Alvan Gatitu, a former Tusker Project Fame (TPF) contestant is a man known for his many talents besides singing; he is gifted in humour and an in-depth understanding of the bible.
What many people do not know is that Gatitu was a preacher before he shifted his attention to TPF where he almost lost himself and the faith he had.
In an interview on Wednesday with MC Jessy, Gatitu said that he literally quit priesthood for TPF.
His leaving the church was compounded by many reasons among them doctrines the church shared and they ended up messing his life. He joined TPF for a change, but not what he anticipated.
“I left for many reasons, but one thing is I did not agree with the church’s doctrine. It caused so much damage in my life and I questioned what was the purpose of being used by the church to get the masses when I was having some much turmoil in my life,” he opened up.
Before long, the bottle became his friend and would get so deep into drinking that he staged some of his performances while nursing hangovers from a night of drinking.
Speaking of how he joined TPF, Gatitu narrated that he got a brochure of the auditions from a friend and he made up his mind to try his luck.
On the day of the auditions, he left without saying a word to anyone on where he was headed.
Hs family was in the dark until they saw a poster with his image promoting the show. What followed was backlash from the church as he and his family were castigated for it all especially because the main sponsors were Kenya Breweries Limited.
“My mother was going through so much backlash but I was confident in myself and I told people who questioned my decision that the God in me would see me through,” he offered.
When the show gathered momentum, his family supported him and he felt like he had done his best and hoped he would win the contest but it went to Valerie Kimani, with him taking a strong second position.
This broke him and the stigma from church increased sending him into alcoholism.
“I got into heavy drinking. I would wake up drunk and go to bed drunk as well. I even got into hard drugs like cocaine,” Gatitu recounted.
After a period of heavy drinking and wallowing in self-pity, he decided to go to South African for a trip and it is there that he decided to turn his life around and came back to Kenya.
He recently got a radio job months after appealing for help at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when he was locked out of his house over rent arrears.
