Redykylass' John Kiarie (KJ)-‘Kinyasa’ uniform was my fashion in campo

 John Kiarie was a member of Redykyulass Trio

I stayed in Nyayo 1 Room 38 in my first semester at Kenyatta University. In my second semester, I moved out of the hostels and rented Prof Kaibunga servant’s quarter in Tanzania 18. Some of my neighbours included Dr Arasa and Prof Olive Mugenda (current Vice Chancellor).

There were many memorable moments in KU. None, however, beats the first Redykyulass performance at the Culture Week in 1998.Our performance made it to the front page the next day. No one believed it was possible to mimic a sitting president at the time, least of all Moi. That show propelled us from a small campus comedy troupe to national icons with regular weekly live shows at Carnivore, a weekly TV show and tours locally and internationally.

Luckily, I was able to do three trimesters a year and completed my course in three years instead of four.  I used to wear school uniform, complete with shorts. That was my fashion. On graduation day, they told us to come in ‘official wear’ and I thought nothing was more official than a full school uniform. So I wore my uniform, mpaka shorts and the graduation gown.

The cheapest thing I ever bought were old akalas  from Kariokor market for Sh200, while my first Mac iBook bullet proof computer I bought in New York cost around $2,500 (Sh220,000) more than my first car! There were memorable lecturers. Like Dr Mwaniki. He was as old school as they come. Before you even got to the actual drawing, he had pencil-sharpening lessons that could even go on for weeks!

My best, without doubt, was the philosophy class lecturer Dr Wambari. His critical thinking lectures were life transforming. I learnt how to unlearn what I’ve learnt in order to learn what I need to learn!

John Kiarie is a Creative Director at Transcend Media. He graduated with a Fine Arts Degree from Kenyatta University, Class of 2000.

-As told to Irvin Jalang’o