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Home > Demos > Interactive > Ken Walibora
 

Who is the Kiswahili voice artist? This article reproduced with kind permission of the Daily Nation

 
Walibora away from TV fame


Story by ERNEST WAITITU
Publication Date: 3/20/2005

 
Walking down the streets of one of the biggest universities in the United States, a rucksack on his back, the man makes his way through a multitude of fellow students, creating no scene, completely unnoticed. This is in Ohio State University at the heart of the city of Columbus - the capital to the State of Ohio. In a college with a population of more than 65,000 students (compared to University of Nairobi’s 20,000), a solitary fellow from a small African country is not likely to attract much attention.

Walibora, on a snowy morning, beside his Hyundai Accent car, outside his apartment in Columbus, Ohio, United States.
While such obscurity may, at times, be unsettling, Ken Walibora, a former Nation Television anchor and arguably one of Kenya’s most prominent Kiswahili novelists, says that it is something he had yearned for many times while in Kenya, where almost every person would recognise his familiar face and gape in awe.

In his love for Kiswahili, Walibora, whose real name is Kennedy Waliaula, coined his pen name, Walibora from swahilinizing his Luhya name. He cut his name Waliaula to Wali (Kiswahili for cooked rice) and aula (Luhya for good or better). Hence Walibora.

Anonymity at Ohio State has given him a pleasant break from the challenges of public life. He can, at least for some time, live his own life away from the glamour and drama that characterises prominent broadcast journalists.

And this is just a bonus, for Walibora’s main joy comes from having secured a chance to pursue his dream in academia. In addition, his quiet life thousands of miles away from home has provided the best environment to nurture his creativity and to allow him to do what he has always liked doing - writing.

Walibora, the author of the book Ndoto ya Amerika (The American Dream) says he never had an American dream. He was always sceptical and critical of the ignorance that many Kenyans exuded when they talked about the grandeur of everything American. Indeed, this is what he sought to address in the book. The six-month stay in the US has not changed his viewpoint on the country not being the heaven it was always painted to be. "America is not a panacea to all problems. You just need to step out of your country to appreciate how good it is," he says.

However, Walibora talks highly of the American system of education and the resources available to students. "I am happy to profit from the advanced infrastructure in the US. I have never been anywhere where you can get just about any book you want. I love books," he says.

In a 1973 photo, Walibora (centre) with his brother Patrick Lumumba (right), and a friend, Wafula, at St Joseph's Primary School, Kitale.
Growing up as a small boy in rural Kenya, Walibora had one early dream - to become a policeman. He says a member of his extended family bullied him a lot in his childhood. He was really impressed one day to witness the police arrive and arrest the bully who had harassed everyone around for years. On that day he made up his mind to become a policeman. Somewhere along the way, however, the dream of enforcing the law fizzled out. It gave way to a burning desire to become a football commentator. Between Kitale town, where he grew up and his rural home in Sangura Village, Cherangany Division of Trans Nzoia District, the young boy of 10 found an avenue to his future. At Kitale, a little farming town in the North Rift, which exuded a cosmopolitan aura, he spent plenty of time playing football and watching television in a local social hall. This was the only television set in the neighbourhood.

He listened keenly to live football commentaries by legends such as Salim Juma, Leonard Mambo Mbotela, Abdul Ngalawa, and Salim Mbonde. Those were the people who inspired him to pursue the dream of becoming a media personality - one that he later achieved. Now a graduate student in African and African-American Studies with a concentration in Literature, Walibora has crossed many bridges. Last year, when he became the only student in his department to win the prestigious University Fellowship Award at Ohio State, it became testimony to the deftness with which he has handled the challenges in life.

Happy to see you . . . a group photograph of Walibora's extended family taken last December when he visited home in Sangura Village of Trans Nzoia District from his new base in Columbus, Ohio, United States. At far right is an elated Walibora: He hopes to use the quiet life to write more books.
Today, the novelist, who celebrated his 40th birthday in January, can only look back and muse about the road he has travelled. In his curriculum vitae he has experience as a football commentator, a top-notch news anchor, and a leading writer with seven published books, namely: Siku Njema, Kufa Kuzikana, Ndoto ya Amerika, Mgomba Changaraweni, Mtu wa Mvua, Uhondo wa Kiswahili Kidato cha Kwanza Kitabu cha Wanafunzi, and Uhondo wa Kiswahili Kidato cha Kwanza Kitabu cha Mwalimu.

He also has a host of short stories and scholarly papers published in Kiswahili. Yet this is just a glimpse of what this writer has in store for his readers. He has a bag of other titles to be released before the end of the year. These books will include: The American Dream (an English translation of Ndoto ya Amerika), Kaka Tupu, Uhondo wa Kiswahili Kidato cha Nne, Diwani ya Karne, Mwongozo wa Mwisho wa Kosa, Guilty But Innocent and a number of short stories and literary articles. And it appears that there are no limits to flexibility for the prolific writer, who has also decided to try his hand at English. In Guilty but Innocent, Walibora makes his debut in English medium. He also did his own a translation for Ndoto ya Amerika. The book, which won the 2003 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, will soon have a chance to be read internationally when the English translation, which will be released in New York before June, hits the market.

