—while working for The Nation newspaper—the Arts and Entertainment Editor, then, asked me to review his hit song Mwano. I found his number, we discussed the song and since then, we always talked—nothing more but a reporter and news source relationship.

But it was in 2018, at a wedding reception of a certain friend in Lilongwe, when I met him in person. I reached out to him, we talked and, together, we went to a place I was putting up for more chills. It was at this moment where I learnt that his full name is Martin Nkhata. I became curious because my mother is also Nkhata. From that moment, we declared ourselves cousins.

As cousins we always checked up on each other. I was staying in South Africa, then, but whenever I jetted in Malawi, we could always catch up. In fact, on several occasions, he was the person I could first call to get a vehicle to fetch me from the airport. In some instance, he could literally borrow his friend’s vehicle and drive to the airport to pick me up.

In 2020, when I came to Malawi and got stuck cause of COVID-19 border closures, Martin was always with me. With me stuck in Malawi and my family in South Africa, I was a lonely man and thanks to Martin’s availability. I bonded so strong with Martin because he was always around me.

I was staying with my young brother in Area 18, Lilongwe, and I remember getting a late call from Martin saying ‘Couz, if you can manage please come pick up, I am in Area 25 but I ain’t cool with the guys here.’ I drove the night and pick him up.

In the morning, he came to my room and said: “Couz, I feel at home every time I am here, can I stay for a week?” I said, even for a year. We ended up staying together, in my young brother’s house, for 2 months. Two months of walking together, almost every day, to Senti market to buy vegies, tomatoes and our favorite delicacy—irish and eggs.

When he returned to his place in Likuni, we felt a great sense of emptiness especially in the kitchen because he loved cooking and he was good at it. You can’t go without breakfast, lunch and supper with Martin around. Never.

Since that, we could always catch up. When my wife and kids returned from South Africa, Martin was among the first of my closest to welcome them. I introduced him as Uncle Martin, not Martse, to my kids until my daughter, one day, saw a music video on TV and asked: Is Uncle Martin also called Martse? We laughed about it.

It was always like that with Martin, always checking upon each other—whenever I was broke, I could run to him; when he was, he would never hesitate to reach out.

It is against this background that, as I am today, I am deeply shocked and disturbed as to WHY would someone make an issue from a mere normal chat as if it was the first time for me and Martin to chat?

Why?