Colonel Mustafa’s surprise on-air proposal to Noti Flow has left more than an awkward clip for social media, the moment exposed old wounds, strained a current relationship, and sparked a fierce debate about spectacle, accountability and the cost of public romance.

The drama unfolded during an appearance on Oga Obinna’s live show while the two were promoting their collaborative track “Katika.”

Mid-interview, veteran musician Colonel Mustafa abruptly produced a ring, went down on one knee and poured out a confession of love, a move that was clearly meant to be heartfelt but played out, for many viewers, as startling and ill-timed.

Noti Flow’s immediate reaction was blunt: she queried whether it was a prank, then firmly declined, telling Mustafa she loved him “only as a friend” and reminding him that she was already in a relationship. The moment, captured on camera and shared across platforms, quickly became the internet’s latest viral spectacle. 

What might have been a private reconciliation request instead reopened a fraught history between the two artists. Noti Flow and Mustafa have a long and public past, their on-off romance has previously played out in headlines, including accusations and counterclaims that dragged both into the spotlight.

The unexpected proposal therefore triggered reactions that were as personal as they were performative. Noti Flow later said the surprise had put her current relationship under pressure because her partner was upset by the incident, despite her immediate rejection of Mustafa’s gesture.

“My boyfriend is mad at me coz my ex proposed and I said no,” she wrote in a post that circulated widely among entertainment outlets. 

Noti Flow has also reported a dramatic social-media backlash: she says she lost hundreds of thousands of followers in the hours after the proposal clip spread online, a purge she partly attributed to outraged Kenyan netizens who read the scene as disloyalty even though she had clearly declined the proposal on air.

That spike of negativity underscores how quickly a single public moment can be converted into a narrative weapon in the court of social media. 

Some viewers accused Mustafa of staging the stunt for publicity around the song release; others sympathised with him for putting his emotions on display. Many, however, placed the responsibility on Mustafa for weaponising a live platform and forcing Noti Flow to respond to a personal history in front of cameras.

Comment sections filled with snark, sympathy and heated moralising, and, crucially, with a level of intrusion that has now compounded real-world consequences for Noti Flow’s private life.