‘Nyatiti’ player returns home to conquer the Kenyan market

Mwangi Kirubi | NATION
Nyatiti player Ayub Ogada during a recent performance at Goethe Institut auditorium in Nairobi. Ogada is one of the most celebrated musicians in Kenya. He has 70 song titles and has extensively performed in concerts across Europe.

What you need to know:

  • Ayub Ogada lived in Europe for 20 years and has recorded more than 70 songs

It is Saturday night at the Goethe Institut auditorium in Nairobi, and the theme of the night is ‘Muziki wa Kenya.’ A clean-shaven man is playing an eight-string instrument.

The auditorium is filled to capacity. The clean-shaven man, Ayub Ogada, belts out Koth Biro, one of his popular tunes. He sings with emotion, compelling some fans to tap their feet and sway to the beat of the nyatiti.

“Ayub is awesome, I can never miss his shows,” says a fan, who only identifies herself as Karen.

Ogada is one of the most celebrated musicians in Kenya. He has 70 song titles and has extensively performed in concerts across Europe.

Ogada usually performs alone, though sometimes he uses a drummer.

This night, he is solo on stage. He belts out his popular songs, including Thum Nyatiti, Dala, Obiero, Wa Winjigo Ero and Ondiek.

“His songs make a lot of sense. I am actually looking for his album,” says Dorothy Ooko, one of the fans who attended the ‘Muziki wa Kenya’ show.

Over the years, Ogada has endeared himself to the audience. He has been a guest artiste at Tusker Project Fame and, since coming back to Kenya in 2008, has been quietly doing his music despite the misfortune of losing his studio instruments to burglars a year ago.

At the end of the show, a voice from the audience requests Koth Biro once more.

“You have made me feel good, I hope I have also made you feel good,” says Ogada. “I will sing for you, but I must thank you for coming to listen to my music.”

He is hardly ever noticed on the streets of South ‘B,’ where he lives. Prior to the show, the Saturday Nation spent some time with Ogada at an eatery in South ‘B.’ He says he does not rehearse every day.

“I love Nyatiti. She is my first wife, she is my sweetheart,” said Ogada, who is single. He has never thought of marriage, he says. “I don’t feel lonely. As long as I have a roof on my head, I am fine.”

Having lived in the UK for 20 years, Ogada came back to Kenya in 2008. He left the UK just the same way he had left Kenya, musically speaking, mysteriously.

Twice while in the UK and Italy, he was mistaken for a terrorist.

“When I first landed in London, I hadn’t planned to stay for long. But the grilling by the immigration guys actually made me want stay,” he says.

Everyday in London, he would go to the underground train stations by 8am, moving from one spot to another just to sing. He says he would stay at the subway stations until 11pm, and usually carried home Sh20,000 or Sh27,000.

Ogada’s interest in music began while growing up in the US, where his parents sang in colleges and churches.

He begun taking piano, violin and trumpet lessons and even joined the school orchestra in Chicago.

Ogada wanted to become an architect, as did his parents, but he discovered nyatiti in 1983 at African Heritage and learnt to play it at Bomas of Kenya.

He plays djembe, guitar, kalimba, piano and violin. He says it took him three years to learn to play the violin, an instrument that normally takes an average musician eight years to learn.

But nyatiti is still the most important part of his life, though he sometimes plays the guitar.

“The guitar is easy to carry, so I still play it. But my main instrument became the nyatiti,” says the alumnus of Lenana School.