Queen of soaps

As an actor, “you are only as good as your last role. The audience will judge you in two ways: your most outstanding role or the one in which you were a complete flop. So you always have to look believable”.

These were the words of Naomi Kamau in an interview with Lifestyle. If you meet her in Mother in Law, she is Alison but if your encounter with her is at Makutano Junction, she answers to the name Mama Mboga (greengrocer).

And to be believable, an actor must own the role. “She puts a lot of practice into it. You can’t just wake up and in a few minutes convince people that you are a housewife or a green grocer,” says Catherine Wamuyu of her colleague. Catherine is the producer and director of Mother in Law.

In Mother in Law, Naomi plays the role of a humble housewife enduring fierce resistance from her husband’s mother who thinks she is of no use to her son. In her Mama Mboga role in Makutano Junction, she plays a lovable grocer who stands up for her rights when it counts, even if it means opposing the administration.

And the two women have had an interesting and complementary working relationship in TV production; a relationship borne out of a chance inquiry from Naomi, and a measure of belief on the part of Catherine. They have worked together in numerous projects from conceptualisation to execution.

In 1996, when Catherine was working as a programme’s producer for KBC’s talk show In Search of an Answer, Naomi floated an idea to her that she found worthwhile.

“Since the programmes revolved around the issues affecting the youth, I told Kat that I would like to be reading my own poems during the programme. I thought she would turn me down, since she can be quite serious at times,” says Naomi.

After Naomi’s idea of incorporating poetry into the talk show was accepted, it was only a matter of time before the two of them moved on to bigger and more involving things.

“I knew Naomi could be a good scriptwriter. So when I moved on from the talk show and started doing drama, she was a natural choice for scriptwriter,” says Catherine.

The new drama that they were doing together, Reflections, presented an opportunity for Naomi to get into TV.

Fast track the working relationship to 2003 when former Information minister Raphael Tuju called for more local content on TV. A section of the media and the public opposed the move claiming that it would negate all the gains that had been made in the broadcast sector.

But somewhere in Nairobi, the two women embraced the minister’s point of view and saw in it an opportunity to expand their territory. Since then, they have been tirelessly running with the idea even as the scene gets crowded. Today, they are the uninvited guests in almost every living room with a television set in the country.

Her first love

Catherine Wamuyu, fondly referred to by some of her cast members as Kat, has not always had cameras as her first love. But, she confesses, once she was introduced to them, something inside her moved and she has never looked back.

Almost 20 years later, TV productions still give her the same buzz they did with her initial productions. She is now an accomplished producer and director. Programmes under her name include Reflections, Tahidi High and Mother in Law, among others.

“I grew up herding my father’s cows and tending my mother’s brood of chicken. My first interaction with a TV set was during my A-Levels,” says the bespectacled Catherine.

“And even then, I didn’t know much about TV. Television sets were for Nairobi students. At least they knew how to switch the box on,” jokes Catherine, whom peers say is at a level of her own when it comes to TV production.

In modesty, she seeks to downplay the compliment. “Its all about focus and discipline. Anyone else who puts a similar amount of effort into it can do it,” she says.

Talent matters

But something else has to give. “Its not all about effort,” says Naomi who has been behind the scripts that have developed into much loved local programmes. “Talent matters too,” she says.

Naomi attributes her versatility to practice, participation in workshops and, most importantly, her environment.

“I have had numerous mentors from all over the world. I have spent hours with a pen and a piece of paper trying to put down a cohesive script and weeks in day-long workshops. But growing up in Jericho gave me my writer’s eye,” she says.

Naomi says Jericho provided her with the push she needed to get to where she is today.

“Life there was in living colour and in grim detail. There was always drama somewhere. If not at your neighbour’s home, then it was in your own house,” she says.

On first sight, Catherine cuts the figure of a strict mother and even on set, all cast members are at her beck and call. When she calls for silence, no one dares let out a sound. “If it’s audible enough for my ears, the camera can pick it,” she says.

Lasting impression

Naomi, on the other hand, appears less strict and has the air of a big sister. Conversation with her goes on seamlessly in English and transcends effortlessly into sheng, betraying the lasting impression her childhood neighbourhood of Jericho left on her.

“I have always been a story teller,” she says, recalling an incident during which she duped her playmates into believing the bizarre.

