Why I left Kenya for the US - Nonini

Speaking on Citizen TV on Friday, prominent Genge musician-turned-entrepreneur said artists were hardly hit by government-imposed lockdowns, prompting him to explore an alternative.

Nonini, who is in the country for a music project, further disclosed that he also wanted to be closer to his family and more so his son who is currently 11 years old.

 “I relocated because I wanted to be closer to my son, although it was mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown that restricted creatives from conducting live shows.The government did not offer incentives to creatives, those were tough times” said Nonini.

He explained that the Kenyan music industry is in a bad state because CMOs are run by cartels, noting that this has been the case for the longest time throughout all government regimes. 

The musician expressed his persistence in advocating for change in the local music industry by adding private entities on top of the three government associations like the Music Publishers Association in Kenya (MPAKE), the Performance Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK), and the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP). He stated that musicians are being coerced into joining those three associations which are problematic. 

“We have tried to change the music bill to facilitate for musicians to join private entities. Musicians are being forced to restrictively join government music entities, which is problematic. We are calling on the Kenyan government to add private music entities to aid in financing musicians’ service delivery,” the Genge musician lamented.

Nonini also pointed out that the problem ailing the Kenyan music industry is that we do not support our own. 

“The Kenyan music industry is good. The problem stems from disliking our culture and criticizing it. We do not like and support our products,” he said.

The musician echoed the host, Lulu Hassan’s sentiments on the root cause being identity. 

“Unfortunately, Kenyans are very diverse. We are influenced by many cultures. We tried to make Genge Kenya’s identity, although we were met with criticism. As we speak, Genge is in the Grammys in the Best African Music category,” said Nonini.

He advised Kenyan musicians to advocate for their brands, adding that’s what creates wealth.