Mumbi Kaigwa was made for theatre. The seasoned actress turned 50 this year, marking 40 years on stage. “I love theatre because of its raw nature. It’s fulfilling to me as an actress because the audience is live and I’m free. While on the theatre stage, you have only one chance to get it right,” says Mumbi. Her interest started in Hospital Hill primary school and, by the age of 10, she’d appeared in a play titled “Oliver”.

At 16, she received the award for Best Actress at the National Drama Festivals. It was while in high school that she wrote her first play, “West African Sepia”, which was based on Wole Soyinka’s “The Telephone Conversation.” “I was becoming more politically conscious at the time, and I felt compelled to write a continuation of that racist conversation between a black African tenant and a European landlady.

"It caught my attention when he referred to his skin color as ‘West African Sepia’,” says Mumbi. In 1988, she got a job with the United Nations in Nairobi but continued to pursue theatre on a part-time basis. When the Australian daytime soap “Neighbors” held an audition for a Maasai woman in Kenya, Mumbi got the role, a major move for an African actress back then. After 10 years at the UN, Mumbi decided to follow her real passion and rededicated herself to theatre.

She remembers, “I realized that every day I spent in a system that did not appreciate what I was about, a part of me was dying. didn’t belong there, I was unhappy and I knew I had to leave.” Mumbi went on to feature in a slew of Kenyan productions, and later managed to successfully introduce the annual “Vagina Monologues” to Kenya after a major battle with the traditional mindset. Among her most successful pieces penned is “Kigezi Ndoto” (“A Hook for Dreams”), the famous theatrical musical about the effects of colonization in Africa.

Mumbi Kaigwa stages performances to celebrate her 40 years of Kenyan theatre. Call +254 707 305 365 or email contact@ theartscanvas.com.