Fans send well-wishes as Kenneth Salick battles kidney failure

AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­[email protected]

Well-wish­es con­tin­ue to pour in fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by for­mer chut­ney so­ca monarch Ken­neth Sal­ick of his poor health, as he bat­tles kid­ney fail­ure.

The rev­e­la­tion came on Thurs­day via a so­cial me­dia post made by Sal­ick, where he sought to ad­dress his sud­den re­tire­ment from the stage.

The 63-year-old lo­cal singer, known for his chut­ney hit Rad­i­ca Why You Leave and Go, ex­plained that it was not his choice to stop per­form­ing, but rather a ne­ces­si­ty.

“I will be 64 years this April and I am not well. I am suf­fer­ing from kid­ney fail­ure... I am very sick... the main rea­son is the pain is some­times un­bear­able... so I hope deep in my heart you all will un­der­stand why I did what I had to do,” Sal­ick said.

“If the good Lord per­mits me, I will love to sing for you guys again. It hurts me re­al­ly bad. But I have no choice... don’t ever for­get Ken­neth Sal­ick loves you and miss­es you all.”

With­in hours, the Face­book post had re­ceived close to 2,000 likes and 1,200 com­ments from fans and lovers of his mu­sic.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Sal­ick’s man­ag­er con­firmed the artiste’s di­ag­no­sis, say­ing he has suf­fered from kid­ney prob­lems for the past decade. This prompt­ed his re­tire­ment an­nounce­ment in Jan­u­ary, when he cit­ed on­ly per­son­al rea­sons for his de­ci­sion.

She added that Sal­ick al­so con­tin­ues to mourn the death of his first son, Nigel Si­mon Sal­ick, who passed away on Jan­u­ary 2 due to a head in­jury, com­pound­ing his on­go­ing pain.

Sal­ick con­tin­ues to re­ceive treat­ment lo­cal­ly.

In re­sponse, chut­ney so­ca artiste Rik­ki Jai told Guardian Me­dia the news is sad.

“It’s sad to know a fel­low artist is un­der­go­ing this sort of ill­ness and, you know, ail­ing the way he is. But, you know, it’s a tough world in which we live. I’m re­al­ly sad­dened to hear of it though, hon­est­ly,” he said.

Mean­while, singer Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine ex­tend­ed prayers on Sal­ick’s be­half, not­ing that his late broth­er and fel­low band mem­ber, Ren­nie, al­so passed away af­ter bat­tling a sim­i­lar di­ag­no­sis.

“It’s very sad. My prayers go out to him. I know the strug­gle since my late broth­er. Ren­nie passed away from kid­ney fail­ure. Ken­neth has al­ways been a kind per­son to me. I’m pray­ing for his health.”

Sal­ick cap­tured the 2009 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch ti­tle with his song Rad­i­ca.