Stories: Combining creative talents and entrepreneurship for sustainable income

Innocent Iradukunda arrived in Nairobi in 2019 from Burundi and struggled to find a way to support himself. “Life was difficult,” he said, looking back on his first arrival. “I got a job, but I was harassed by the city council until my job stopped.” Innocent is an artist who does pencil and line art and eventually found employment at a paint company. However, the pay wasn’t sufficient to cover all his costs.

CAP Youth Employment Institute found many young refugees like Innocent come to Kenya with artistic skills and talent in visual art, drama, design, dance and music. However, the training programs at the time did not have specialized components to support trainees to capitalize on those talents for a sustainable income. This situation left trainees training for vocational or technical skills, such as hairdressing or auto repair, alongside how to run a successful business.

Like Innocent, Kamikazi Aimee Louange arrived in Kenya as a refugee in 2014 and is a talented artist but struggled to find an income using her vocal skills. “I used to sing but not as a business. I used to perform in events without a single pay or get paid peanuts.” Before learning more about business practices, she said she wasn’t confident in negotiating for better pay or creating contracts for her appearances.

Although there are several initiatives in Kenya to support refugees who are artisans, especially for handmade goods, they tend to be aimed at the development of artisan handcrafts and traditional face-to-face marketing. The EDC-Kenya pilot sought to give refugees, particularly women, agency over their talents for generating more stable and fulfilling income.

Clarisse Nyirantore Niyibizi is a 32-year-old female refugee from Congo, now living in Nairobi with her husband and two children. They came to Kenya to avoid the conflict and found adjusting to life there challenging. “Being a refugee, I did not have any source of income, and therefore I was really struggling.” She learned hairdressing and started a small salon, but she also sang gospel and released her music over TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube.

Artisan-focused businesses also have needs such as budgeting, copyrights and contracts, and digital platforms that require technical skills beyond creative talent. Including all those components give artists the power to run and manage their own businesses without relying on someone else.

Before taking the program, Clarisse’s social media was being managed by an outside party. After, she learned how to post and market for herself. “My channel has greatly grown to over 700 subscribers and over 2.8K Views on my latest video,” she said. “I have also been invited to many events in and outside Nairobi and have also managed to organize my own music event in my church. This has happened because I have learnt how to market my music and even got employed in one of the biggest churches here in Nairobi as a praise and worship minister.”

Other trainees have also used the skills they learned through the program to find clients and business for themselves.

“This year, when I joined CAPYEI, things changed a bit,” Innocent said of his recent accomplishments. “I was able to market myself on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and WhatsApp, and I’ve won 27 clients since the beginning of the program.”

He has also learned how to manage the money he earns and invest in his future. “I didn’t know how to budget my salary,” he said, often spending it as soon as he received it. “Sometimes I tried to save, but I often spend all of my income at once. I am now in a monthly saving group and have gained a lot of financial discipline. I have learnt to budget my income.”

Kamikazi could also turn her music production training and singing talents into a stable income. “When I joined the program, I learnt to believe in myself and that I can earn from my talent. So I opened accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and now using them as marketing platforms, and that is where I get a lot of gigs. I am now on monthly pay in one of the churches in the neighbourhood.”

The program has given the trainees long-term goals that use their creative talents and turn them into long-term income-generating pathways. “I am looking forward to having an art gallery in Westland Nairobi,” Innocent said eagerly. “It will be a place where clients can follow me and view my work, and I can also use it to train others at a fee.”