He is famed for his prowess in ‘Sheng‘, the humour he boasts, and this does much to blanket the troubles he had growing up.
While featuring on the Friday, February 22 episode of K24’s Up Close with Betty, the radio personality intimated to the challenges his family endured over the years, notably, when his father walked out on them.
Milele Fm presenter Nick Chege alias Kartelo (left) and Vincent Muasya Mutua alias Chipukeezy during a public rally.
Kartelo revealed that his mother was deeply affected, since she was recovering from knife wounds, and had no job at the time. To top it off, she had three sons to raise.
“My father just disappeared. It was in 2006. He just woke up one morning, went to work and never came back. We have never seen him since,” Kartelo recalled.
“My mum had been posted to work in Murang’a as a teacher. My father convinced her to live at his home since he was from the area. But it did not go as planned, her inlaws beat her up, they stubbed her. She was admitted to hospital for a long time,
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“My father left when she was bedridden, did not have a job, was still recovering. So it really hurt my mother,” Kartelo intimated.
He noted that despite it all, his mother was able to raise him and two other siblings all on a Ksh 150 paycheque a day for doing laundry.
Kartelo stated that despite the poverty and tough neighbourhood, his mother always found away. She is even the reason he developed a passion and ventured into comedy.
“She inspired my comedy. We lived in poverty, had a lot of problems but we made jokes about it,” Kartelo narrated noting that she was a strong woman, very special and he thanked her for all she had done for him, his siblings and was determined to give her the life she deserves.
The Milele FM presenter revealed that his father left them in 2006 and t first they thought nit was a joke. His father would disappear only to come back after a month or two, but that one time he never showed up.
“We searched for him in prisons, hospitals, made public announcements even on the radio, he was nowhere to be found,” Kartelo narrated.
“At first we thought it was a joke since he would disappear from time to time. It was some sorts of a conman, he would swindle money from someone, goes missing and after two months h would be released from prison. So when he went missing, we thought he would be back,
“We took it seriously when it was two years since he disappeared, and that’s when we initiated another search. It has been over ten years now,” he recounted, noting that he still missed him and would like for him to resurface one day.
