It is a Friday night in Dubai, and the club is full of crowds from across the world. The man behind the decks is among the many Kenyans who have turned their passion for music into a living.
Some have traded day jobs for the decks; others still juggle office work with late-night sets.
The Kenyans working in Dubai as DJs (from left): Clinton Machuga, Kennedy Thoya, Samuel Kamaitha and Timothy Tsuma.
Photo credit: Pool
His name is Kennedy Thoya, and Dubai knows him as DJ Mneddy. He worked in customer service at a car rental company when, one night, a promoter gave him his first-ever gig in Dubai as a DJ.
“I did not even ask about the money because I was excited,” he says. The crowd warmed up fast. “They were enjoying.”
Kennedy, 36, has lived in Dubai since May 2011. The road to that dance floor started in Mombasa, where his father owned a sound system.
Kennedy Thoya, 36, DJ Mneddy, Dubai, has lived in the city since May 2011 and has played as a resident and freelance DJ since 2017.
Photo credit: Pool
“That is where my interest grew,” he says.
He studied customer service and front office operations and graduated from Utalii College in 2007. With no available jobs, he started by selling insurance, then SIM cards for about two months and became a receptionist at Kahama Hotel.
Then he heard about job opportunities in Qatar from a friend. He paid an agent Sh80,000, which covered the flight and everything else, to secure a job as a security guard. The pay was not good; he was earning less than he was getting at the hotel.
“I did not even look at the salary,” he says. “I was paid Sh12,000 for half a month; I felt so emotional,” he adds.
Because music ran in his family, it stayed on his mind. On weekends, he would plug his laptop into a friend's TV and play from a virtual DJ programme at house parties. “I just used to jam,” he says.
Nobody paid, but people danced. In February 2013, he started working at Avis, a car rental company, as a customer service agent, and his pay increased.
“I was now earning about Sh42,000,” he says. “Then it went up to almost Sh100,000.”
His friend took him to an African club, where he talked to the DJ and kept practising. One night, a guest at a club where Joe Ogongo, another Kenyan, was the promoter complained about the DJ. Joe called Mneddy. That call led to the Friday night when this story began.
Joe then took him to a club called Kiz, where he DJed on Mondays. For two months nobody paid him.
“As much as I was not paid, I did not have a problem with that,” he says. Then he stopped going, and the owner asked why. Mneddy asked for about Sh18,000 a week. “That is about Sh70,000 a month, so it was fine,” he says.
The Kenyans working in Dubai as DJs(from left): Clinton Machuga, Timothy Tsuma, Kennedy Thoya and Samuel Kamaitha.
Photo credit: NMG
His break came when the resident DJ left for a wedding, and he covered the biggest night of the week. The promoters asked him to stay. “I had to decide whether to continue with the 9-5 or do what I love the most,” he says.
In mid-2017, he resigned from his job, hoping to pursue his passion for DJing. But he soon hit a setback when the owners of Kiz told him they could no longer afford to keep a resident DJ.
“I was so heartbroken,” he says. He booked a flight home, but before he left, the bosses offered him a contract. He signed in October 2017 and stayed until December 2024.
The job opened rooms he had never entered. Celebrities from across Africa introduced him to festival owners and corporate planners. “I have been in big rooms,” he says.
Alongside Zimbabwean MC Smiley, he joined House of Piano, where he opened for international musicians including Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross and Sexyy Red, before heading back to Kiz to resume his DJ set.
“This is our brand now,” he says.
As new opportunities came his way, Mansion JVC made him an offer he could hardly ignore: nearly twice his previous pay for a weekly DJ set.
Today, the man who sponsored his visa doubles as his manager and is CEO of All Africa Festival, which showcases African artists beneath Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
“A one-hour set pays me between Sh70,000 and Sh80,000,” he says. His international rate is about Sh259,000, but for Kenyan crowds he charges less. “For me, it was always about the passion first. The money came later.”
Over Sh200,000 in five hours
Timothy Tsuma Jotto is another Kenyan DJ making a living from his craft in Dubai.
Timothy Tsuma Jotto, 33, DJ Raey D’Katalyst and founder of Catalyst Sounds, Dubai, has lived in the city since January 2015 and has been a DJ for about 15 to 17 years.
Photo credit: Pool
His father had once been a DJ but left the profession after becoming a Christian. A career in music was, therefore, the last thing his family expected him to pursue.
Timothy trained in information technology but pursued music on the side, gradually building his career behind the decks.
In 2013, he joined Artwork DJ Academy in Mombasa. “Music was already in me,” he says, and he finished in about two months.
His first break came when he played at a wedding as an apprentice DJ. He later secured a residency at Savannah Club in Mombasa, while taking on side gigs at corporate events, including the Kenya Ports Authority’s end-of-year party.
His uncle helped him secure a job in Dubai. He arrived as a security guard, with his DJ ambitions still on hold.
“My basic salary was Sh42,000, and I was given a government allowance of about Sh12,000. It was good money, a dream come true,” says the 33-year-old.
