Fifty-year-old Mwaniki Mageria is a man who is not afraid to stand out. He always knew that he wanted to be an entertainer from an early age. He has made it his sole goal to promote Kenya&rsquo;s film industry in his small way through distribution.&nbsp;GROWING UP, YOU DIDN&rsquo;T LIVE IN ONE PLACE FOR LONG. &nbsp;&nbsp;My dad was a police officer so we moved a lot. I was born in Nairobi at Aga Khan Hospital &ndash; everybody was getting born there at that time. We briefly moved to Kisii then back in Nairobi. When I was four, my mother decided to go back to university so I went to stay with my grandmother in Karatina, which I enjoyed thoroughly but for the raw eggs she used to give us once a week.&nbsp;HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY?&nbsp;From an early age, I wanted to be like Michael Jackson. I also had a crush on his sister, Janet Jackson. They were all we used to watch on TV and we couldn&rsquo;t help but admire them. I liked singing a lot and I would make my family laugh. Performing has always been in me. I like to believe that entertainment chose me because it was inevitable that I would end up in a career that didn&rsquo;t have ties to entertainment. By that time my dad became a businessman I could tell that he wanted to groom me and introduce me to the corporate world. My biggest challenge was to marry corporate with entertainment.&nbsp;WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE GETTING IN THE INDUSTRY?&nbsp;&nbsp;First, I worked in my family&rsquo;s company where we used to transport kids to school, which was a lot of fun. After that I joined the motor industry. I worked for CMC where I sold cars and organised all the events (this started as a mistake, though). There was a guy who used to do it but, unfortunately, he lost his mum and was unable to plan the golf day. I organised it and it turned out to be great &ndash; and when it&rsquo;s in house you don&rsquo;t charge and the company is very happy. From then on, I became the events organiser. When I left I worked for two other car companies before deciding to try other things.&nbsp;<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/10993/235793/59982dcf37f4a/1503145170909.jpg"" owidth=691 oheight=1340" style="height:699px; width:360px" />&nbsp;DO YOU STILL PLAN EVENTS?&nbsp;Not so much. I feel that it was a genesis that got me into my earlier passion, TV. I tried to get local TV stations to work with us but at that point they were just bringing content from outside. Local productions didn&rsquo;t quite hit as they should have. The only programmes that received great reception, even to this day, are Vitimbi and Vioja Mahakamani but the productions were of very low quality. You wouldn&rsquo;t compare them to what was being brought in. I shot two films in 2003 but it just didn&rsquo;t work; there was no monetisation format for them.&nbsp;WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT BALOZI AFRICA?&nbsp;We went around Kenya doing a talent search for the best performers in the country. The idea was to show another side of Africa that was rarely seen in the news. We also wanted to sensitise people that, as Africans, we had a role to play in the world. We were more than the dark continent. One of the productions we did was Pambazuka, which Carole Mandi (the Carole Mandi Media Publisher) was involved in as a writer. We did a play that broke all the records. We also did Subira which wasn&rsquo;t as successful because most people don&rsquo;t want to hear that it takes patience to do good work. Then when Saba Saba happened it became unsafe, especially around the University of Nairobi where guys were throwing stones daily, so people couldn&rsquo;t come for the play at the Kenya National Theatre.HOW DOES POLITICS AFFECT THE INDUSTRY? When people are annoyed and they are chanting &lsquo;haki yetu&rsquo; in the streets, nobody buys entertainment. If they are not in the streets, they&rsquo;re in the house scared to go out. They will just buy essential commodities and entertainment doesn&rsquo;t fall into the category. Political stability is key. We need a government that creates a conducive environment for the industry to grow. This means that they have to come down hard on pirates and illegal vendors of international films. If you can get Game of Thrones for Ksh 50, why would you buy a local production whose quality doesn&rsquo;t match the international series for Ksh 100?WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS AN EVENTS PLANNER?We organised an international conference for 3 500 delegates from across the globe. This put us on the map. I still wanted to perform and get on TV, though. I met Wachira Waruru who the then CEO of the Kenya Film Commission and I told him how I really wished to do something that would promote Kenyan films. He advised me to go to River Road where people were making movies daily. I didn&rsquo;t go immediately but when I went I was really surprised. I met Machangi and other comics who were making volumes of movies. Since my strength is marketing, I tried to get those comics on TV.TELL US ABOUT THE KALASHA AWARDS.It is my greatest achievement so far. I created that and I am happy that nobody can take that away from us. I followed up with Wachira who handed me over to Tichi Nyasani (she was the CEO for some time before David Maingi took over). Maingi gave me the go ahead to format an awards ceremony. We created the whole thing, from the mechanism to the name.