MY HUSTLE: My love for cartoons led me to a fulfilling career

James King’ori, 24, is the head of content production and social media management at Imara TV. It's a virtual platform that crowdsources content from talented youth to create awareness on matters sexual reproductive health in an informative and entertaining way.

James has experienced tremendous growth in his skills, financial independence as well as career ambition. The young man he is today is a distant cry from the desolate college drop-out he was one and a half years ago.

“I was born in Othaya, Nyeri County. My father was a teacher and my mother a thriving businesswoman. My brother and I never lacked and we grew in a wonderful environment assured of a bright future. However, in an ugly twist of fate, my father fell ill and passed on. I was 10.

A year later, my mother relocated to Nairobi in pursuit of greener pastures for her business endeavours. My older brother also moved to Thika to fend for himself given he was done schooling. I was left to stay all by myself at our home in Othaya.

My aunt lived close by and my mother would send her money for my upkeep. At the beginning it was very exciting but as time went by, loneliness kicked in.

At one point I actually fell sick and when my aunt took me to the hospital, I was diagnosed with stress disorder. I spent endless hours watching cartoons on TV to curb the boredom. That is where my interest in animation and film production begun.”

THIRD PRESIDENT OF KENYA

His mother wanted him to be outstanding. The school had produced the third president of Kenya after all. She wanted him to be a top-notch engineer at the very least.  However, James’ heart was elsewhere as he would spend all his spare time poring through animation and graphic books at the school library.

“When I completed high school, I wanted to enroll immediately to Shang Tao Media Arts College to study graphics design and film production.

My mother shot down this idea way before I was done proposing it. After much persuasion and compromise, we settled for Information Technology (IT) and I was enrolled at Nairobi Institute of Business Studies (NIBS) in 2013.

Campus was heavenly what with the free Wi-Fi that gave me access to a million YouTube tutorials. Also after high school, a friend of mine who was hard-pressed for cash sold me his computer at a throw away price of Sh5,000. I spent half of my first year practicing my graphic design skills.

Unfortunately in April 2014, I was forced to drop out of college due to lack of school fees.  I was out of school for close to two years. That remains the lowest point of my life to date.”

BIG BREAK

James’ big break came when his cousin linked him up with Steve Maina of Imara TV. Steve was also a director of a software programing company called BTI Millman which was at that time having an intake for a joint training program, CodePamoja in partnership with two other organisations: Competa and Dew CIS Solutions.

James successfully applied to enroll for the January intake in 2016.

“I joined CodePamoja to learn software development and try IT as a career. However, my talent in designing user interfaces and graphical elements were undisguisable.

I decided to pursue this as my specialty. Six months later; one of the CodePamoja partners got a project working with the Government of Kenya and UNFPA to educate the public about HIV/AIDS using entertainment videos crowdsourced from Kenyan youth. I joined the project team as a 3D animation creator."

The project was Imara TV. The team also used the same project management processes in CodePamoja in producing and managing their video platform and this made my job very easy.

BETTER SKILLED AND MORECONFIDENT

"I graduated from CodePamoja in June 2016, better skilled and more confident about the future. I had also saved Sh25, 000 from the monthly stipend we got while on the program.”

In August 2016, the team steering Imara TV project enrolled the project for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) innovation accelerator dubbed I. I Accelerator in collaboration with Nailab, a technology driven business incubator.

Steve reached out to James who had proved to be conversant with the projection during his short stint as a 3D animation creator and together they presented the winning pitch that saw them scoop a whooping Sh1 million as seed capital.

James was offered a job as content production and social media manager and he took it up gratefully.

“I create animations and designs, edit content, and manage social media for the platform. Every day, I get to showcase not only my talent, but also that of many youths who submit their content to our website.

All one needs is a smartphone to upload their creative work on the Imara TV website and once it gets picked, they begin getting paid for their content. Recently, I recruited a brilliant scriptwriter.

She will be releasing a thrilling series soon on Imara TV. These youths are growing their talents and making some money while at it.  Currently, I'm earning enough to pay my bills and occasionally support my mother. This has made her very proud of me and is supportive of my career.”

James is currently saving up to go back to school in order to sharpen his skills.