THE STANDARD
LIFESTYLE
Simon Kihara Macharia aka Musaimo at his studio on River Road, Nairobi. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]
As the General Election fever hit fever pitch in 1979, a titanic battle was brewing in Murang’a’s Kangema Constituency between Joseph Kamotho and John Michuki.
It was the first elections in the Moi era and having left his civil servant job to join the murky world of politics, Michuki was ready to take on Kamotho, the incumbent then.
“I was home since I was struggling with school fees. At this young age, I had developed love for music and I had a guitar. In-between my casual gigs at construction sites, I would play the guitar as my peers discussed politics,” says Simon Kihara aka Musaimo wa Njeri, the benga musician whose fortunes changed thanks to the heated Kangema politics at the time.