My song became a hit

My singing career started before getting involved with Slum Cinema. It all started when I was a small boy of about 12 years old. At that time I was in the church choir. With time I got encouraged by the public's response to my songs then I started being serious with secular songs. I visited one of the leading production houses in Kenya to find out what I needed in order to produce a song. I was asked for Kshs 40,000. This amazed me! I felt that those people wanted to kill my talent. I started thinking of how I could start doing video myself. That is when Slum Cinema started recruiting and that for me was a golden opportunity.

I used to represent the slum [Kibera] in many shows. One thing that made a significant change in my life is the recording of my two favourite songs: SUSPECT and WALIOTUPENDA. 'Suspect' is a song I did when I saw many of my friends being convicted for evils they did not commit, especially in the slum. They normally say ‘never judge a book by its cover’. Surely why should they arrest young men because of their dress code, or hairdo, to name but a few? For this reason that pained me so much, I did the song and it became a hit in the slum and it was loved by so many youths. This saw me meeting so many people and being a popular person among the youth. Through this popularity I was able to address youths in empowerment rallies in Kibera and even organise some.'Waliotupenda' was a song I did as a dedication to my late sister. She was sick and we had a problem handling the whole issue because of poverty. We loved her so much but we could not afford to provide for medication and therefore she passed on.

Generally, I have been encouraged because I have seen my music inspire so many people, especially the youths. Through my songs I have been able to take part in the mobilization of so many groups in the slum towards achieving a better life through workshops, talent shows, free clinics and the best of them all, forming an organization called ‘Ghetto Development Centre’ (GDC). This organisation has brought together many youths from Kibera who have different talents in music, video, writing, drama, dance and journalism. We have a journal that is serving the people of Kibera and we look forward to starting a slum TV.