DJing remained a side hustle as he slowly built his career, taking gigs around his security job. Some early gigs paid only in “exposure”, while transport costs swallowed what little he earned. At times, promoters disappeared without paying him.
“Sometimes I’d go out to work, but I came home with nothing,” he says.
Just as the odds seemed to be shifting in his favour, he landed a job with a company selling DJ equipment after five years as a security guard.
“I am 100 percent sure I did not sell anything in that company,” he says, laughing. He spent his days playing with the machines instead.
One day a British club owner found him playing R&B on the DJ sets. “I want this guy to work in my club,” he told the manager.
He landed the job, but the breakthrough was short-lived. About a year later, the club closed.
Undeterred, he continued sharpening his skills as a freelance DJ, building relationships with promoters. “I’d play four nights and be paid Sh17,000 a night at the end of each month, a contract that ran from 2023 into 2024.”
When that job ended, he turned to entrepreneurship, investing in his own sound equipment as the first step toward building a business.
He set up Katalyst Sounds, named after his nickname, “Dj Raey D’Katalyst”.
“I now rent out speakers and lighting equipment in Dubai, and tents and buffet equipment in Kenya,” he says. He has also ventured into Dubai desert events, attracting guests from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the UK.
“The lowest I can charge is Sh53,000,” he says. “For instance, this coming New Year's Eve, I’m booked for five hours at Sh212,000.”
One thing he has learnt over the years is to insist on a contract before taking on any gig. “In the past, someone would simply ask me to show up for a gig without putting anything in writing,” he says. “These days, things are different.”
Never a handshake, always a contract
Another Kenyan DJ learned the same lesson through a handshake. Clinton Machuga, 32, is known in his circles as DJ Gashu. He has lived in Dubai for seven years.
Before turning DJing into a career, the Zetech University graduate worked at research firm Nielsen before spending two years driving for Uber. Eventually, he began to question the sustainability of the jobs.
Clinton Machuga, 32, DJ Gashu, Dubai, has lived in the city for seven years, since the end of 2018, and has been a DJ for five of them.
Photo credit: Pool
“I thought to myself, ‘this is not working out,’” he says.
At the end of 2018, Clinton left Kenya for Dubai, where he found accommodation in a shared room, sleeping alongside four or five others. Each morning, he went from office to office, handing out his CV and looking for work. Some advised him to take up security work, but he refused, determined to find another path.
“I had told myself I would find something worth talking about. Not that there is anything wrong with being a security guard,” he says.
Months later, he got a job as a sales assistant at a toy company, earning Sh123,000 a month.
“I can't say I was not living large, but I could afford to pay my bills and send some money home,” he says.
Back in Kenya, Clinton had picked up the basics of DJing by spending time with a friend who was a gospel DJ, practising on the equipment whenever he got the chance.
In mid-2019, his wife connected him with the manager of Hideout Club, opening a door to his first opportunity.
“I have always had a passion for DJing,” he told the manager.
His first club set came just before the Covid-19 pandemic brought nightlife to a halt. When clubs reopened in 2021, he returned to the decks at High Five in Dubai Internet City, playing to empty rooms as he waited for business to pick up.
“I would play when there was nobody in the club,” he says.
He used his final pay to buy a small DJ controller, then made himself available to promoters any day of the week.
A Kenyan-owned club later offered him a monthly wage, sealed with a handshake rather than a written contract. But when payday came, no one took responsibility for paying him.
“At the end of the month, people started throwing blame around,” he says.
“As an entertainer, you just have to flow with it,” he says.
Most Dubai clubs want international music. “I blend well with any community,” he says. He now charges between Sh24,000 and Sh70,000 per gig, depending on the client and the nature of the event.
He says his biggest challenge is balancing the demands of DJing with family life as a father of two.
Samuel Kamaitha is juggling two careers in Dubai: as a systems consultant and a DJ.
“Breaking into Dubai’s music scene is difficult,” says Samuel, who had worked in Kenya as a DJ in different cities. “Nobody knows you. You can approach club owners or promoters directly, but most promoters control access to gigs, and the pay is often poor.”
Samuel Kamaitha, 41, DJ SammyK and systems consultant, Dubai, has lived in the city since January 2022 and has been a DJ since 2016.
Photo credit: Pool
He started by selling car spares for six months, came back to Kenya and returned to Dubai, ready to focus on music.
“They focus on a niche market,” he says.
He started out playing house music, despite a friend questioning the choice. “Everyone in Kenya plays open-format,” he says. “I am still figuring out the best route.”
Last year, he took a full-time job at Dubai Industrial City and kept Fridays and Saturdays for gigs, about four a month. “Dubai, life is about work, work, home, home, work, work, home,” he says.
He charges Sh24,000 for a two-hour gig.
“The going rate for a DJ in Dubai is Sh53,000,” he says, adding that he charges the same even when performing solo. His target is to earn at least Sh88,000 a month from entertainment.
For now, he keeps his day desk job as a systems consultant and reserves Fridays for DJing.
“If somebody focuses 100 per cent on this, you need a lot of networking, not even money,” he says.
