From Nakuru with a Dream: How DJ BigStar Vegas Found Her Stage

30 Mar

What happens when a woman refuses to wait for permission?

She was doing the dishes when it started. Just a teenager in Nakuru, a radio crackling with music, and two hands that refused to stop moving.

"It was a dream," DJ BigStar Vegas says simply, recalling the moment she first imagined herself behind the decks. "I would be washing the dishes, and I'd imagine I am a DJ. I'd be spinning the plates and cups."

There was no TV in the house. The radio was the window to the world. And through that window, she heard something that lodged itself so deep inside her that, years later, she would travel to Nairobi, stand in front of a camera, and tell the whole story with the kind of certainty that only comes when you know exactly who you are.

This is that story.

The Long Wait, and the Day She Said Enough

Growing up, DJ BigStar Vegas - we'll call her DJ BigStar, as she prefers her stage name - understood the economics of her household clearly. Her father was supportive of what he could cover. The basics. Extras were down to her. "My dad used to tell us, 'I'm going to support you however I can. Any other thing that you would like to do, you can do it peke yako, when you have your own money.'" No resentment in the telling. More like a young woman who learned early that she would need to fund her own ambitions.

So she waited. She finished high school. She finished college. And then she did what a certain kind of Kenyan dreamer does in 2024: She googled it.

"I started searching for DJ schools on Google, in Nakuru and in Nairobi." She found one she had actually been walking past for a while - a school that felt familiar already, as if she had already made up her mind about it unconsciously. She enrolled. Paid for it herself. And when she told her new teacher what time she'd be turning up, she left no room for ambiguity: "Monday, 8 o'clock, I'll be at this door."

"And I started like that," she muses.

The teacher saw it immediately - that particular fire that doesn't need fanning so much as it needs direction. Three months later, BigStar was a qualified DJ. She was, in her own words, "one year old" at the time of the Kikuyu Love Sessions It's Her Turn campaign.

“Even if it wasn’t much, it was small, but humble beginnings, you know? I was like - I appreciate this. I’ve started something and yes, I know I’m going far. Polepole tu.”

— DJ BigStar Vegas

The Tap on the Shoulder at Afraha

Nakuru is Kenya's fourth-largest city and a growing hub for creative culture in Kenya. The city's creatives have their own ecosystem - tournaments, events, the kind of informal scenes that produce talent long before institutions notice. DJ BigStar had been quietly building her presence on TikTok and Instagram, posting reels, letting the algorithm do what algorithms do. It was working. People were noticing.

One evening, at a DJ vs. MC tournament at Afraha Stadium in Nakuru, someone tapped her on the shoulder. A stranger. He said he'd seen her on TikTok. She thanked him, assumed he was just a fan, and didn't exchange contacts - sensible, she notes, given it was a first meeting. But then her phone rang.

"Hello BigStar, my name is so-and-so. There's something I would like you to try." He reminded her of who he was, as the person she'd met at Afraha, described the Kikuyu Love Sessions It's Her Turn campaign, and asked if she'd give it a shot.

She called her teacher. He was unambiguous: "Go for it."

"Mimi nayo." She went for it.

What "It's Her Turn" Actually Is

Before we go further, a beat of context matters here - because It's Her Turn didn't start as the thing it became.

Kikuyu Love Sessions is a Nairobi-based vernacular live music event series, founded in February 2023 by Allan Gitau. It has built its name on one premise: Thematic, culturally grounded shows that put Kenyan vernacular music front and centre.

Allan noticed something that should bother anyone paying attention to Kenya's live events scene: After the June show, more vernacular shows were emerging, but "the performers were all the same faces, especially DJs. And particularly, the DJs who were being booked a lot were all men."

So the campaign was born: Find female vernacular DJs, amplify them, put them in front of bookers and audiences who don't yet know them.

The original premise? One winner. A slot on the KLS stage, a DJ toolkit, and mentorship from DJ Dibull - one of the biggest names in vernacular DJing right now.

Then HEVA Fund entered the picture.

HEVA Fund - the Nairobi-based impact investor and creative economy specialist established about 11 years ago by creatives, for creatives - saw in It's Her Turn an exact mirror of their own mandate: Go-to-market support for young female creatives. HEVA decided to do a little more than just topping up the prize; they restructured it entirely. All five finalists - not one - received a fully kitted professional DJ equipment package. And the mentorship evolved from a few informal sessions into a full business development programme delivered in partnership with Sanara and SNDBX Ubuntu, covering branding, legal literacy, contract reading, and business strategy.

Allan Gitau described the shift thusly: "They just took what we initially had in mind and elevated it. And not just for one person, but for all the finalists. So that really excited us."

"Dream Come True"

When the format changed - when DJ BigStar found out that she and all the other finalists would be receiving equipment, not just one winner - she used a phrase you hear sometimes from people in circumstances where very little has been reliably given to them.

