Revealed: Kenyan singer Sugar's baby secrets

The secrets that surround singer Sugar and her producer husband Brian Okemo are numerous and mind blowing. For starters, only a dozen people knew of the seven-year love story ahead of the entertainment couple’s July wedding.

To many, Brian was just Sugar’s producer and for that matter, just another Phoenix Records stable member. And who in the entertainment fraternity ever hinted that Brian is actually former Energy Minister Chris Okemo’s eldest son until the politician showed up at the wedding, which was graced by a number of other influential personalities among them Budalangi MP, Ababu Namwamba, a close family friend?

Two months after their wedding that came with a memorable honeymoon at Sarova Mara, Pulse can now reveal one of the closely guarded secrets in the showbiz industry; the two have a baby girl, Sabira Grace. She was born months before the wedding. The two had been dating for years but had kept their love affair from the public to avoid media scrutiny, a factor they say could have affected their music careers. Besides, many would have viewed theirs as another story of a producer dating a musician ‘for favours’.

“I was her production boss. Sometimes people twist it. Some would have rubbished it all and so we kept the affair undercover. Sometimes, it is good to keep your private life just that,” Brian told Pulse days to the wedding.

And so about a year and a half ago, unknown to many, Sugar got pregnant with Brian’s baby. Then, they had started planning their wedding. The pregnancy developed complications. The baby was never to be born. Sugar miscarried. By this time, the two lovebirds, who had first met during Abass’ first wedding and fallen in love, were living under one roof, yet another fact that escaped showbiz gossip pages.

About two months after the miscarriage, as their wedding plans went on, again, Sugar got pregnant. The baby was born two months before the wedding, Pulse can now reveal.

Sugar managed to do everything including music videos, performances and TV interviews while pregnant without raising any eyebrows. Again, she managed to dodge paparazzi on this one.

“It was hard to keep the pregnancy a secret. I was forced to change my dress code from that girly sexy look to hip-hop gangster. I had to wear a lot of baggy jeans and jackets and pair that with some heels so that no one would suspect anything,” Sugar told Pulse this week.

When asked why she had to keep her pregnancy a secret, Sugar revealed that she wanted to continue working on her music without being side-lined for her ‘condition’ because of some of the stereotypes that run in the local music industry.

“I wanted to run business as usual. There was no missing studio recording sessions and concerts for me. I was also afraid of the pregnancy going wrong. This is because Brian and I suffered a miscarriage before we were blessed with Sabira. The emotional trauma was a bit too much to handle, therefore I wanted to keep Sabira’s pregnancy a secret,” an emotional Sugar revealed.

Sugar was able to do two music videos while pregnant with Sabira; the Looking Up remix, that was recorded seven months pregnant into her pregnancy and Tuko Fresh with Sharama, a month and two weeks after giving birth. She recorded another video called On and One, with Dandora music recently.

“I have now completed my album and released it. Talking about my pregnancy and baby then would have overshadowed my focus on music and I wanted to give my fans the much-anticipated album; I also did not want this to affect our wedding plans,” says Sugar.

Being first-time parents, the showbiz couple say they treasure every moment spent with their little one. “Brian is not afraid to be goofy and messy, that makes him a great playmate for our daughter and he helps a lot with changing diapers and feeding.

During the first few months, he would do the night shifts and also baby sit when I had to go work or cook. I am a hands-on mum. I have not employed a nanny.

I love spending time with my daughter as much as I can. It brings us closer as a family,” she concludes.