Two months ago on the floor of Parliament, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei called out the Youth Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba for spending too much time “chasing” after content creators and influencers rather than focusing on sportspeople who, in his view, bring much more value to the country.
“He finds time to interact with content creators on TikTok; they are good people but will not take this country forward. Where is football, athletics and volleyball? Why is the CS so concerned about social media content creators and not traditional sports?” Cherargei questioned.
Many content creators, if not all, would disagree, and especially Antony Mwelu who, despite not being a content creator himself, says content production is the sole reason he is no longer living in the slum of Mathare North.
It is the reason that, at just 25 years of age, he owns a company, Light Art, that boasts top clientele such as Safaricom, UN Habitant and the Nation Media Group, to mention a few.
Light Art is a supplier of production service such as content creation and storytelling. It is youth-centric and unconventional, says Mwelu. The company’s organisational structure, for instance, includes a Director of Happiness.
Despite being the founder of Light Art, Mwelu is the Director of Partnerships and Projects rather than CEO, as is the custom with many business establishments.
“In many companies there is the belief that if you are the founder then you have to be the CEO. At Light Art we’re running away from that narrative by playing to our strengths. I am very good at sourcing Partnerships and executing projects while someone else is better at overseeing the administrative functionality of the company,” Mwelu says.
The company indirectly employs about 20-100 individuals, depending on the project they are working on. “We have been operational since 2020. Light Art is a conglomerate of three companies: Light Art Productions, Light Art Club, which is pretty well known, and Light Art Creators, which we will be launching soon. Light Art Productions creates photography, videography and audio-visual content for brands such as NTV, Safaricom and KCB, among others.”
The Light Art Club is a youth platform targetting majorly the Gen Zs and millennials. Its offices are situated at the 21-storey FCB Mihrab building located at the intersection of Lenana and Ring Road Kilimani in Nairobi, proof of growth, according to Mwelu.
“I wanted you to visit our offices at FC Mihrab to experience what our culture is all about. There is always free food and drinks as well as candies for everybody, members of staff or non-staff. The Director of Happiness ensures everybody feels welcome and appreciated,” says Mwelu.
His journey to where he is today began in 2014, after secondary school. “My elder brother ran a small community-based foundation in Mathare and at a very young age, I and some other children had been taught how to take photos. So after Form Four, we began documenting and showcasing the way of life in the slum through photos. The images were sold and used in a book titled Mwelu and The Mwelu Foundation , and earned us a few shillings.”
His mother had wanted him to train as a chef. “I loved cooking and my mother’s wish was that I become a chef but after Form Four, I didn’t want to continue with school; I just wanted to make money.”
For that decision, he was sent away from home and went to live with a friend from the slum who had been adopted by foreign parents and, incidentally, was pursuing a course in culinary arts.
“I started doing street photography. I would camp at Nation Centre with borrowed equipment and take photos. Then I started meeting a few celebrities in the streets. I took their photos and the network kept expanding,” Mwelu recalls. This was enough to raise pocket money for himself, and eventually he got a job as a photographer with The Skin Therapy Show that aired on KTN Home.
“I worked with the show for a long time and that’s where I learnt production. Then one day the producer of the show introduced me to a honcho at Safaricom at the time, Samuel Karanja,” says Mwelu.
“I remember it was on Women’s Day and Safaricom was having an event to celebrate women. I produced audio-visual and stills content for the event and sent it to them on WhatsApp. That was a life-changing moment for me.
They were very impressed because they had never encountered content that could be shared in a timely way via WhatsApp. The green App was still new to many at the time. Photographers would normally deliver their photos in print form but I provided a quick solution.”
He got more calls to cover Safaricom events and kept learning on the job. “I started by charging KSh1,000 then KSh5,000. With time it got to KSh50,000 and my rate card kept growing.”
Having noticed that many big brands were missing out on expert content production, Mwelu started sending proposals to organisations and companies.
“I would research their websites to see how they did their multimedia content and offer to do it my way pro bono. That’s how I got into the good books of many brands that offer me jobs to date,” Mwelu reveals. Other notable brands he has produced content for include Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, Blaze Be Your Own Boss, Dentsu, Red Rand Roses, Tecno and T – Card.
