In 2017, there was a new anthem in town a secular song titled ‘Kihiki Understanding’ thanks to Sam wa Kiambo.
‘Kihiki Understanding’ loosely translates to an understanding woman. The song was a big hit in the Mt Kenya region inhabited by Kikuyu speakers as they personified the message in the song.
Wa Kiambo in the song sends a warning to his wife who constantly nags him. He threatens to walk out of their marriage and look for a mistress with a curvy body who understands him and doesn’t nag.
He also makes it clear that when he walks out, he will disaforgetar like the Malaysian plane that went missing in March 2014 never to be found.
When the song hit the airwaves, Wa Kiambo became the new talk of the town. His status was elevated from a mechanic in Kikuyu town to a celebrated artiste.
However, his musical success came tumbling down following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
It took away his lifeline forcing him to retreat to his old trade; motor vehicle mechanic.
Recently, he spoke to journalist turned lawyer Wahome Thuku and painted a grim picture of how much the pandemic messed his dream as an artist.
There is no longer a band that he had put together, thanks to the pandemic which hit shortly after he nearly lost his life in a grisly road acceded.
In 2018, the musician was involved in a road accident that saw him stay in a hospital bed for the next 12 months.
After recuperating, he went back to music in August 2019.
“I had fully recovered and ready to go back to the stage in full.
However, all my savings hand been eaten up by the hospital bills and I only had my instruments and my talents to fall back to,” he narrated.
A few months down the line, Covid struck hard and he disbanded the band and hoped for the best out of the three albums he has released so far.
He resorted to selling his music online with YouTube being his biggest platform but doesn’t make much out of it.
He has 584,000 views on YouTube which pay him Ksh15,000 every three months translating to Ksh5,000 monthly.
This is nothing compared to what he was earning in live performances.
“In a month I would get about three shows an each would earn me Ksh70,000, making it Ksh210,000 a month, sometimes even more,” he explains.
Being the breadwinner and music fortunes seemingly waning, he had to go back to fixing cars to feed his family.
But even as he fixes cars, he is working on getting back to music saying that music is his lifeline.
He has two new audio songs out and is working on recording their videos.
With the passion that he has for music, he always carries all his musical stuff on the back of his car ready for a show. This is how much he yearns for a live concert because mechanic work is draining at times.
“You can go for a week earning only 200 bob a day. It doesn’t give much for saving but every day it will provide a daily bread for the family,” he adds.
Sam is optimistic that he will bounce back and get more support than he first did when he released ‘Kihiki Understanding’ in 2017.