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/10993/235793/59982dcf37f4a/1503145269126.jpg"" owidth=680 oheight=1629" style="height:699px; width:292px" />WHY KALASHA?We got the name from a Kiswahili Kamusi. Kalasha means the emerging tusks of a young elephant. This reflected on our industry at the time. It has been great to bring most of the filmmakers under the Riverwood umbrella. It is easier for us to negotiate and the government can listen to us.WHAT&rsquo;S YOUR NEXT STEP?Empower the producers in that we don&rsquo;t have to depend so much on broadcasters. Create a platform where the producers can showcase their movies to the public. We are trying to create Riverwood Cinema where producers screen their movies then exchange them within themselves across the country. DVDs can easily be pirated and the DVD market is dying because everyone is on their smart phones. We can&rsquo;t give people full content on phone, we want to try screen. It is going to be like the Blankets and Wine for film. Movies are big where the movie-watching culture is big. For instance, in the States people make a lot of money at the Box Office which is incredible.HOW ARE KENYAN FILMS RECEIVED BY THE AUDIENCE? The biggest problem for Kenyan films is distribution. We need someone to invest in distribution so that we can get the movies out there. I give what I can, and now I am broke. That is my headache currently. I choose to be in film distribution since it is my greatest strength. Balozi is currently on the back banner because we made a big mistake two years ago that cost us a huge amount of money. We were negotiating with QTV to gives us four hours a day on their station. We spent a lot of time and money travelling and improving on quality only to watch on TV, like everybody else, that the station had been closed down.NOLLYWOOD VERSUS RIVERWOOD?It is a matter of marketing. Nigerians came in and filled the gap that we hadn&rsquo;t filled yet. They gave the audience something local, something that they could relate to. Though we have entirely different cultures, Nollywood films were closer home. Nigerians are very aggressive and they marketed aggressively. It is now the third biggest film industry; it employs a lot of people. People prefer it because it gives African stories. Also, over a period of time, we have realised that Kenyans are not very good at storytelling in that sense. Our stronghold is comedy and reality. We are not patient enough to develop a strong story.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/10993/235793/59982dcf37f4a/1503145326800.jpg"" owidth=734 oheight=1318" style="height:699px; width:389px" />WHAT INSPIRES YOU?&nbsp;Empowering people. I enjoy having good relationship with people. Wanting to see people move forward in life and develop themselves therefore having better relationships really inspires me. For example, seeing my producers getting cheques and changing their lives inspires me. I like creating new things, that is why when I saw that everybody was creating events I moved on to TV.TELL US ABOUT YOUR JOB AS AN MCEE?&nbsp;I realised that I can be an MC because I like standing in front of people. I have 24 years of experience &ndash; it all started in the mid90s when someone invited me to perform at City Hall. It was a big crowd but what mesmerised me is the fact that I was paid Ksh 5000 after the performance. This was a lot of money back then. I realised that I could charge for it. Some people have actually told me that they like it when I MC because I am gracious and I don&rsquo;t tell awkward jokes.YOU ARE AN ELDER AT NAIROBI CHAPEL. WHAT DOES RELIGION MEAN TO YOU?The word religion is quite big. It is a set of rules that are supposed to bring you closer to God. For me it is about a relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ. It is living the way God wants you to live. One of the greatest problems, when it comes to religion, is that it creates boundaries that are counterproductive to cohesion. That is why we have wars against the different religions.WITH YOUR BUSY SCHEDULE, HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT YOU&rsquo;RE ACTIVELY PRESENT IN YOUR CHILDREN&rsquo;S LIVES?I decided when I was very young before I got married that I would be there for my kids. My old man was very busy, always travelling, which wasn&rsquo;t bad. It gave us a good life, but I felt that I needed to connect more with my kids. I decided that I&rsquo;d always get home early and if I had to go out, I&rsquo;d do so after they went to sleep. This became a habit. Many times, I would come from my job very exhausted but I would tell myself to give my kids nothing but the best. I would sit in my car for a couple of minutes to reenergise. Basically, the idea is to make time and be focused on what you want to achieve.

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