Kelvin Njoroge Macharia surprised many with his degree choice when he scored a B+ in the national secondary school examinations at M-PESA Foundation Academy in 2019.
Many had hoped that with such a good grade Kelvin would go for a course deemed challenging, such as Engineering or Medicine, but he chose his passion – music.
“(This passion) started manifesting when I was young, in nursery school. I used to sing for my teachers,” said Kelvin.
Next he joined Uongozi Centre, the institution at the M-PESA Foundation Academy where Form Four leavers are prepared for life and their minds broadened as they are equipped with the skills they need for life after secondary school. While at Uongozi Centre, Kelvin enrolled at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Before joining the university, he had to undertake a foundation year in Law and Social Sciences equivalent to an A-Level. At the university, Kelvin is studying music composition, conducting, music philosophy, and musicology –the analysis of music in a scientific way.
Although it is not a requirement that a musician should have formal education, a bachelor’s or master’s degree in music or music theory and composition can help a musician better understand the fundamentals of music, music history, musical composition and production, as well as musical theory and ear training.
Kelvin’s serious approach to music recently saw him receive “The Music Award” for being the top music student at the institution.
He might be in his early 20s but Kelvin is already a solo and choral singer and a classical pianist. The young man also uses his skill, training and experience to direct a church and youth choir that he started in collaboration with three other individuals in the UK. His solo performance skills have enabled him to work with highly experienced classical singers in the UK.
A series of events, interactions and good fortune combined led to Kelvin’s current station in life.
Kelvin was born in Nakuru in the late 90s. He was born with a physical disability caused by Spina Bifida – a birth defect in which an area of the spinal column doesn’t form properly – which led him to be born with a left leg shorter than the right one.
In his early years, he used to have poor sensation on the shorter leg and would get wounds and chronic ulcers that could not heal easily. This worsened in 2009, and he had to undergo several surgeries to get a long-term solution to the problem. At one point, his teachers at Muringa Primary School organized a fund drive to cater for his medical bill.
In 2012, doctors at AIC Kijabe Hospital corrected his Spina Bifida problem, giving the young boy a long-term solution.
While recuperating in the hospital, Kelvin was a source of joy for fellow patients and the hospital staff as he lit up the ward with his bright smile and passionate singing.
“I used to lead praise and worship in the hospital because we had devotion in the mornings. I also liked to play the piano and I used to dream of playing the keyboard in church after my discharge from the hospital,” he says.
After being discharged, Njoroge volunteered to go and train as a pianist at his local church.
He would later meet a woman at the church who turned out to be a teacher at Joytown Special School in Thika. He transferred from Muringa Primary School in Nakuru to Joytown in Thika and took his last two years of primary school there.
At Joytown Special School he scored 387 marks in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations. His dream was to join a national school for his secondary education and his eyes were on Mang’u High School, and it was not just because he had passed by the school on his way to Thika.
“My dream and prayers had always been to go to a national high school that would offer music. And so, as I was working hard in other subjects, I just wanted to gain entry into a national school because they normally offer music as an academic subject,” he says.
He had also decided while at Joytown that he would like to be a professor of music, which he pursued when he joined the M-PESA Foundation Academy.
Kelvin made good use of the academy’s resources and teachers, which is designed to produce individuals who can make an impact in society. The academy admits academically gifted but needy students from all over Kenya.
The focus there is not just in academics but also in technology, music, sports, the arts and community service, thus the encouragement and assistance given to Kelvin as he sought to pursue his passion in music.
Still, he comes across people who wonder whether his grade did not warrant the pursuit of another course, and the sixth born in a family of seven from Bahati in Nakuru has learnt to patiently explain his choices.
“Some people will understand if you try and explain, but others are kind of predetermined in terms of judgment. That has been the main challenge,” says Kelvin.
He has all along had the support of his mother. “My mother is a person who cares about education very much, and she doesn’t dictate what course you’re supposed to do,” he adds. Kelvin’s father died 13 years ago.
When he recently joined other alumni at the school, Kelvin talked about his continuing journey into the world of music. One of the modules he is studying at the university that most people can relate to is performance, which he started at M-PESA Foundation Academy.
“At the University of Nottingham, they expect you to perform at very high standards. So you’re only allowed to study one instrument. For me, that instrument is voice or singing. I’m undertaking a diploma in singing, which is very challenging in many ways and that is providing me with an opportunity to grow as a musician,” he said.
Kelvin is also doing a lot of choral music and he recently auditioned to be an assistant choir conductor, to work with the music director or the choir director and got the position. “From next year, I’ll be assisting the music director to conduct the university choir,” he said.
He has already composed several songs with his professors. He is also doing research which cuts across different fields ranging from music history, and music and Kenyan politics.
Similarly, he is working on a paper titled The Politics of Land and Gikuyu Popular Music, analysing how music has been used to address the politics of land.
“I’m just using music to go into many more academic disciplines like politics and philosophy,” and he sounds like the scholar he has always dreamt of becoming.
You can read more stories about the M-PESA Foundation Academy here.