From a scrawny intern, Shaffie Weru has grown into one of the most visible and controversial radio personalities but as AUSTINE OKANDE observes beneath the veneer of a party animal lays a hardened but loving man
You will probably bump into him at every other major gig in the city, relaxed, sipping away his favourite drink with his boys, something that has earned Shaffie Weru a reputation as a party animal.
However according Shaffie, portraying him as a party animal is blowing his lifestyle out of proportion. He describes himself as a loving father, that guy who works hard and parties harder with a life motto of ‘Live for today, plan for tomorrow, party tonight’.
“If I drink a lot like its normally portrayed, I would have been fired because I would not make it to work, and it would reflect in my performance,” he notes.
Baptised, Shaffie the Rave-rend this bold radio host brags that he is the only presenter in the country who can be raw and rough on the edges on live radio.
In one of his television interviews Shaffie was once quoted saying,
“I am Makmende that guy that can never be taken down, am not just mean, I am rough.”
However his daring personality especially on the daily Rush Hour show on Kiss FM which his co-host Kalekye Mumo has put him on the spotlight with the Media Council of Kenya and his employer after complains were raised regarding his choice of words and topics which were widely viewed as offensive to a section of the society.
It was after being summoned by his bosses that Shaffie decided to do what is now popular known for in his show coining words which his listeners can easily relate to and at the same time do not undermine others; words such as Lungula for sex and chapo for gay.
His close friends say that with Shaffie what you see is what you get of him. Describing his show at Kiss FM as a mwananchi show, Shaffie does not spare the political class either. He often challenges them to be proactive in solving the evils in the society.
Shaffie openly professes his love for alcohol, adding that his greatest problems with the enactment of the Mututho laws is that the bars are where he draws some of his interesting radio content. However, as a law-abiding citizen he has no choice but to obey.
With over ten years of experience on one of the most listened-to shows, he says that to be a radio personality, as one needs to be vastly informed, witty, funny and flexible.
Shaffie officially debuted in the showbiz scene in 1999, he says that he is yet become famous and is working hard to get there.
After completion of his internship at Royal Media where he started off, he was jobless for three months before landing another internship at Radio Africa Limited in 2001 where he impressed his bosses, then Carol Radull and John Wilkins, who offered him a job as a production assistant. That was the rung from which he went up the ranks.
Shaffie says that his life is testimony that hard work and resilience pays, borrowing a rhyme from Drake’s jam Started from the Bottom, that goes ‘We started from the bottom now we here’.
He grew up in Kibera’s Golf Course estate opposite Ngummo and South C as the first born in a family of three— two boys and a girl. His mother is Nubian and dad is Kikuyu and he speaks fluent Nubian, understands Kikuyu, but can’t speak it.
Having lived in the slum, Shaffie says that one thing he appreciates about his life right now is being able to drive himself home as he loathes public transport.
As a young boy at the age of eleven, he had two very horrifying accidents in which one he broke his front teeth in a KBS bus.
During his internship at Royal Media, on his way home, he met with thugs in South C who beat him up and took all his salary that he had been paid in cash.
Reputed as a women magnet, he differs saying that people are confusing his utmost respect to women for something else.
“I have utmost respect for them as women are made to be loved,” he says.
So, is he re-marrying anytime soon?
Well, he remains categorical that traditionally he is husband to Jada Mwihaki alias Debbie with whom they separated about five years ago.
One quickly observes his dire love for his daughter, Milan, whom he professes to love and cherish.