How to Make It: ICT graduate doing it with music

MURANG’A: Charles Maina was born with dwarfism traits, but this has not been a hindrance as he is raring to scale the heights of success despite his puny size.

The 23-year-old stands at just four feet, six inches and is slowly making a name for himself in the music industry. Often he is seen aggressively marketing his music along the streets of Nakuru.

Born in Gitugi village, Murang’a County, Maina attended St Patrick Primary School before proceeding to Kericho High School for his secondary education and then enrolled with Christ the King College of Technology in Nakuru in 2012 graduating with a diploma in ICT in 2014.

“After college, I realised jobs were not easy to find and I decided to engage in any hustle that would uplift me financially,” he says.

Unlike other, it did not take him long to determine what path to take in ‘tarmacking’. He had written a gospel song in 2013 titled ‘Natazama’ and he was determined to have it recorded.

He made inquiries and was directed to Marvin Music Studio in Nakuru town where armed with Sh6,000 the man, who goes by the stage name Last Born, recorded his song then paid a further Sh2,500 to purchase one hundred copies of the CDs. He then hit the ground running and begun to sell his product to put food on the table.

This determination has seen him making sales averaging 100 CDs per month each retailing at Sh100 and once he exhausts his stock, he returns to the producer to make flesh copies for him.

And as a market strategy and to maximise on sales, Maina has learnt the wisdom of releasing a single song at a time.

“The best strategy is to market a song exhaustively as you work on another instead of releasing an album at a go,” he says.

Maina is now working on other songs that will be compiled into an album in the near future as he continues to market the only song he has to his name.

He also looks forward to invitations to perform at events which he believes he can confidently do, his height notwithstanding.

Maina has come a long way and being taunted or made fun of owing to his height does not get him down. He is determined to make his mark and take care of himself.