I quit police job to escape my grandmother's curse

"Perhaps today I would be a senior police officer or something terrible could have happened to me in the line of duty."

This is how Kikuyu musician Kamande wa Kioi pictures his life had he not quit the force over two decades ago.

Kamande of the popular songs "Mami nikii wekire baba", "Kaana funny" and Miau kapussy gakwa among others is a classic case of defying the norm.

The seventh born in a family of nine from Kambiti in Murang'a joined Kenya Police thanks to his prowess as a guitar player coupled with a budding singing career.

In a recent interview on Kameme FM, Kamande narrated how he fled with school fees and started a hotel business before joining the police force without his kin's knowledge. He lost his business to a fire and retreated to the village where he started entertaining people at a small fee. He had learned to play a guitar while in Standard Six.

When a police band came to his area, he spotted an opportunity. Without his parents' knowledge, he was recruited into the force and months later was posted to the Dog Section in Nyeri and was also in the band.

When he visited his village in full uniform and a gun, his father fled. He was perceived as an enemy in the village, which made him loathe his new job. He stayed for seven years and when his paternal grandmother died, he learned that she had cursed the police career.

"During Mau Mau uprising, police killed five of her children. She hated them and warned her remaining children never to allow their children to join the police force," he recounted.

Fearing a jinxed life, Kamande resigned and went to Nairobi to start a matatu business.