Lynn Forbes reflects on life after AKA’s murder

It’s been three months since Lynn Forbes received a call no parent wishes to receive – her son, Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes, had been shot dead. 

Sunday will be the first Mother’s Day she marks since the award-winning rapper’s death. 

Lynn sat down for an interview with Carol Ofori on East Coast Radio’s ‘The Carol Ofori Podcast’. 

The motivational speaker talked candidly about how the Forbes family is trying to pick up the pieces after the devastating loss.   She also talked about the heartbreaking moment she stumbled across the haunting video of her son’s brutal murder on social media. 

Lynn, or ‘Glammy’ as she is affectionately known, said the Forbes family is “getting through the days” as best they can, but accepts that their lives have forever been changed. 

Listen to Carol Ofori’s full interview with Lynn Forbes below:  

“To be honest, I am in a good space, but I have very bad moments. That’s the best way I can describe it. As a family we are getting through the days. I do realise that my life has forever changed, and that I will forever be a different person. I will never be the Glammy or Lynn that everybody knows… A part of me been removed forever,” she told Carol Ofori. 

Lynn and AKA shared a close bond, and she often spent days at a time at the ‘Lemons (Lemonade)’ hitmaker’s home. 

The rapper spent the morning of his death with her and his daughter, Kairo Forbes – who was headed to school.

“He told her, ‘Daddy’s gonna miss you. I can’t wait for you to be back and always remember that daddy loves you’,” Lynn recalled him telling the seven-year-old. 

AKA’s last words to Lynn on February 10 still linger in her mind. 

“I won’t see you again,” he told her after realising that he would not get a chance to say goodbye before heading to Durban for a gig. He hugged her and blew kisses as he drove out of the driveway. 

Several hours later, Lynn received the heartbreaking call that her eldest son had been shot dead outside a restaurant in Florida Road – just a few weeks after celebrating his 35th birthday. 

“I just know that I have never felt pain like that ever in my life before. I still feel that pain. I wake up every morning and it is just a confirmation that I will never hear his voice again… The most painful thing is that Kiernan would phone me almost every day, check on me and send me messages, but I will never have that again. The phone has just gone quiet. He just doesn’t call anymore.”

Lynn told ‘The Carol Ofori Podcast’ that she tried avoiding the viral CCTV footage of the moment AKA was gunned down. 

She decided not to watch the video but stumbled across a shortened version of the footage on social media. 

“That image is one of the things that I see when I close my eyes… I don’t ever want Kairo to see it,” Lynn said. 

AKA’s close friend, Tebello 'Tibz' Motsoane, died alongside him on that fateful day.

Lynn said she is confident that the police are doing everything they can to crack the case. She is hopeful that the person who pulled the trigger will be arrested, but she doesn’t believe that the person who paid for the bullet will ever be caught. 

“I don’t need to know who shot him to have closure. That is not information that’s going to change my situation. I’m still going to wake up and he won’t be there,” she said. 

Lynn added that she’s not ready to return to Durban as it would be too emotional and triggering for her, but she hopes to visit the place where he died one day.

“One of the yearnings I have is to stand in the spot where he died, and just be there. I know his soul is not there anymore and his body is not there anymore, but that is the last place where he was alive.”  

Lynn’s advice for mothers who have experienced a similar loss is to hold onto the memories they made together. 

“All I am left with are the memories and they are beautiful memories and I hang onto them.”

Listen to more episodes from The Carol Ofori Podcast: