• The teenage acrobat last week on JKL lamented how her ex-manager exploited her.
• The teenage acrobat on last week on JKL 'opened up' on how her ex-manager exploited her.
Image: /IVY MUTHONI
I used to receive small amounts of money from Joe Mwangi, Wendy Waeni’s mother Magdaline Syombua has revealed.
In an interview with Radio Jambo on Monday, Syombua said that her daughter's ex-manager would give her amounts of Sh20,000.
"Nimekua nikipata kidogo kama elfu ishirini (I have been receiving small amounts of Sh20,000 from Joe)," she said.
Syombua said she was not aware of what the daughter was lamenting about on national television.
The teenage acrobat on last week on JKL 'opened up' on how her ex-manager exploited her.
The globally-recognized gymnast and Unicef Ambassador said she performed across the world, but Mwangi did not give her or her family a single penny.
She blamed her ex-manager for making away with all the money.
“I have performed all over the world but I’ve never gotten a penny from it and that is because of my previous manager [Joe Mwangi]. I live n a single room in Huruma with my mother,” Wendy said.
She said that her mother currently sells sweets and cigarettes late at night in order to afford the rent for their single-room shack in Huruma.
“My mother is really suffering. She’s working right now (10 p.m). She sells sweets and cigarettes at night and we’re in this situation because of Joe Mwangi. Ever since I started performing across the globe, my mum has never gotten a single penny,” Wendy said.
The teenager said that Mwangi also locked her out of all her social media accounts and sometimes made controversial posts that left many followers unimpressed and questioned her morals.
“It’s really so sad when people tell me I’m rude, I am a brat because I post things on Instagram which I don’t really know. I don’t have access to my social media accounts. It’s Joe Mwangi who controls them,” she said.
Mwangi in his defense on Monday said he confiscated Wendy's phone because the internet was corrupting the young girl's morals.
In an interview with Ebru TV on Sunday evening, the former teenage acrobat manager narrated how he had been monitoring Wendy's internet usage before taking her phone.
"All this story does not have to do with money. In April I was with Wendy in Mombasa and you cannot imagine what she had been doing with her phone. That's why I took it," he said.
Asked to disclose what inappropriate content Wendy was browsing, Mwangi said, "Wacha nisiseme (let me not reveal) but imagine what can make me confiscate a child's phone?" he chuckled.
Mwangi said after he confiscated her phone he arranged for a meeting with the mother to explain why he took the phone.
"I showed Wendy's mum what her child was browsing but the mother insisted I give her back the phone. She would monitor her herself. I refused and this is what triggered Wendy to go lament on JKL," he said.