However, Walibora says that his current success should not be taken to mean that pursuit of his career goals has been easy. For those who would be despairing in joining broadcasting or any other dream that seems so elusive, Walibora’s message is patience and hard work pays, and handsomely so.

For the eight years he worked as a probation officer, Walibora’s life was spent with jailbirds in some of the most notorious prisons in the country. During this time, he tried to understand the lives of these people and to present a vivid picture of their lives to the courts. This was an important job he says, for many times the reports he and others made as probation officers would influence the judges' rulings. Through this time, Walibora says that his colleagues kept reminding him that his fortunes lay elsewhere - in broadcasting.

Walibora has no regrets about his job as a probation officer. It was while serving the Probation Department that he wrote his first book Siku Njema. The book received immediate acclaim after its release in 1996. In 1997, it was selected as a set book for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

Tough, too, were his first days at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation when he had to live in a one-roomed shack at Kabiria in Nairobi's Riruta Satellite. He would be working the 3 am shift, but had to wake up much earlier to walk to the nearest place that the KBC vehicle could get to. The road to his house was impassable and the KBC driver couldn’t risk getting himself trapped in some dark street in a run-down neighbourhood in the middle of the night. Relief only came when KBC gave him a company house on Jogoo Road.

Walibora first tried his hand at broadcasting while he was a student at the Kenya Institute of Administration. He would always pick the opportunity to be the commentator and announcer in college sports. And being the unswerving sportsman he was, he could not allow himself to sit and just watch others compete. He had to master the intricate art of multi-tasking: he would run and win his race and then jump back to the podium to do the announcements.

Walibora will forever be grateful to Philip Omoni, his lecturer at KIA, who ensured that after college he was posted to Nairobi so that he could pursue his dream. He spent time between 1988 and 1996, trying to get absorbed into full-time broadcasting. In 1988, he was admitted by the KBC for an intensive voice clinic course which exposed him to the challenges of being on air. In the clinic, he impressed his tutors with his good voice and talent.

During this period, Walibora tried reporting sports and would do so by calling from public pay phones, footing the costs with his slim budget. But KBC still did not hire him even after the impressive performance in the clinic.

In 1990, dispirited, heart-broken and with a strong feeling that his luck could be elsewhere, Walibora requested a transfer from Nairobi. He wanted to be as far as possible from the world that had rejected him. He moved to Nakuru where he worked for four years before leaving for another appointment in Kitale.

Six years later, in 1996, KBC launched its Metro FM radio. Walibora applied for a job, and was one of the few selected from amongst thousands of applicants.

Walibora is married to Anne Waliaula, a teacher, with whom he has one child, a daughter. He recalls 1997 as possibly the most significant year in his life. It was the year Siku Njema was published, his daughter Nasambu, alias Sheila Zawadi, was born, and to crown it all, his dream of joining full-time broadcasting was realised. He was then employed at KBC as a News Editor.

And as a dream-come-true, he would also join the likes of the legendary Mambo Mbotela in transmitting football commentaries live from the stadium. However, Walibora says, his job as news editor at KBC did not present him with ample opportunity to read news, the other job he felt he was cut for in addition to football commentaries.

It is when Walibora Joined Nation Broadcasting in 1999, that he got a chance to read and anchor news. He describes his time at the Nation as "wonderfully fulfilling". His command of Kiswahili was key in helping build Nation TV Kiswahili broadcast. At the same time, he was very instrumental in leading the Kiswahili team in news translation from English, which sometimes demanded to be done in the shortest time possible. And if you ever wondered, who coined the name eneo bunge, now almost completely accepted in Kenyan media as the English equivalent for constituency, your guess is right, Walibora did.

The last born in a family of five (four boys and one girl), Walibora attended St Joseph’s Primary School in Kitale, the alma mater of former Vice-President Michael Wamalwa and a top footballer of the 1970s Abdul Baraza.

While his former primary school may have prided itself in producing arguably the best English speaker in the country in the person of late V-P Wamalwa, the school can also boast of having produced one among the top Kiswahili speakers, writers and broadcasters.

From St Joseph's, Walibora joined Koelel High School. Like many other Advanced Level students of his time, Walibora tried teaching after school. He taught Kiswahili at Sitatunga Secondary School before joining the Civil Service as a probation officer - a social worker attached to the Prisons Department and who provides information to the court on the life and attitude of a person awaiting sentencing.

Throughout his various career switches and full-time employment, Walibora has found time to further his education. He graduated from the University of Nairobi with a first class honours degree in Literature and Kiswahili.

For now, he is concentrating on his graduate studies and writing. Before the end of the year, he will have published an avalanche of new titles. "These six titles are all ready. That is a guarantee to my readers. As a matter of fact I have already received some cheques from the publishers," he quips.

And which is his favourite title? In answer, he starts by paraphrasing Chinua Achebe: Just like a parent cannot choose a favourite among his children, neither can a writer with his books.

Prodded, however, he confesses to a special liking for Guilty But Innocent, the soon to be released title. The story, told through the prism of a young woman who undergoes the ordeal of rape, "is special to me because in its writing, it overwhelmed me. I didn’t have control over it. The story told itself, despite the fact that it was my first time to experiment writing fiction in English."


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