Richard Onyango: I conquered bullying through my love for art

By Njambi Mungai | 9yrs ago | 4 min read

Richard The Presenter — *Richard Onyango*

I am a lover of the arts: Music and dance is my life in summary. I am a singer and I love dancing a lot, it is my therapy.

Family

My mother is the greatest source of inspiration I have ever had. Strong African woman with admirable virtues, she has taught me everything there is to know about life and growing up preparing us to face challenges that will come our way. She is a teacher of English and a High School principal and above all a mother to me and my three siblings big brother Brian, Jessy and small sister Edna. She has been my greatest support system in this journey of the presenter constantly praying for me and encouraging me to keep my fighting spirit alive. I take after her too.

Life Growing Up

I consider myself to be a farm boy though not a lover of manual work. I was born in Siaya raised in Nairobi then moved back to Kisumu at the age of 9. I learnt at Marion Preparatory School from baby class up until class 4 and then Josana Academy to finish my class 8.

I finished my high school at Ngere High School, and later on majored in radio production at Multimedia University where I did Mass communication.

Throughout my education in primary school and high school even in campus I went through what most people try to brush off as nothing. I was bullied sometimes physically or emotionally and I encountered a lot of difficulty going about things because all the time I would be thinking about what I am going through instead of putting my focus on what I am supposed to do or what I have set to achieve.

I learnt to deal with bullies because I realised that bullies only bully you because they are threatened by you, you have something that they wish to have but will never have in a million years.

I conquered bullying through my love for art; I was a fearless and very committed drama member from class four up until my days in campus. I was awarded best supporting actor in class 7 Nyanza province drama festival among many other awards. I participated in drama and music festivals up to the national level and this boosted my confidence and gave rise to the no nonsense, humorous and fun person that Richard is today.

Interesting Facts

I am a sucker for movies sci-fi such as the avengers, transformers; action movies James bond, fast and furious, animations like penguins of Madagascar particularly a big fan of King Julian (I see a lot of myself in him) and Shrek.

I am also a fan of good TV productions lately I have been watching Empire: How to get away with murder and Scandal.

I won a social media competition next big host which was supposed to be my big break but unfortunately it wasnt. My heart was broken since I felt like this was to be my big break but that wasn’t the case. I moved on and refused to be defeated by that situation.

I almost became a flight attendant with Qatar airways in 2014 after my job search got me desperate. I realised I was doing it to travel the world and of course for all the wrong reasons. I then encouraged myself to be persistent and patient with my search. I was called to duty and training but never showed up as I had already made my decision to still pursue my dream of being a TV show host.

Embarassing Moment

I was dancing onstage in Europe, Eindhoven the Netherlands to be specific and just before the intermission of our performance in front of a crowd of 2000 people my sisal skirt fell off during the invigorating dance. I was high up in the air and I felt a chill only to realize3 I was mid-air but my sisal skirt was on the floor.

Dislikes

Fake friends, friends for the moment, negative people, the haiwezekani kind of people, laziness, complainers, whiners, and above all people who hate for no apparent reason.

Philosophies

How far I can go is yet to be seen and I don’t let other peoples limited beliefs of what’s possible diminish my potential. Sometimes people try to expose what’s wrong with you because they can’t handle what’s right about you. Nobody can make me feel bad about myself unless I allow them to. I stay away from negative people because they have a problem to every solution. In the words of John Cena; HUSTLE, LOYALTY, RESPECT. I am a work of art, not everyone will understand me BUT the ones who do will never forget me because I am the only Original version of me.

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