Kilavuka Egara: Doctor with passion for music

 Dr. Kilavuka Egara, a doctor with a passion for music. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

The bug of artistic creativity runs in the family and it caught up with him when he was young. He is a doctor by profession but makes music to unwind and for self-expression.

Dr Kilavuka Egara, whose stage name is Guga, got hooked on music when he was a toddler.

He says his father, Prof. Egara Kabaji used to ask him to dance for him and in return, he would pay him Ksh5, which he would use to buy sweets on the way to school. "I graduated from merely dancing to reciting some of his poems.

I think I was the first person to recite his famous poem Train Journey to Mombasa, which became a set piece during the Annual Schools and Colleges Music Festival in 2019," he says.

"My elder brother, Kabaji Egara Jnr aggravated my love for music with his obsessive desire to download all types of music for me. He would spend all day at the cyber cafe downloading all the new hip-hop and R&B albums. As a youngster, he was a collector, a self-styled connoisseur, and an aficionado of the music of the time. Together, we spent countless hours listening to Tupac, Ja Rule, and TLC, to name a few."

Dr Kilavuka's music skills blossomed while at Kabarak High School through the four years of secondary school education.

Nevertheless, his first time in the studio came through a neighbour. His street name was Croco. Erick or Croco is a skilled Beat (instrumental) maker and producer. "Croco pushed me to develop my style of music. I have been improving on my craft since then."

Dr Kilavuka defines his genre as 'Scenario Flair'. "I tend to visualise a story, fictional or personal experience, and channel it into my music utilising an infectious rhyme scheme and a catchy chorus."

I was interested in knowing how he balances his artistic endeavours with his demanding job as a doctor.

"Many people look at us, doctors, as superhuman. We go through painful moments especially when we do our best to save a life and we lose it. On other occasions, we succeed in saving a life and when this happens, you just want to rejoice in your unique way. What I do is to distil all these variegated feelings during my spare time into musical pieces," he says.

He says he enjoys his work as a licensed medical doctor and does not think he would do anything else apart from taking care of patients.

Music simply compliments his work. "While music enables me to calm down, I do it for the common good of society. Through my art, I make people reflect on their lives, connect with their inner selves and enjoy good stories told musically," he says.

Who influenced you to adopt your kind of style? I ask him.

"Apart from my father, my mother, Dr Kenyani is a heavy consumer of Christian music, and from her kind of music, I have picked the soothing effect and affectionate tone. However, several schools of music have influenced me," he says.

He adds, "Off the top of my head, I listen to a lot of Hip Hop and R&B, but being at the start of my third decade of life, I tend to lean towards the old-school artistes of the late 1990s and 2000s. I love songs built along a story, a scenario. I like artistes like Ja rule, 50 Cent, Tupac, fabulous, Neyo, and P Diddy, who had the insight to build rhymes around intriguing stories."

On the local artistic scene, Dr Kilavuka acknowledges that he likes E sir, K rupt, and some of the new age artistes like Boutrous, Jovie jovv, Drafted Reece, and Raj.

These artistes, he says, "helped mutate my style to what it is at the moment." He also pays homage to Fireonesam, Lostc_ities, and Alex Vice, who have been producing his songs.

He says music helped him pass his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree at Kenyatta University. "It was key to my success in examinations. I used music to memorise some of the most difficult concepts I had to learn in medical school. I also see music as some form of medicine.

Do you know about narrative medicine? There is a way in which well-told stories in music heal troubled souls."

I ask Dr Kilavuka how he creates time for his work and for making music and he has this to say: "You must make time for the things you love. For me, every minute counts. After a whole day of work, I go home and proceed to my studio in the house where I create music before I retire to bed. I am lucky that my wife Dr Kerubo understands this very well and gives me space to be alone and create music. It is a lifestyle and I have chosen it; just like my father who writes his stories every day of his life and enjoys aloneness," he says.

He underscores the importance of discipline in succeeding to balance medicine and music.

"I focus on the task at hand and prioritise what needs to be completed at the time. I think that is all that anyone can do. It takes a lot of planning and self-discipline.

You can say I am married to three wives: Medicine, Dr Kerubo and Music. As a perfect polygamist, I must make sure I satisfy all of them," he says and bursts into laughter.

Many people may have problems seeing the connection between music and the practice of medicine. However, Dr Kilavuka sees it differently.

He says his family has no problem with his art.

 Dr Kilavuka Egara [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

His father, whom he refers to fondly as the Grandmaster, has been creative all his life. He supports him in every way he can.

He even listens to the unreleased versions of his songs and he is mischievous enough to suggest that he should introduce Rhumba riffs in the music.

His mother has been urging him to diversify and create Christian songs, "One day you will make a song that glorifies God and not these secular songs you keep making," she says all the time.

How prolific is his musical catalogue? In 2018, he released his first E.P. dubbed, Kabaridi, a five-track project under Croco Media. In 2020, he released Boy wa Bedsitter, a nine-track project.

This year, he released Kabaridi 2, a 17-track project, complete with a video, Heartbreak, on Youtube as compensation for the long break.

How does Dr Kilavuka see the future of music in Kenya? "I hope to infuse the industry with a different perspective on how to make music. The future is bright.

I hope more professionals will get the inspiration to stop suppressing their creative instincts and expand their horizons. Being passionate in pursuit of an inner artistic calling is not a crime. "I make music because I love it and, yes, it comes with its accolades."