Words: Danson John
Richard Rodgers Onyango a.k.a Richie Roja is the next big host. He emerged top from a list of 53 contestants angling for a stint as “The Next Big Host” of a yet to be revealed Spielworks media production. Roja does not hail from the city as first impression would suggest but from out to the west of Kenya in the rural Siaya County.
“I was a typical shao {rural} boy in the big city but well educated though” laughs Rodger.
His eloquence and speech shine through. His unhesitant and witty response to questions reveals a confident personality who talks from deep insight.
For his O-level he attended Ngere High School. He then advanced to study law at the Kenya School of Professional Studies which he dropped out saying it was not interesting. He then went to study Mass Communications graduating with a diploma in August 2012 at the Multi Media University.
The journey
Roja was part of the Out of Africa the Magic of Kenya musical. It was an initiative of Kenya Tourism Board with an aim of marketing Kenya. The group toured Europe for a duration of three and a half months. His performances included singing and dancing. Coming back from the musical tour, he got a job at Youth TV a digital station at Star times. Unfortunately it only lasted two months and Rodger was back on the streets.
After this setback, Roja recalls getting a link on Whatsapp from a friend named Muigai. He checked it out but did not pay much heed to it. However another known as Wakesho insisted he try his hand. She coerced him to try it out and went a step further to shoot the mobile video at her apartment.
“Since I’m not a celebrity I had to do a lot of canvassing for the video to go live. I was against known personalities like Miss Mandi of 91.5 Hits Fm, Anita Nderu from Teen Republic and a couple of other people who have networks in the arts and entertainment industry”.
Without rehearsing, he just took a shot at it and let fate take its course. Nonetheless, he kept pestering his almost a thousand friends on Facebook to go like and share the link, and admits he become quite the nuisance.
“People were like, if you’re going to tell me that thing again, I will kill you!”
The support and likes got him into the top ten and that’s where things started to look up. A staunch believer in not comparing himself to others he decided not to view any other contestant’s video unless he made it to the top ten.
Growing up, he had a dream of hosting a show “I remember my sister watching me sit on my bed pretending to host this big talk show like am Oprah, Pierce Morgan Anderson Cooper or someone else with an audience of 300 people.
The auditions weren’t easy. His fellow contestants kept his sweat glands active. Regardless, he believes everyone did his best and at the end one winner had to emerge. “If I wasn’t the chosen one, I wouldn’t be a sore loser” he says. The suspense leading up to the announcement filled him with angst.
The Big Reveal
The good news was broken to him via whatsapp. He does not even remember who sent the message but all he knows is that he won. “My friends and I had gone out to watch the Manchester versus Chelsea match. I was just sitting on my twitter timeline watching my battery fade. Each time they kept teasing: and the winner is? then I saw this retweet by Spielworks that had a link. The link on You Tube was, the next big host is Richi Roja . My phone dropped, the battery split and my friends were astonished. I was short of words but picked the phone, put the battery back. When I showed them, they all started screaming at the highest pitch of their voices. People actually thought we were screaming for the match but it was because of the good news. A lot of emotions engulfed us, all my friends were crying but they know I really worked hard for this” says an elated Rodger.
The dancing skirt
Roja is a singer who likes world music and something he can dance to. He has been dancing since he was a kid. The most embarrassing moment of his life was when a dancing sisal skirt fell off on stage. The incident happened in Eindhoven, Netherlands when he was performing in front of 1500 people in a theatre.
As the next big host, he looks up to likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Anderson Cooper and Kabelo of Channel O Africa. Roja says the guy is so crazy and he would be Kabelo if he had dreadlocks. He resonates with their fun personalities and the philosophy of not taking life too seriously.
Of the numerous Kenyan hosts, Julie Gichuru stands out for Roja. She has made world leaders grace her talk shows.
Roja holds strong sentiments on the state of the entertainment industry in Africa. “Kenyan talk shows are boring. The consumers cannot relate to the content”. He makes the compelling argument that if Kenya had a strong presence in the continental scene they would be hanging with South Africa and Nigeria in the same pool.
Roja would like to star in a talk show that is trendy fun, relatable and engaging. His pet peeve is the stuffy approach that commonly features in talk shows’ formats in Africa.
“We in Africa just need to get out of the serious zone and have some fun.”
As a soldier preparing for battle so is the next big host brimming with anticipation. There is much work to be done as the show enters the conceptual phase. All he wants to do is showcase his fresh skills in the talk show circuit. The special guest he wishes to bring to his show one day is his mum to celebrate her contribution to his development thus far. He personally thanked the producer, Dorothy Ghetubba, and the Spielworks family turning his dream into reality.
“I always believed someday I would get an opportunity to share with the world my experiences. I believe you can achieve what you perceive. I believed and here I am,” Roja remarks.
That’s Roja experience for you. “The Next Big Host” is coming to a screen near you…soon enough.