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Kesi Juma is a Coast-based artiste who has made a name for himself as a popular hip-hop artiste, not only at the Coast, but also in the country. He is known for his conscious hip-hop style and freestyle rap. Among his many accolades, he was named Hip Hop Artist of the Year at the Coast Music Awards of 2013 and 2014 and the Pwani Celebrity Awards of 2015. The artist, popularly known as Kaa la Moto  (which is a Swahili name to mean hot coal) released his latest album, Leso ya Mekatilili, featuring different big artists and different African sounds including Mwanzele, Chakacha and Bango. 

While talking about his recent release, the artiste intimated that its creation had been inspired by an incidence, which took place at his native home in Kikambala, Kilifi county, where an elderly woman had been humiliated by a motorist and he had to step in to save the day. His wife Zubeida Abdulrakman, shares that in fact this compassion that comes so naturally is the first thing that attracted her to him.

“The one thing I love the most about Kesi is that he has that genuine love. That is my favourite thing about him,” shares the beautician.

Love life and family doubt

The two love birds met in 2015 while Zubeida was a university student at the Technical University of Mombasa. Two years later, they officiated their wedding and have been married for nearly six years now with two children.

“It wasn’t really love at first sight, at least not for me. We were neighbours — not close neighbours though, but we would definitely see each other from time to time.  I did not even know that he was an artiste during the time. But he was a respectful person. And that’s why I agreed to be with him. I had heard about Kaa La Moto, the artiste, but I did not know that it was him until he told me this himself. I had to take time and do my research on his music and I liked what he had going on. The music was good and respectful, so it wasn’t a problem to me,” she shares.

While it was not such an issue for her, their relationship was not as smooth as they had wanted it to be. As a matter of fact, her relatives knowing that the man she had agreed to marry was a hip-hop artiste, did not settle too well with the idea of their marriage, but they still went ahead with their plans and got married.

“Being a celebrity’s wife for me has been more than that. I love him first for the person that he is, as Kesi. Secondly, I respect his art and talent. It all comes with advantages and a lot of disadvantages. Disadvantages include when he has to be away from us, since he travels a lot. It’s not like the other jobs where dads return home in the evening— sometimes he goes away for much longer. Well, the advantage is that of course, it’s a source of income and he provides for his family. He also gets to expand his borders,” she says.

Support system

Being an artist’s wife also means that she gets to play a huge part in his musical creations, especially the composition and lyrics.

“I’m his support system — from the very writing of the songs, I am the first person to hear the creations. I am present during the recordings as well. I get to tell him what I feel about the rhymes too. I’m not always present for live performances because I am a private person. I know every show he has, but I would rather not be at the crowded places. I love spending time with him privately and as a family,” shares the mother of two.

Like all other artist, this rise to fame has not been a walk in the park and Zubeida has seen a lot of these challenges that the artiste faces. The biggest being lack of enough support from the music fan base.

“When it comes to hip-hop, I think most Kenyan fans look outside for this kind of content. Also financially, you have to invest a lot of money in music,” she shares about the artist.

The two have had many memorable moments together; including the day they got married as they were able to overcome all the challenges along the way. And the second most important was the coming of their two children.

“Our wedding day was the best moment for the both of us. My family had doubts on my choice of partner, and of course tried to interrupt, but we still set our hearts to do it. Secondly, the coming of our children. In fact he wrote the song Karibu Mwanangu when I was pregnant with our first son. But the song was not released until the birth of our second born daughter. It is my favourite song, although he still complains about not perfecting everything about the song like he had purposed to. Of course I love a lot others including the recent one he has done with H_art the Band,” she shares.

Aside from passion for music, the artiste is a martial arts trainer at Ansaar Karate Shotokan in Mombasa. He is also a private trainer in schools and some private sections in the community and has also been part of several Kenyan teams. This, as his wife shares, runs deep in the family and he was doing it before they even met.

“His father, Mohammed Charo Kessi is a martial arts trainer, so this is something he told me he has been doing since he was a child. Aside from that, he loves to cook… something that most men don’t take so much pride in. It is kind of a guilty pleasure, and I love it too because he surprises me with meals every once in a while. His favourite meal to prepare is ugali and wet fry beef,” she intimates.

Despite the industry having many challenges, she is hopeful of her husband’s future.