Kipanga Athumani, the father of Kenyan comedy with street named after him

Kipanga Athumani.

He is the only local comedian with a street named after him Nairobi. The Kipanga Athumani Road in Eastleigh was named after the Father of Kenyan comedy. For long before stand up became a one-way ticket to celebrity status, Athumani made it part of radio, advertising films, stand-up and television and bestrode the pre-and post-colonial eras. At the height of the State of Emergency in the 1950s, Athumani was cracking jokes to ease the pain of inmates incarcerated in colonial detention camps.

His jokes were recorded and replayed to inmates to loosen tension with their interrogators besides using comedy couched in various tribal accents in rehabilitating those who had shed off the “Mau Mau look” and ideology. After all, punishment for Mau Mau detainees included inserting live snakes and hot boiled eggs from the butt, removing fingernails with pliers and yanking balls with bare hands.