Samuel Buuri Murithi, a teacher at the Mutomo School for the Deaf, Kitui County, has once more shown that disability is not inability by making online videos of sign language and earning from it.
Kenya has a population of 47million citizens with 10% of the number suffering from physical challenges that hinder their normal day to day activity. Buuri is amongst the few physically challenged individuals who are finding ways to conquer disability by venturing innovative ways to sustain themselves.
The sign language teacher is already dreaming of starting his own TV station later in life, a dream that saw him start online sign language sessions in order to help others learn the language too.
''My future dream is to start a TV station that focuses more on those who have hearing impairments. I have to find investors who can help me achieve it,'' said Murithi through a translator.
Unlike others, he was not born with a disability, but his life changed at the age of nine whilst in class three when he began experiencing problems on his right ear, his mother found it rude when calling him with no response or get a response after a while.
In 2003 Murithi began experiencing problems in his left year before losing his hearing ability in 2004, a condition that saw him drop out of school for two years before finally getting assistance from a doctor.
Watch Murithi's interview below with the Daily Nation:
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He managed to enrol at the Kaaga School for the Deaf, where his passion for the media began.
"At Kaaga School, I was a photographer and anytime we travelled I was the one tasked with taking photos and videos of schoolmates.''
In college, he discovered another talent in him as he joined the drama club as an actor, later on shooting a song in sign language, a song that he says gained traction with a majority of close friends.
Murithi has been making videos and posting them online to teach sign language tutorials to anyone interested in learning sign language.
His dream of starting his own sign language TV has been driven by what he described as distorted translation on mainstream television.
"The translation on TV is not up to standard and my friends also attest to it, they too have negative comments when it comes to the people translating for us.''
"My interest is to make the those without disability enjoy and also have the deaf understand what is being said on TV,'' said the teacher who one day hopes to start a new journey as a media house owner.
Murithi's YouTube channel, Deaf Media Kenya has an impressive 1,200 subscribers and together with others, he has been making videos on different topics to help the hearing impaired community.
Watch one of Murithi's Lessons here:
