Kenya's Nonini is Safaricom brand ambassador

In his new role, Nonini will educate fellow artists on the importance of monetising their music and mobilise them to joining Safaricom's music app Skiza.

“I appreciate this chance to work with Safaricom and also look forward to learning more about the work Safaricom Foundation does,” he said. “I am very passionate about corporate social responsibility, and as part of the partnership I hope to participate in as many activities as I can.”

According to Safaricom, Skiza provides a platform for Kenyan musicians to sell their music to its 29 million subscribers. At the moment, Skiza has 11 million users and houses more than 132 000 songs out of which 125 000 are by Kenyan musicians.

Safaricom’s acting consumer business director, Charles Kare, said the rapper would for the next six months represent the brand among Kenyan musicians. Nonini would also be involved in the company’s brand campaigns, which would include the use of his image, voice and content for advertising purposes.

“His passion for helping those in need goes in line with our brand spirit of Twaweza and we look forward to working with him on various projects,” Kare said.

“We settled on this partnership with Nonini because he is a pioneer of new-age Kenyan music, popularly known as genge. He is passionate about artists’ rights through his involvement with PRISK and other organisations that fight for artists’ rights.”

This nomination comes a month after Nonini resigned as PRISK chairperson. Nonini had claimed that the body no longer served the interest of Kenyan musicians.

Musicians on the Skiza platform can keep track of their income by dialling *622# or by visiting its official website.