“The Pioneers of House Music in Kenya” by Albert Njenga:

People in Kenya have been dancing to House music for a long time, perhaps some did not identify it as such,since back then,this genre was never played exclusively.

Paco Perez,in the 80s,was playing music by House artists like J.M. Silk (although his selection was pretty much considered eclectic by the partygoers of the time).A friend once told me of how Perez would place Bongo drums in the DJ booth and combine their sound with tracks like “Got a love for you” by Jomanda. It[House] was there, albeit misidentified by it’s listeners as Soul music.

On to the late 90s, in comes “Dance Mania” with DJ Ohms on East 106 FM every Saturday night.Admittedly,Ohms did play some Trance on this show,his show did however,still serve to familiarize people with House music.

In 1998, Nation FM( now Easy FM) launched and with it came “Dance Express” which aired on Sunday night with James Mwai as the host.Mwai was instrumental in creating awareness about the music,the artists and the producers in the House,Trance and Garage scenes,this was largely due to the fact that he was allowed to speak on the show.To this day, I wonder if he has any idea of the generation of clubbers that his show has since spawned. Sadly,the show went off air in 2002.

Around that time,there was Scratchaholics on the same station every Saturday night, they would have a very brief segment (around 20 mins) with DJ Mr. Thrill.This segment was titled “313″.

Later on,there was “Club Capital” in 2003,which was started by DJ Gerry a.k.a Mr. Thrill.Also know for his club residency at “Pavement”.

From the 2000s to around 2004,most stations were not too keen on airing shows dedicated to House music (the reason,I suppose,why James Mwai’s show went off air despite having a good following).

All being said and done, it is good to see how everyone now proclaims their love for House music on their facebook statuses :-).

Goes to show how the House music movement has grown thanks to our pioneers.May this movement continue to grow in leaps and bounds.