"It was like a dream come true," she said. And then: "A door of new opportunities opened for me."

These aren't clichés from a person who learned phrases. These are exact, literal descriptions from a woman who had saved her own money to enrol in DJ school, who had built a social media following through sheer consistency, who had travelled from Nakuru to make the most of a competition she'd heard about from a stranger's phone call.

Professional DJ equipment in Kenya is not cheap. A starter setup - controller, speakers, mixer - can run anywhere from KES 80,000 to KES 300,000+ depending on quality, placing it completely out of reach for most young self-funding creatives. The equipment grant didn't just merely DJ BigStar tools. It removed a barrier that, without intervention, would have required years of saving to overcome - years in which her momentum, this momentum she has right now, could stall.

“You are passionate, and I believe in you. Because the moment you stepped into this school, I saw it in you. So go for it. Let nobody tell you nothing. You are meant for this space.”

— BigStar's DJ teacher, as recalled in her interview

The Set, and the Instinct Nobody Taught Her

There are particular moments that stay with you. As we watched DJ BigStar perform her set, we noticed - a specific instinct, in our observation, that separates hobbyists from performers. We saw her switch, mid-set, between pure enjoyment of the music and deliberate, outward-facing performance. Like a switch flipping: I'm into this track - and then - but I also need to bring these people with me.

We had to ask.

"Did someone show you or teach you to do that?"

"No," she said, with a chuckle. "Mimi hujibamba nikispin."

"That was you?"

"Yes."

But she also doesn't shy away from sharing flowers where they are due: "My teacher used to tell us, 'Usijibambe peke yako, angalia mafans. Kuna watu wanaenjoy muziki na wewe, flow nao.'"

Don't have fun alone. Watch your fans. Flow with them.

She'd internalised it so completely it had become instinct. No small feat, this. It's the stuff of artistry.

Context: The Industry BigStar Is Walking Into

Kenya's creative and cultural industries contribute an estimated 5.4% of GDP and employ approximately 3.2 million people, according to HEVA Fund research and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Yet creative workers remain largely excluded from formal financial systems. Most commercial banks do not recognise creative cash flows - sporadic, event-based, portfolio-driven - as creditworthy income.
The Sanara programme, backed by the Mastercard Foundation, is directly addressing this by providing grants (70% targeted at young women in marginalised communities) and loans to creative entrepreneurs across three value chains: Fashion and accessories; audio-visual, film, and photography; and live performance and performing arts.
[Source: HEVA Fund / Sanara programme documents; Mastercard Foundation Kenya]
The It's Her Turn campaign emerged from a direct observation: As vernacular live music events proliferated post-2023, female DJs remained consistently underbooked.
This is not unique to Kenya. A 2022 report by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that across global music festivals, women and non-binary artists represented fewer than 28% of performers - and that underrepresentation was steeper in technical roles like DJing and sound engineering than in vocal performance.
In Kenya's vernacular and Africa’s Afrobeats scenes, the imbalance is visible to any promoter willing to look honestly at their booking sheets.
Thus, campaigns like It's Her Turn are not charity - they are market corrections.
[Source: Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2022 Music Festival Report; Kikuyu Love Sessions interviews and campaign documentation]
DJ BigStar's story is the story of Kenya's digital-first creative generation. She built her audience on TikTok and Instagram before she had professional equipment, before she had an agent, and before she had a single major gig.
A 2023 report by GeoPoll on East African digital behaviour found that Kenya has one of the highest rates of social media usage in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 84% of urban youth aged 18–35 using platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
However, while the platforms create demand, they don’t create access to professional tools. Equipment grants - exactly what HEVA Fund and Kikuyu Love Sessions provided - bridge that gap at the most critical moment: When a creative is visible enough to book, but not yet resourced enough to compete professionally.
[Source: GeoPoll, East Africa Digital & Social Media Trends, 2023]

Impact: What Changed After the Set

For DJ BigStar, the campaign's effects were already landing before the equipment even arrived.

Her teacher had been right that people would notice. "Everyone wants to know, 'Who is this BigStar?" The live recordings from the It's Her Turn demos were uploaded to Kikuyu Love Sessions YouTube channel, and the inquiries followed. She was looking forward to the November-December festivity season - Kenya's most competitive and best-paying gig period, when corporate events, weddings, and end-of-year parties fill the calendar - with a profile she hadn't had six months before.

Allan Gitau had watched all five finalists undergo a similar shift. "Their bookings have gone up," he said. "More people have taken note. It has led them to feel more confident about putting their work out there. We've noticed even their Instagrams and their social platforms, they've started becoming more present."

Confidence, bookings, visibility. For a woman who a year earlier was paying for her own DJ course in Nakuru, these count as foundational shifts.

Policy & Context: Why This Moment Matters Beyond the Individual

DJ BigStar's story sits inside a much larger story - one that Kenya's government and development partners are slowly beginning to take seriously.

