The story behind Firirinda song sweeping the web 35 years later


Dick Njoroge remembers it like it was 35 years ago because it was 35 years ago when he released Firirida, a song that has, three decades later, catapulted him into untold fame, inspired social and political banter and trended on all social platforms in a surprising twist of fate.

His story is a tale of his slow rise to fame, his quick dalliance with it and ride on life’s roller-coaster.

At his Gatundu home where he plays the guitar with remarkable dexterity to date, his voice barely audible- having suffered a terrible Tuberculosis bout- Njoroge relives his past with nostalgia and the hope that one day, he will sing again.

His story begins in 1952. His year of birth. During the infamous State of Emergency.

His mother had fled from Gatundu almost a decade before Kenya gained independence. She ended up tilling the fields at the farm of a white settler only identified as Dick.

It was this name that Njoroge would later pick, thanks to his uncle who claimed he resembled their white settler.

When the State of Emergency was lifted, his mother made her sojourn home, enrolling him in school.

After attending school up-to Class 3, Njoroge left home for Mathare, Nairobi, where he tinkered with several jobs among them carpentry and a short unsuccessful stint at a garage in Consolata.

After his shot at becoming an automotive mechanic failed, Njoroge travelled to Thika where he joined a Tanzanian live band – Ujiji.

In between the gigs, he would do laundry at a hotel in Thika for food and board.

Several shows and gigs later, Njoroge, unsettled, left for Muranga where he met two brothers who were master guitar players from Kanunga.

They nicknamed him Kamaru- after the late Kikuyu Benga star- and introduced him to a female band that was playing at a local watering joint known as Red Local at the time.

His real brush with fame came around 1978 when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died.

When Kenyatta died, his brother Ngengi Muigai took over.

His right-hand man- Kimani who was a rally driver- introduced him to Njoroge who was thereafter tasked with recording and producing music to drive the parliamentary campaigns.
 
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