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TikToker Bernard Kamulu aka Bena Wa Malines found fame five years after beginning content creation.
The young man opened up to Jeff Kuria in a conversation on YouTube that he found fame when working as a matatu tout in Juja.
He had dropped out of school for lack of school fees and to pass time worked in a matatu where he practiced his famous lines getting the famous nickname Bena Wa Malines.
Friends recorded the clips which then went viral online. “Usinishika mapaja” was a clip he performed in his famous Kamba accent that went viral on TikTok.
Bena told Jeff that he is also a rapper and poet and actor and is currently pursuing a course in Journalism at Mt Kenya University.
He also explained that it has always been his passion although his parents expected him to go for other courses like Law, and Medicine, they soon saw his talent.
“In university, I studied journalism, but they didn’t want that, they wanted other high careers, my dad wanted me to concentrate on education and not acting skits, but my mum told me I had talent.”
What inspired Bena wa Malines? He saw a gap in Kamba content creator with interesting accents, and dove right into it. “I mixed my sheng ka utao an kale kaushamba niko nako, so I combined it.”
He has often been discouraged from online content, but he says, “Niliweka roho juu, we are pushing to the end.”
Did his journalism course suffer due to his content creation? “I was performing very well in school, wacha hivo walimu walikuwa wanasema not all that glitters is gold, mi ni ile kitu ambayo si gold, but na glitter more than it”. Im very bad when it comes to books.”
He has not yet graduated, “Nimebakisha some units, semester moja nitakuwa nimemaliza. I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’m pursuing journalism. I’m here recoding my things.”