Afrobeat musician Femi Kuti has confirmed that DNA tests he ordered years ago revealed that two of the children he had raised as his own were not biologically related to him.
The revelation, which first drew widespread attention in late 2014 when an earlier interview circulated widely, stems from events that Kuti has said took place about eight years prior.
In accounts he has given, a rumour spread at the Afrika Shrine—the Lagos performance venue closely associated with the Kuti family—that one of his children did not resemble him. His sister advised him to seek clarity through testing to avoid potential future family disputes.
Kuti has explained that he chose to test all the children rather than only the one mentioned in the rumour. “There was a rumour in the Shrine that my child doesn’t look like me, so my sister advised me to go do a DNA test for confirmation so there would be no problem in the future,” he has said in recounting the episode. “I used the opportunity to do a DNA test on each and every child of mine, then it turned that two weren’t mine.”
In a 2014 interview with Channels Television clarifying the then-viral reports, Kuti described additional context: one of his girlfriends was overheard on a phone call with another man, which coincided with the existing rumour. He said he proceeded with the tests for “security reasons and for the sake of the family.” Results indicated two children were not his biological offspring. He has stated that he returned those two children to their mothers and later noted that he had additional biological children.
At the time the story resurfaced in 2014, Kuti and his management stressed that the events were not recent and that he had not granted a new interview on the subject. In statements and social media posts, he expressed frustration that the old matter was being presented as current news and emphasised his affection for the children in his life. “I live with my children and those that know me know how much I love them,” he posted around that period, adding that the story was years old and that his music, not personal controversies, defined his public profile.
The episode has periodically reappeared in discussions about paternity testing, trust in relationships, and the social implications of DNA results in Nigeria and beyond. Kuti, the eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and a long-established artist in his own right, has continued his career and family life in the years since. Reports from the period identified some of the children by name in connection with the tests, though Kuti has generally avoided naming the mothers involved in public comments.
The case illustrates how informal community gossip can prompt formal scientific verification with lasting personal consequences. Kuti’s public handling of the matter has underscored both the shock of the results and his insistence that the family had moved forward long before the story gained renewed traction.
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