“Once on an incredibly boring school day, I made up a story and sold it to my classmates. It was so good that they believed me. To this day, I do not know why they took my word for it,” she says.

It was a Tuesday and little Naomi, in great detail, described how on the coming Friday afternoon at precisely noon, an incredibly tall ladder would be put up at Burma market and anyone interested in a visit to the moon would use it for the said visit.

There would be no charges and no parents would know about it. On the said day, long after she had forgotten all about it, she was hounded out of school by her classmates. Their destination was Burma market.

Journey to the moon

Their mission? To find the ladder and proceed on the journey to the moon. After an hour of walking up and down the market, the children gave up.

“Words have been my refuge for as long as I can remember. They have moulded me and are responsible for the person I have turned out to be,” says Naomi.

So when the chance to get into TV as a scriptwriter presented itself, she did not hesitate to grab it.

She says there’s nothing as exciting as coming up with a new script that goes down well with the audience.

For years, she has played diverse roles on the silver screen. Each one looking more authentic than the last she starred in.

As for Catherine, attention to detail is a mantra she lives by. “It’s the little things that create the huge difference between one production and another.”

“Perfectionist” is a tag she would gladly accept. “As a producer and director for a TV show, one cannot afford being less than a perfectionist. So many things can go wrong. And so many things must go right; so you must plan and execute with perfection,” she says.

Change of scenes

Catherine says that she has all her days planned out to the hour. “I know what I will be doing at such a time as now in December,” she says.

While shooting and during breaks for the change of scenes, she is quick to point out to the cast and the crew that time is of the essence and those off the set should hurry back.
Even after such strict scheduling, time for the two women still seems inadequate.

When she is not consumed in an ongoing project, Naomi is busy cracking her head over a pending script. So busy is the scriptwriter-cum-actor that she has no free time for herself.

Watching movies

“But in my mind I know I would enjoy travelling, reading and watching movies though it has been a while since I did any of that,” she says.

She does not like going out for fear of boring her company. “I know I can get irritating because as soon as I get to the location, I will feel like going back home. Either that or I will be thinking out scenes for a script. Some people might find this offending,” she says.

On her part, Catherine spends the little free time she has at home or in church. A normal week for her involves reporting Monday through Thursday at the Mother in Law set.

She rests on Fridays then on Saturdays she goes for the recording of Tahidi High. Sunday is quality time for her and her family. She has two sons and a daughter. Her first born son is a commerce student at Kenyatta University. “All of them are excellent actors,” she says of her children.

Among her many roles, Naomi too is a mother. She has two daughters, both in high school.

“One wants to be a dancer, and the other a films director. Although, like many parents I’d like to have a doctor in the family, I am glad they have found a path they are passionate about in life. Art is in the blood, you can’t run away from it,” she says.

Naomi’s father was a band member. Two of her brothers are actors, with the more famous one being Joseph Kinuthia, who plays Omosh in Tahidi High.

In her acting career, she has had many roles and balancing them has not been easy.

She however has no favourite role to date. “Each role I play brings out something different in me. Each one of them is a learning experience,” she says.

Catherine, who prefers to work in the shadows, admits that she is not a good actor. But she is brilliant behind the scenes. Influencing things from the background like a grand puppeteer, she sees herself as a midwife in the whole production process.

“A good script is like a pregnancy and the producer is tasked with seeing it through safe delivery into a brilliant programme,” she says.

But she has a quick disclaimer: “It is by no means an easy thing. Even with all the talent I have around the set, it is still challenging,” she says.

Artistes are known to be stubborn and, by their own admission, perfectionists who rarely appreciate a different point of view. And it is not any different for these two women.

“Just like any other alliance, we too have differences. We agree on some issues and disagree on others. But after each one of us has cooled down sufficiently, we reason out our differences and come to a compromise,” says Catherine.

Working relationship

Naomi agrees and says this has been what has kept them in a cordial working relationship for more than a decade.

“We have spent enough time together to know that each one of us is good in what she does, though at times it is hard to accept it upfront,” says Naomi.

Although held together by television, a bond none of them thinks will be broken any time soon, the two of them lead separate lives. When not thinking about scripts or producing them, little else occupies their minds. Scripts and production are their lives.

And their ages? Still a lady’s best kept secret.