SNAPPY 7: Akothee – I have an expensive hobby of giving birth
Kenyan musician Esther Akoth aka Akothee, has time and time again proven skeptics wrong by releasing one single after another.
The mother of five, who was once a taxi driver and claims to be one of the wealthiest female musicians in Kenya, has just released her latest single Yuko Moyoni. She got candid with Nairobi News over her fast rising music career.
1. Tell us about your background? – Akothee is a mother of five, she is an entrepreneur, an entertainer an influencer, a comedian and just a happy human being and also an artiste. I will say I did not receive enough attention from my large family as a teenager. Peer pressure forced me to get married and start a family with another teenager at the age of 14 years old. I have no one to blame but myself. In the end I turned my misfortunes around and made it work.
2. Tell us about your new song and why you chose to shoot the video in South Africa? – Yuko Moyoni is a song that is dear to me. I try to teach my fellow African women – not only the ones who are have dark skin but as Africans at large – that anyone can love us no matter how we look and we should stop emulating western culture.
I love South Africa as much as I love my country. I’ve shot most of my music video here in Kenya so I decided to do my latest song in South Africa because that is where I also do my shopping.
3. Describe your genre of music and why you always talk in all your songs? – My music is Afro-beat mixed with Aglo-Luo. I am sorry to my fans because I love my heritage so much and sometimes I have to check in because my English is limited.
Being a linguistic person I wish I could learn more languages, so at the end of my songs I give credits. For example, in one of my songs I say that there are four people who are disturbing the world, namely Akothee, Lupita, Jakom (Raila Odiga) and Obama. To me it is my signature.
4. Is it true that you twerked in front of your dad? – Yes, I did and I am not ashamed of it because at one time when I was young he wiped me. There is no big deal with twerking, even my daughter was twerking in front of me. Just twerk.
5. What hidden talents do you have? – I’m a comedian better known as Madam Boss, an actress, a very good dancer and one of my biggest hobby is giving birth. It is an expensive one but that is because I know I can take care of them. I do not follow the fathers of my children around. I take care of my five children on my own. People have hobbies of buying cars, but I have a hobby of paying bills.
6. Would you ever consider contesting for a political seat? – I don’t want ever to go broke. I cannot stand pressure from people because I have seen it through my mother who is an MCA. I see what she goes through every day. Imagine even when I travel home I have to hide just to get a rest because people will come to my house and camp there all night. So imagine if they gave me their votes.
7. What advice would you give to the young people? – Look at one of your colleague who is 23 years old and she is at work right now, while you will find most of her age mates on social media talking about clothes and celebrities.
To the young ones, life is not rocket science and it is not one of those days manna would fall from above. Nothing is for free, stop following social media because some might be true and others might not be. Just go back and look at your real life as a person and make yourself a better person.
My children are not on social media and when they wake up, the maids do not go to their rooms to make their beds. They do it themselves because I don’t want them to live a fantasy. Social media will never take you anywhere.