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Chipukeezy on why he walked away from Sh500,000 monthly radio salary
What you need to know:
- "I was already famous, and now I had a payslip. Funny thing is, all that salary went into servicing my car loan.
- I literally never touched that money. It was a Mitsubishi. I survived on MC gigs and brand deals, a Sh100,000 here, Sh200,000 there, plus the little from Churchill Show."
When comedian Vincent Muasya, widely known as Chipukeezy, exited Kiss FM in 2017, speculation quickly spread that he had been pushed out. Years later, he is setting the record straight: He walked away, voluntarily, just as he was about to sign a Sh500,000 monthly contract.
For three years, Chipukeezy was a familiar voice on the station, at one point co-hosting the influential morning drive show alongside veteran presenter Caroline Mutoko. But when he first joined the station, he wasn’t even given a contract and didn't dare ask for one.
“I was like a resident studio guest. Jalang'o had just left Kiss FM. Caroline Mutoko saw me on TV and felt I could be a good replacement. When I joined, I never even bothered to ask for a contract. I was afraid that if I did, they'd ask me to leave. For about six months to a year, I worked without earning a single cent," Chipukeezy says.
The reason for this, he says, was his mother. She didn't believe comedy was a real career, but radio, she understood. Hearing her son’s voice on air every morning made his unconventional path feel legitimate.
One day, as Chipukeezy was on his way home, he was robbed outside the studio premises. Word reached Mutoko.
“That’s when Caroline realised I didn’t even have a contract. She pushed for it. Arrangements were made to get me a vehicle to and from work, and I was given a Sh50,000 salary, which, after deduction, came to around Sh30,000. I never even bothered to negotiate. I thought it was a lot of money. I was young and naive then.”
By he was already a household name from his raucous Churchill Show appearances.
“We weren’t making much from Churchill either, but it kept me going.”
With his very first payslip, Chipukeezy walked into a bank and took a car loan.
"I was already famous, and now I had a payslip. Funny thing is, all that salary went into servicing my car loan. I literally never touched that money. It was a Mitsubishi. I survived on MC gigs and brand deals, a Sh100,000 here, Sh200,000 there, plus the little from Churchill Show."
Chipukeezy later realised that some of his colleagues were earning nearly 10 times his salary. That’s when he marched into the office of Patrick Quarcoo, Radio Africa's co-founder, and demanded a Sh500,000 pay rise.
“He turned me down, but doubled my salary to Sh100,000 after tax.”
However, Chipukeezy's conviction for radio had waned, and although he now had a pay rise, it wasn’t satisfying.
“A few months on the new terms, I had cleared my car loan, and I just knew I needed to leave. It had been three years. Digital content creation was beginning to rise and I felt the timing was right.”
He returned to Quarcoo, this time not to negotiate but to inform him that he was resigning. Quarcoo pushed back, offering him more money in a bid to keep him. Eventually, Quarcoo agreed to the Sh500,000 figure Chipukeezy had originally demanded. But by then, Chipukeezy had already made up his mind. He was leaving.
“He finally agreed to the Sh500,000 after seeing I was serious about leaving. But my mind was set. I wrote my resignation letter.”
