This is not another sob story. No one needs another heart-wrenching tale of desperation and hopelessness — a story about the stripping indignity of poverty and how a hero beat all odds to make something of his life.
You have heard different stories of different people that leave you enthralled by the sheer human spirit, the moral fibre and the strive to be different. It is, therefore, only fair to make this story about choices. A story about a young man who discovered he was good at rallying people together.
Joseph Kamaru, popularly known by his alias ‘Jose Tuu’, was born disadvantaged from the get-go. He grew up in an impoverished village in Elbulbul, Ngong. His mom, a single parent, ran a kiosk close to a few blocks of battered single-roomed wooden houses that faced each other reluctantly. This is where he and his two siblings called home. An uneventful life.
Jose went to school at Brother Beausang Education Centre in Ngong. If you knew him then, you wouldn’t have called him a great student.
He would often go in a reverie and stare outside the window, mostly thinking about his next meal, his tattered clothes and the regretful situation back home. A scolding from his teacher would zap him back to reality.
School was, therefore, gruelling, but the part he enjoyed most and looked forward to was when the bell rang, especially on Friday evenings. It was the sweet sound of freedom that meant he could now do things he liked, such as participating in charity events in his community.
“While in Class 7, after school and on the weekends, I would go to a nearby children’s home catering to children living with HIV/AIDS, and we would sing, dance, clean the environment and have mentorship classes,” Jose said.
In as much as Jose would perform dismally in class, he aspired. He knew the small fire burning inside him could easily be put out by his environment that worked at eating away at his ambition, and there was no way he would let it win.
He didn’t know it then, but he was different socially and had a way with words and interactions. If he were to identify when he knew he was artistically gifted it would be way back in high school when he caught the spoken-word bug, and it itched so bad that he started performing in school for his peers as well as at community events. It is then that his friend nudged him to get a stage name when he said: “Jose unafaa utafute jina poa ya kujiuza. Sio kila saa Jose tu. (Jose, you need to find a catchy stage name. It should not always be I am Jose).”
That was all the nudge he needed, and he looked no further. Unbeknownst to his friend, Jose tu sounded catchy in his head. He toyed around with the idea, came up with ‘Jose Tuu’, and has used it ever since.
In 2022, he registered ‘Events by Tuu’ as a community-based organisation. Its operations started running in 2023 and has held several social work community projects. A close one to his heart was the ‘Mtoi Ang’are’ campaign, whose main aim was to garner clothes from well-wishers and donate them to the needy.
“Growing up, I was always in tattered clothes. On occasion, my cousins would give me their old clothes which would make me very happy. Donning their clothes meant I could live a normal life like other people without receiving gazes and judgmental whispers behind my back,” the 25-year-old Jose said.
On December 6, Safaricom PLC launched its month-long Christmas campaign dubbed ‘Sambaza Furaha’ during a lunch drive at Hon. John Njoroge Secondary school in Nairobi’s Kasarani area. The campaign spoke on sharing the season’s blessings and joy and deepening customer engagement and experience.
The campaign will feature delightful surprises across the country with gifts such as airtime, special offers, food hampers, donations of care packs to hospitals, visits to children’s homes and lunch drives targeting street families, all highlighting Safaricom’s commitment to making a positive impact.
To spread the Christmas cheer, Events by Tuu was the principal organiser, in partnership with the Safaricom Foundation. They hosted a cooking activity and invited members of the community to partake, providing avenues for people to enjoy activities like dancing, mentorship and engaging with Safaricom staff for queries and exchanges.
“What inspired us to come up with this campaign is because we are cognisant of the tough economic times Kenyans are facing, and being a holiday season, we wanted to bring the spirit of sharing and being joyous together,” Ms. Fawzia Ali, Chief Consumer Business Officer at Safaricom, said.
Jose, who recently graduated with a Diploma in Business Management from NIBS Technical College, said, “Working with Safaricom has been a tipping point and a dream come true. Getting to Sambaza Furaha to the community through this partnership was successful from the get-go, and the future couldn’t be any brighter.”
“As a child, poverty shaped my worldview. It taught me never to go to bed knowing there was something I could have done during the day to make someone’s life better. Every day, I strive to do just that,” Jose added.
Maybe this was a sob story after all. And that is also okay.
