Today, the Mighty King Kong is at the top of his game; yesterday he wasn't. Life was a struggle from the moment he was born. A lesser man would have given up early and blamed fate for his misfortunes, but not he. Instead, King Kong chose to rise above his difficult life and conquer his physical challenges to get to where he is right now. His album ‘Lady’s Choice' has been one of the hottest items on the music scene. Radio stations play his music several times a day, while music stores keep topping their shelves with his releases.

Radio & Club DJ’s find pride in including his hits on their play lists.

Born Paul Otieno Imbaya in a small shopping centre in Ugenya, life, as he can remember it, was fun. He played with other children and lived happily with his family. A couple of years later, fate began to play its cruel hand, starting off with a severe polio attack that left Paul crippled from the waist down. He vividly recalls his mother telling him that he was one fat, healthy baby that neighbours adored.

The attack on Paul did not deter the family from encouraging young Paul to enjoy life as other children, he swung back to the normal routine of life, at Ambira Primary school and at that time everything else was as normal as can be, until six years later, however, something did.  

"My father died suddenly when I was in Standard Six, and “life became tough for us", recalls Paul. The pension received after his father's death could not sustain the family, so Paul made a drastic decision, he quit school, assuming the basic education he had acquired was sufficient; he let the other seven siblings pursue their schooling.

He left home and headed for the big Lakeland town, Kisumu, where he became a beggar.

His charm and stunts earned him a lot of passion amongst these town dwellers and was soon nicknamed, The ‘Great Beggar’, a name to this day the people of Kisumu still call him by. He operated outside supermarkets where he was paid to watch over cars.

As Paul narrates this moving real life story, he shows no signs of bitterness at all. It was fate and he accepted it and was ready to move on. He was only 12 years at the time. He was so popular within the street community that they appointed him street leader. His ability to speak English was also an advantage as he was the only street boy to speak the language and this worked to his advantage with the missionaries who always turned to him when they needed any assistance with the so many children running away from home.

Paul was based at the Famous Flaming Casino, owned by business entrepreneur turned politician, Late Amin Walji. Mrs Walji, sympathised with him and adopted Paul, and he lived with the Walji’s for three years. This changed his life; Mrs Walji made sure Paul lived decently, taught him respect, obedience and honesty and groomed him to be a responsible person in life.

Even though the Walji’s provided him with shelter and food, Paul still had to work for his money to support his siblings back home; he was a parking attendant at the Flamingo Casino.

So when exactly did Paul, become the Mighty?"

That's a very interesting story," he laughs, during his tenure as Parking attendant at the Flamingo Casino, he always sneaked in to see the goings on, The Flamingo Casino, was booming then as a top Night Spot, and the then DJ, DJ Stone, was of the respected clique of DJs in the country. He held regular Disco Dancing competitions and shows at the Club and as Paul had shown great interest in the Shows, DJ Stone offered him a stint during one of the many extravaganzas, to curtain raise for a big event at the Club.

Paul was ready, the DJ was ready to roll, but both realised  that , Paul did not have a catchy stage name, they could not have introduced him as ‘The Great Beggar’ as he was popularly known, so out of the blue, host DJ Stone, introduced him as ‘The Mighty King Kong’.

Paul, sits back, takes a deep breath, and recalls that night, he says,” man oh man, it was explosive, the audience went wild, I just could not believe, they were craving for, more, more, more.

”He danced to Michael Jackson’s, ‘Black or White’, nobody could believe what they saw, a cripple dancing with his stick to this sensational tune and with such style and rhythm the next day he was in the papers.

 A King has been born; next on the bill were regular performances at the Club. He was a ladies choice, they would crowd the stage and shower him with money and dance with him.

In 1993, when he hit the age of 20, his adoptive mother summoned him for a talk. She gently informed him that it was time to move on from her house and start a life on his own. With this ultimatum, King Kong had to rethink his strategy. He was grateful for the kind generosity and guidance accorded to him by his foster family and took a bold step to move on to the big city, Nairobi, with only Kshs.1,000.00 between him and poverty .Once in Nairobi with nowhere to live and not knowing anybody he spent his nights in the public park, Uhuru Park. Meanwhile he had stationed himself outside yet another Night Club, this time Hollywood Club, Nairobi.

When old folks say that God always looks out for his people, Mighty King Kong is one such person. One night whilst outside Club Hollywood, of all the people, DJ Stone, his old friend and mentor walked in, he too had moved to the big city and was resident DJ at the Club. He arranged to have ‘The Mighty’ perform every Sunday in the popular ‘Jam sessions’, and was impressed with the audiences reception to this unique new found Talent. DJ Stone introduced King Kong to Club Manager, Steve Aziz, of the Florida 2000 Club. He did an audition performance and the crowd loved his every move. Manager Steve, signed him on, interestingly on the same terms as at the other two Clubs he had been performing, that the Club will not pay him a packet as such but his takings would be the tips and crowds monetary appreciation. 

"I was vulnerable and green then, and I had no manager to represent me, so I accepted the offer, I would make an average of Ksh.6,000.00 per night. On my first night, I made Ksh.6,870.00 it was an experience I will never forget. ‘King Kong’ rescheduled his gigs such that he was able to perform at least twice a week - at the Florida and Club Hollywood. Soon he had to part ways with the Management of Hollywood Club and did his thing at Florida 2000. Steve Aziz, arranged to have Stage outfits done for him. We developed a close working relationship and club patrons and friends often referred to me as ‘Mtoto wa Aziz’, meaning, son of Aziz.

I was fascinated by the sound of reggae, and admired ‘Man Apollo’ from Jahmbo Sounds. I persistently nagged him to teach me the reggae trend, until one day he gave in and handed over the Mike, and from that night on, there was no looking back, by 1994, The Mighty King Kong, was one of the best ‘emcees’ in town. 

When Rap dawned, King Kong took it in his stride. "Aziz inspired me to add it to my repertoire and make it my own, that I did in style”. Soon Aziz was transferred to Mombasa to head the Mombasa Florida Club; along went King Kong, but soon parted ways each pursuing their own course. The reception was even bigger in Mombasa, but his burning desire was to record his own song, so he moved back to Nairobi, performed with various groups including the famous Mushrooms, The Pressman Band, of the famed ‘Msenangu’ song and still not satisfied with himself moved across the borders to Uganda and hooked up with group ‘Simba Ngoma’ in Kampala.

Here he performed at the Nile Green, and it was at one of these performances he met Adrian Archer who eventually sponsored his debut recording. This was a demo that he brought back to Kenya and approached a number of producers including Sync Sounds, Samawati Studios, Mushrooms Studios and Audio Vault, but they all declined to work with him. It was Maurice Oyando, of Next Level Studios who was willing to put his works on tape. This was around the time he learnt of the death of one of his foster parents. With sheer dedication and determination he worked hard to have his works out and by January of that year he had the ‘Hit’ Ladies Choice’ released.

He later teamed up with promoter Daniel Wilson and later still moved on. The Mighty not forgetting the ‘The Hard road he travelled’ to get to where he is has on numerous occasions donated part of his record sales proceeds to the less fortunate.

In part two of our series we track Mighty King Kong’s road after initial success.