The Kenya Creative Economy Blueprint (under the State Department for Creative Economy, Culture, and Heritage) acknowledges the sector's employment potential but has historically underdelivered on financing and formalisation. Creative workers frequently lack access to SHIF-registered employment, NSSF contributions, or formal contracts - meaning that even as the economy grows, the individuals powering it remain outside its protections. HEVA Fund has been advocating for job classification reform specifically because, as Tabitha Masese (Program Lead at HEVA Fund) notes as an example, photographers are currently forced to classify as journalists just to access basic professional services.

The Sanara programme - funded by Mastercard Foundation, implemented across Nairobi, Kisumu, Kakamega, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Turkana - represents one of the most significant structured interventions in Kenya's creative economy in recent years. It has set a target of supporting 110,000 young people and is deliberately designed to move creatives from informal hustle to professional, income-generating businesses.

For female DJs in Nakuru, for painters in Mombasa, for musicians in Kisumu, and for so many more working in different creative verticals, the programme's existence is a statement: Your talent is an economic asset, and someone is finally treating it like one.

So, is it worth it?

When we asked what she sees next for herself, she mapped it out with the same unhurried clarity she brings to a set. "My dreams are so many. I'm seeing them, I'm achieving them, and they're coming one by one." Bigger stages. International stages. Working with major artists. A name - DJ BigStar Vegas - that is becoming a brand in its own right, moving steadily from Afraha to Nairobi, and eyeing what lies beyond. "Niko na hopes I'm going to get big… I'm so hopeful for great things ahead."

That's what she said. Not a fantasy, not a motivational poster - a businesswoman's read on her own trajectory. A woman who self-funded her training, built her audience from scratch, and did the maths on every gig she'd had to hire equipment for, now watching those numbers shift in her favour. She knows what the deal is.

The Sanara programme - delivered through HEVA Fund, Baraza Media Lab, SNDBX Ubuntu, and the GoDown Arts Centre - didn't discover DJ BigStar Vegas. She had already found herself. What it did was clear the path.

The rest, she's handling.

"I'm in the industry to stay. This is big. I'm coming."

DJ BigStar Vegas is a Sanara programme participant supported through the "It's Her Turn" campaign by Kikuyu Love Sessions and HEVA Fund. This profile was produced by Recentred Africa as part of the Sanara programme's participant storytelling series. The interview conducted with DJ BigStar Vegas's full participation and knowledge. Stage name used as preferred by the participant.

Take the Next Step

Are you a young creative in Kenya?The Sanara programme is open to women and men aged 18–35 working across fashion, audio-visual, and live performance. Whether you are looking for skills training, business development support, or access to finance, the programme is designed to meet you where you are.

Explore Sanara opportunities and apply: hevafund.com/sanara-opportunities

Apply for a Sanara Ota Grant (for individuals, creative groups, and CBOs): hevafund.com/sanara-ota-grants

Apply for an Ota Kopa or Ota Kopa+ loan — affordable financing at 9% interest, up to KES 4,999,999, for creatives investing in equipment, productions, or business growth: hevafund.com/ota-kopa-loans

Stay updated on new calls and opportunities: Join the HEVA mailing list at hevafund.com or email sanara@hevafund.com

Want to see the It's Her Turn campaign in action?Read the full official announcement of the campaign outcome — and the story of all six finalists who received professional DJ starter kits — on the HEVA Fund website: hevafund.com/news/heva-fund-and-kikuyu-love-sessions-equip-female-djs-with-professional-starter-kits

Follow Kikuyu Love Sessions for upcoming events, new It's Her Turn editions, and vernacular live music across Kenya: kikuyulovesessions.com

Marcus Olang'

Here’s the thing about stories: they’re everywhere. They’re in the way someone smiles, the way a community comes together, or even the way a brand tries to connect with its audience. And if you know how to listen, you’ll find that every story has the power to move people - to make them think, feel, or even act differently. That’s what I do.

I’m Marcus Olang’, and I help people and organizations tell their stories in ways that matter.

Over the years, I’ve worked in radio, copywriting, strategy, and photography. Each role taught me something new about how stories work - and more importantly, how they can create change.

Right now, I’m the Storythreading Lead at Recentred Africa , an organization incubated by Baraza Media Lab. At Recentred, we don’t just tell stories; we design them to influence behaviour. Think about it: when you hear a story that feels personal, that speaks to your own experiences, you’re more likely to listen - and maybe even change the way you think or act. That’s the power of storytelling, and it’s what I get to do every day.

Beyond my work at Recentred Africa, I run Stills By Marcus, where I use photography to freeze moments in time and remind us of what it means to be human. So when I’m not behind the camera, or reflecting upon what it means to be a human living in Africa, you’ll probably find me nose-deep in a late-night photo-editing marathon.