Mention the names Faustin Munishi and almost any Kenyan will recognise it. What with his having pioneered and popularised solo gospel music in the early 1980s when the genre was the exclusive domain of choirs. Endowed with hypnotic vocals, poetic Kiswahili rich in imagery and symbolism, the Kenya-based Tanzanian artiste has carved himself a niche in the hearts of many a music lover with seven well selling albums that are as memorable as they are sweet to the ear.

However detractors are quick to point out that 18 years after taking the Kenyan music scene by storm, Munishi has lost his focus and is now using art for subversion and politics. And they appeared vindicated when Tanzanian authorities banned his latest album-Mpende Adui-late last year for allegedly launching a scathing attack on the late Julius Nyerere as a black colonial master whose Ujamaa policies had ruined Tanzania and urged Tanzanians to reject Chama cha Mapinduzi at the polls.

Five years earlier during the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, the Rev Munishi had angered gender activists for arguing that women were fighting God for demanding equality with men. Munishi, who still argues that it is untrue that women are oppressed any more than men, says one gender should steer clear of trying to take over the god-given roles of the other. In fact, he says he has never lost his vision of preaching and that he is an artiste who uses art to condemn social aberrations. But detractors are not convinced and have attacked him carting away everything from his house, terrorising his family and intercepting his electronic mail.

So will he stop pointing out evil in society? "Hardly," he says. "No amount of intimidation will stop me from propagating the word of God." The banning of Mpende Adui fueled curiosity among Kenyans who went out in droves to buy the album. Meanwhile, Munishi was already learning the art of web-design fearing starvation. Munishi says the late Nyerere, having known the power of music, never allowed any music to be played on the national radio except that which propped his Ujamaa policies.

And even then, he continues, the artistes could not earn anything from it. "Nyerere discouraged investment in recording studios and thus forced talented musicians to flee to Kenya where they revolutionised the Kiswahili music," he says, naming the likes of Mbaraka Mwinshehe's Super Volcano, Wilson and George Peter Kinyonga's Simba Wanyika, and the John Ngereza and Omar Shaban-led Les Wanyika as examples of Tanzanians who fled to Kenya for a living.

"I am in Kenya because of the negative policies of Ujamaa," he says, adding that his music has never been played on the Tanzanian national radio although he is an icon in eastern Africa and in Germany where his albums are in the top music charts. The 12-song Mpende Adui has been hailed as one of the best works by Munishi as it spares no individual or institution-religion, insurance, mass media- for any wrongs done society.

He has fully exercised his poetic license on this album whose lyrics are caustic, instrumentation sharp and ambition high. A pastor and evangelist with Christian Brotherhood Church, Munishi calls for love and unity among humanity and condemns the United States for bullying the world and thus earning enemies who have turned to terrorism. He also condemns the West for exploiting Africans and their resources and then oppressing them through restrictive visa systems.

Munishi is the seventh born of nine children of Mkabayuni Makombo and Stephen Miunishi of Moshi. He moved to Dar es Salaam after completing Standard Seven at Kindi Juu Primary School in 1974 and embarked on painting and signwriting. Five years later, he went to Arusha where he got saved in 1980 and started singing at crusades. It was while here that an evangelistic Kenyan group, Jesus' Harvesters, saw him and invited him to tour Kenyan towns with them in 1983. It was while he was performing at Charter Hall in Nairobi that Karanja Kimwere of Kenya Broadcasting Corporation recorded two of his songs and played on the Sing and Shine programme on television and Munishi was on his way to fame. Munishi says Kenyan viewers liked him so much that they demanded that he appears often on the then popular weekly gospel programme.

Munishi thanks God for what he is today, and not forgeting the massive print and braocdcast media coverage he received in Kenya. Consequently, he decided to set base in Kenya as his future was secure here. Although he says he is not a wealthy man, Munishi says the income from his albums Niko Chini ya Mwamba, Fashion ni Yesu, Yesu na Wewe, Makosa ni Kosa, Yesu Aliniita, Malebo, and Adui Mpende, have made him nmore comfortable than he otherwise would have been had he remained in Tanzania. He is married to Priscah with whom he has three children-Mojeshi, Salelo, and Mangi