Covid crisis propels homeless Kenyan youth to rising R&B star

Raymond Georges Ndungu Jane [Photo: Reuters]

For most of the past three years, up-and-coming Kenyan R&B artist Raymond Georges Ndungu Jane slept under a bridge at the edge of Nairobi’s Uhuru Park.

Since becoming homeless after a family tragedy at 12, it had been the best place the 22-year-old former choir boy had stayed: there was informal work, generous strangers abounded, and when both dried up there were the massive bald-headed marabou storks that were easy to hunt. Things were stable enough this year for Ndungu Jane, who goes by Ray Gee, to be in the mood to sing for his friends. And in March, after one stranger heard his silvery voice and recorded him, his life began to transform.