21 July 2007
Nairobi — Wamaria uses business and political skills to rake in millions in a difficult field, writes JOHN KARIUKI
Musician Kennedy Wambua Nguze's personal identification reads like this:
Age: 36.
Job description: Musician/entrepreneur.
Marital status: Married with two children.
Financial status: Millionaire.
Personal vehicles: A Mercedes Benz E200, Prado, a Pajero for personal use and others for work purposes.
Property: Has paid Sh3 million for a house at Doonholm in Nairobi, owns three textile shops in the city and is a partner at Kinga Motors of Umoja which deals in used vehicles, is a co-owner of Sunset Safaris - a tour firm in Mombasa - and is involved in real estate business.
It may sound like a mouthful, but not for the exuberant, dreadlocked artiste, whose stage name is Ken Wamaria.
With his music selling well, Wamaria is undoubtedly the greatest success story in Kamba music in a long time, but he has hardly featured in the media and never earned himself a local celebrity tag. But this does not overly bother him.
"I think the local media are too obsessed with hype and are not serious enough to deal with real-life music, and this puts me off," he says.
Wamaria looks at the activity in the city's River Road and wonders where the Press has been looking.
He says: "In reality, there are only four music celebrities in Kenya at the moment - myself, Tony Nyadundo, John de Methew and Mike Rua. Any other name is just sheer hype."
Without good radio support, he and his colleagues have developed networks that sell their music and have worked very well.
"To a point, radio and TV may not be that relevant to us because our fans know where to find our music," he points out.
He is the latest music fairy tale and heads turn whenever he passes by and strangers reach out to congratulate him or acknowledge his largesse.
In a recent incident in Nairobi's eastlands, traffic slowed down to a crawl as fans pepped out of vehicle windows to salute him as he drove past.
Later, when he and I paused briefly outside a restaurant after this interview, a stranger walked up to us to ask for a photo shot with his idol at a nearby studio.
He obliged, but by the time the two were striding away to the studio, several excited fans were already milling around, their faces lit up with admiration. But although he is probably a real celebrity, Wamaria resents the tag.
With 21 well selling CDs to his credit and a legion of artistes under his Yatta Productions, he is an enigma in the Kenyan music scene.
Not since Kakai Kilonzo in the 1970s has Kamba music witnessed this level of success but unlike Kakai whom he acknowledges as a great inspiration, Wamaria has the business acumen to ensure his music pays. "I don't think there is anybody else who can touch him at the moment," says fellow artiste Joseph Kamaru. The view is shared by artiste/producer Peter Kigia, also a music success in his own right. Wamaria, he says, is undoubtedly the greatest selling artiste in the country right now.
"I believe he could buy a brand-new Prado any time he wishes," he drives the point home.
With his long dreadlocks, his looks belie his chosen genre of music. " I know people associate dreadlocks with reggae, but I'm a Rastafarian who plays benga and sings in the Kamba language," he points out.
Now assured of the home turf, Wamaria is reaching out to the international audience by singing in Kiswahili and targeting mainly people who love general African music. The transition is already in motion and the launch will be next month.
"I have lined up three albums and will be seeking a good overseas distributor for international sales," he says.
Born in Matuu, Yatta district, Wamaria looks back at a difficult childhood, growing up in a semi-arid and hardship area. He recalls: "My family was poor and I had to learn survival at an early age."
After primary school at the local Makivenzi, he joined Kangaru high school in Embu and went on to University of Nairobi for a law degree in 1990.
This was at the height of the clamour for political pluralism. After two years of study which were occasionally interrupted by closures due to riots and mounting financial pressure, Wamaria decided that enough was enough and dropped out.
Fallback career
He had sung at the home Catholic church and learnt to play the rhythm guitar, and decided that music was his natural fallback career. "I became a session musician working as a guitarist and a back-up singer," he recalls.
Come the 1997 General Election, he was hired to do the groundwork for politicians in Ukambani and Taveta, and this was a challenging, if rewarding, experience. Over time, he saved Sh50,000 which enabled him to venture into clothes business at Gikomba market, Nairobi.
His recording career started in 2002 with the song, Carol-Too Mwingi Timu Seo, which became a good launch pad. But it was the follow-up, Germany By Foot, that put him on the internet, and his career was on the roll.
He had spent enough time observing the music scene to realise the need for good business skills. And as he stabilised, Wamaria enrolled at Strathmore College in the city for a degree course in business administration and pursued this to the post-graduate level. He is currently doing a diploma in computer technology.
A string of recordings went on in the meantime, and as his reputation rose so did live engagements increase.
The biggest was at Jambo Village in Mombasa where an estimated 10,000 fans converged.
But what was supposed to be a big day for Wamaria became a moment of grief when two fans died of suffocation.
There has been other big attendances making live shows a highly lucrative business for the youthful star.
He says not without a touch of smug satisfaction: "On average, each of the first 14 CDs earned me Sh250,000 and the rest up to the latest Volume 21 have each made at least Sh1 million."
He has at least two live appearances a week, each raking in an average of Sh140,000, with a take-home of Sh280,000 a week. This after spending Sh120,000 to pay his huge band. His other earnings are from his car and real estate businesses. But although he admits that he is rich, Wamaria is hesitant about being labelled a millionaire.
"Let's just say that I am rich," he says.
He says, however, that his fortunes would have been bigger had it not been for the high rate of piracy that continues to eat into every musician's sales.
But he has an advantage over his peers which he gained from his days as a political activist whose role was to mobilise the youth.
"I learnt how to organise people on the ground, and I have applied the same tactics to outwit pirates." Still he concedes that he loses up to 50 per cent in sales to piracy.
And as his music continues to cause raves, so do his dreams rise. The quest for an international music career is certainly in the offing and this is an objective he views with seriousness.
"There is a huge audience of East Africans in the Diaspora who constitute a huge market for CDs and live shows," he says, adding that he has been approached to perform abroad, but will wait until he has enough repertoire in Kiswahili.
"I think it would be absurd to expect Kenyans from other communities to sit through an entire evening listening to Kikamba songs," he reasons. Lately, his name has been touted as possible contender for the Embakasi parliamentary seat, a fact he is non-committal about.
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