Francis Kibe, aka Rapcha the Sayantist is a comedian known to most due his hard-hitting and blunt show Raiyaa, as well as his positive vibes while hosting his reggae show on Hot 96 FM alongside Shix Kapienga.
However, speaking exclusively to Kenyans.co.ke, Rapcha gave a gripping tale of his life journey, starting from Mathare Valley to national television to Hot96 studios, with several unexpected detours along the way.
Uknown to most, Rapcha actually started performing in the streets of Nairobi at the tender age of 14.
"I used to go to the streets as well as funerals and just crack up jokes. However, the church is where my skills were honed, as I used to act out plays at St Trizah's Church in Eastleigh," he revealed.
It was during this period that Lucy Wangui - the famous judge from the popular Vioja Mahakamani TV series, spotted his rare talent and pushed him to venture into television.
He gladly joined the Vioja Mahakamani crew, first as a filler - a character generally unrelated to the main plot who doesn’t significantly alter the relations between the characters - before eventually transitioning into a lead character.
His stint at the popular show came to an abrupt end, as the country erupted in violence following the hotly disputed 2007 general elections.
Residing in Mathare, it was inevitable that he would come face to face with the atrocities that engulfed the slum during that period.
"I lost a lot of close friends, some lost their arms, another one lost his wife to the raging mob. People were dying in thousands," he narrated in a somber tone.
As fate would have it, Rapcha met Michelle Wrong (famed for her It's Our Time to Eat book) during this period. She was moving around Mathare with Robert Ocholla (a Ghetto Radio FM presenter at the time), and it just so happened that Rapcha was tasked with taking them around.
One thing led to another and the comedian was offered a job at Ghetto Radio FM which he accepted with both arms if only to escape the stench of death in Mathare.
"I used to sleep at the studio, just to escape from all of it," he explained.
It was during his stint at the radio station that he met Makarios Ouma alias Mwafreeka, and his passion for comedy was once again re-ignited.
"Mwafreeka really pushed me to try out stand up comedy. He was the one who actually organized my very first show at the Alliance Française," he recalled.
It was the first show of it's kind, drawing various industry critiques including Daniel Ndambuki, popularly known as Churchill.
After the show, Mwafreeka organised for a meet with Daniel 'Churchill' Ndambuki who then asked Rapcha to join his show.
"Following my experience during the post-election violence, I was comfortable doing tribal and stereotype jokes, which were the hot thing at the show. I guess that's why my stay there barely lasted a month," he revealed.
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There was a clash of creative direction as he explained, going on reveal that some of his episodes never got aired as he used to literally include names of powerful individuals in his jokes.
He further explained that despite his contract stating that he would be paid per performance, he was never paid for the shelved shows. A fact he said he had come to terms with as he felt that his style of comedy was never going to make it on the show.
This is what birthed the first-ever online comedy show in Kenya dubbed Raiyaa.
Its popularity grew so much so that K24 approached Mwafreeka, Rapcha and their producer Humphrey Kariuki, and drew them into the fold where they kept on rising.
Soon enough, NTV bought the rights to the show and brought the hard-hitting and satirical show to their station.
The creative direction issue that led Rapcha's departure from the Churchill Show soon cropped up again, with the artist stating that they were asked to avoid naming influential or powerful individuals in their jokes.
"I told Mwafreeka that we weren't going to budge and that's how the show was killed. I have to make it clear that NTV fulfilled their contractual obligations as they paid us for 4 months even after the show was cancelled," he explained.
When quizzed on why he was so insistent on his creative direction, he explained in detail how he had been in constant communication with some of his mentors such as Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock
Rapcha has actually named his children after his two greatest influences namely Dave Chappelle and Richard Pryor - both legends in the world of stand-up comedy.
Chris Rock once told me via mail "If your jokes don't change your society then you have no right to call yourself a comedian, and if you have nothing to stand up for, don't do stand up."
He currently works at Hot 96 FM, hosting a reggae show that has grown in popularity over the last 5 years.
Chris Okinda, one of his then trainers at the Royal Media Services-owned radio station stated that "Rapcha was always going places. A diligent and humble man who always took the time to learn and better himself every day.
"I found training him very easy and the most brilliant thing about his story is that there is so much more to come from this brilliant presenter."
On his part, Rapcha maintains that he is cooking up a plan to host a comedy show before President Uhuru's Kenyatta's tenure is up.
He spends most of his free time at the Rapcha Art Centre in K-south, Nairobi, where he teaches upcoming artists in various fields the art of performing on stage.
Rapcha or Rap-Champion as he used to be called during his time as a rapper with the famous Ukoo Flani Mau Mau group, is a comedian on a mission.
