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A surprise morning call from a stranger changed Faith Nduta's destiny. Or so, how do you explain the ambition of the 31-year-old new Miss Bum Bum crown holder who beat the odds to travel to Kisumu and compete in an event she knew nothing about only to emerge as a clear winner!
Faith a professional media personality who once worked at Nation media group before moving to the then Prime Minister's office was shooting a TV commercial when the call came through.
"I got a call from this guy who said we had met during a previous commercial shoot and he told me he thought that I should give the Miss Bum Bum event a try.
It was 9am and this was me in Nairobi being told to go to Kisumu for an event that was to happen the same day, an event I knew nothing about," Faith, a plus size fashion model who recently returned to the country after losing her job in Doha, Qatar, narrates.
"I decided to give it a try and took the road to Kisumu hoping I would make something out of it while still consoling myself that I had nothing to lose. By the time I was getting to Kisumu, it was already evening and the event was almost starting.
Still, I was fatigued and worn out and I didn't see myself pulling through," she remarks. With the Club da Place spot filled to capacity, the annual show kicked off at 10pm with thrilling music performances by Xpart Mkwanja and rib-cracking comedy by Otoyo and Obina, the talented new kings of comedy.
Then, the much-anticipated moment arrived as 27 girls took to the runway to battle it out in an event that almost breaks all the rules of your ordinary beauty pageant show.
Miss Bum Bum is all about the plus size model who is bold enough to woo the crowd with daring moves, sometimes with bikini dance stunts that have always caught the imaginations of fans among them top politicians.
And there was no shortage of such as the girls went head-to-head before the judges who included the Nairobi queen of Bum, Risper Faith.
Lately, young girls have taken it as a career to showcase their bodies for a cause. In fact, we get calls from numerous young girls who claim that they want to be helped to become socialites.
As a matter of fact, most of the popular socialites have now opened agencies where they enrol young and willing models who end up making club appearances with them for money.
Others are used as escorts for prominent personalities while others end up being video vixens or end up becoming models in commercial adverts.
For club appearances, the seasoned socialites make about Sh70,000 a night while the upcoming make about Sh20,000 per show.
Top models like Vera even charges up to Sh100,000 depending on the nature of the 'appearance'.
"I don't mind becoming a socialite like Vera or Huddah as they are making a lot of money through this," Rita, one of the girls who was competing during the Miss Bum Bum show told Pulse.
"That way, I will also start meeting famous people and become a celebrity," she added. "There is nothing wrong with being a socialite. It is a job like any other and as long as it puts food on the table, why not try it," Vero, another participant said.
Asked why she opted to participate in such a competition that many would see as a desperate move to make money, Faith told Pulse that it was all for a good course adding that she wouldn't want to end up being a socialite.
"I had never participated in any beauty contest before. My beauty world has always revolved around commercial adverts and this was all new to me. When the judges called my name out as the winner, I was shocked that I had done it.
Suddenly, I had a crown and Sh100,000 cash. This must have been God's doing," Faith tells Pulse.
"I want to present myself different from the way models my size act. People like viewing girls who are on the limelight as socialites and it is no secret that men have been hitting on me even before this because of my curvaceous body.
I have even had to lose jobs as I did not want to compromise my integrity when bosses hit on me. I am using this platform to create my fashion and consultant brand that I registered some few months ago," says Faith who graduated in the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) in 2008.
