Juma Jux wife and Priscilla Ojo’s store burnt down. Tanzania protests raged into a fiery inferno Wednesday, as enraged demonstrators torched the Bongo Flava star’s upscale retail outlet in the heart of the capital, reducing a multimillion-dollar empire to smouldering ruins just hours after a bitterly contested presidential election unleashed waves of chaos across the nation.
Juma Jux, the 36-year-old hitmaker whose silky ballads like “Fashion Kills” have topped East African charts for years, watched in horror from afar as his flagship store on Samora Avenue went up in flames.
Valued at over $780 million according to preliminary insurance filings leaked to local media, the boutique blended high-end streetwear with Tanzanian artisan crafts, drawing celebrities from Lagos to Johannesburg.
Flames licked the sky by midnight, fed by protesters chanting against election fraud, their Molotovs shattering glass facades adorned with Jux’s own merch lines.
Firefighters battled the blaze for hours, but by dawn, only charred mannequins and twisted metal beams remained, a stark casualty in the post-poll pandemonium that has claimed lives and livelihoods alike.
The violence, erupting mere minutes after preliminary results flashed President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s near sweep on state TV, painted a grim portrait of a nation fracturing at the seams.
In Dar es Salaam, where opposition Chadema faithful clashed with riot police in tear gas shrouded alleys, the store became a symbol of perceived elite complicity.
Jux, whose subtle nods to CCM events had irked some fans, faced online vitriol even before the arson.
“He dressed the dictators,” spat one graffiti tag on a neighbouring wall, captured in shaky citizen videos that trended before the internet blackout clamped down.
Priscilla Ojo, the Nollywood darling and Jux’s partner of two years, broke her silence from a safe house in Nairobi, her Instagram story a tear-streaked selfie: “Our dreams in ashes.
“Eyewitnesses, huddled in nearby tea kiosks as sirens wailed, recounted the horror in hushed tones. “They came with jerry cans, shouting about stolen votes,” said vendor Amina Hassan, 52, who lost her roadside stall to stray embers.
“Jux’s place was lit first, maybe for the lights or the fame. Screams, then silence.” Police logs tally at least three arson sites that night, including a CCM office and a luxury hotel lounge, but Jux’s loss towers in scale.
Built from his music royalties and savvy investments, the store anchored a mini mall that employed 150 locals, from tailors stitching custom kangas to baristas brewing Kilimanjaro blends.
Now, families in Temeke’s informal settlements, reliant on those pay cheques, brace for breadline blues. Jux, born Juma Mussa Mkambala but crowned “Mr. Blue” for his velvet vocals, jetted to Kenya post arson, linking arms with Ojo for crisis huddles.
Their romance, splashed across Pulse headlines since a 2024 Zanzibar getaway, now doubles as a beacon of cross-border solidarity.
“He’s shattered but standing,” Ojo told a TMZ Africa stringer over encrypted calls. “That store was our future: expansions to Accra, collabs with Burna Boy. Protests stole it, but not our spirit.”
Tanzanian artists, from Harmonise to Ali Kiba, rallied with a virtual fundraiser on WhatsApp chains, aiming for TSh 500 million in rebuild pledges.
Also, Tanzanian protestors are now targeting homes and properties of politicians, businesses and musicians who supported Mama Samia and setting them on fire.
Nenga Tronix, a Dar es Salaam store specialising in Apple products and electronics which is owned by Tanzanian musician Billnass, was set ablaze.
Car yards and properties linked to Finance Minister Mwigulu Nchemba were torched, and the protestors are marching towards musician Alikiba’s home and Diamond Platinumz.