John Sibi-Okumu is one of the veteran voices in both media and theatre, not only in the country where his career kicked off but also overseas where it thrived.
Speaking to the Daily Nation on November 18, 2016, he stated that in his college days, one of the things that he stood out for amongst his peers was his sense of humour and compelling personality which aided in his theatre exploits.
"I acted in the world premiere of Muntu by a Ghanaian lecturer, Joe de Graft, which went on to become a national set book. This launched my acting career, as, over the years, I have acted in a number of local and international films," he stated.
Sibi reiterated the sentiments when he was hosted by Jeff Mote on K24 TV on June 12, 2018, where he revisited a career which had spanned over four decades that has seen him act out roles in popular plays in Broadway and films in Hollywood.
Sibi narrated that ever since he started his career, he has taken on close to 40 lead roles on stage and appeared in local and international films, including The Constant Gardener, Shake Hands With The Devil and The First Grader.
He terms The Constant Gardener as one of his best movie roles where he played a corrupt health minister, a performance that helped the film winning an Oscar Award and ten other major awards abroad.
Sibi told Mote that his skills on the stage were what made the directors of the movie consider him when they came to shoot movies that needed black actors to play African roles.
"I've been very lucky in that we started under the Phoenix Players Theatre Group and fell under the wings of the late James Falkland who inculcated the love of theatre in us. When movie directors came to Kenya and needed African actors, the casting department asked if there were any actors and I got the role," he recounted.
Sibi further narrated that through theatre, he was lucky to land a role in the film and the three others that followed, alongside collaborating with Kenyan theatre artists like Eric Wainaina to produce both theatre and film acts.
Among some of the awards that Sibi has been honoured to receive include the Chevalier des Palmes Academiques for Services to French Culture (2002), The Munich Film Festival URTNA Award for Best African Film in 1979 and a host of other local and international awards.
In the field of journalism, Sibi left a track record that many can only envy, having had a career that spanned from 1997 to 2013 after which he left KTN and Kiss TV for independent media consultancy.
Amongst his interviewees on television have been the late President Mzee Daniel arap Moi, retired President Mwai Kibaki, President Uhuru Kenyatta, ODM leader Raila Odinga, the late President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, former President of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa, second President of Mozambique Joachim Chissano, the late Kofi Annan, the late Environment Minister Wangari Maathai and anthropologist Jane Goodall.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he has also played roles as a teacher of French which was in line with his studies at the University of Nairobi where he pursued a degree in French language and literature between 1973-1975.
For his accomplishments, John reports that he is featured in the book Life Journeys, Scaling Heights – Conversations with High Achieving Men in Kenya.
