“I Have No Relatives” – Is This The Side Of Kenyan Rapper Mejja That Nobody Knew?

If you have a family, then count yourself extremely lucky. This is the general message from rapper Mejja who grew up in circumstances that many of us would crumble under. Speaking to Jalang’o, Mejja opened up about his grim past that featured a single mom struggling to beat the odds of life on many a front.

“I grew up in Majengo, Nyeri, with my mom, who was a single mother,” Mejja narrated. “She was the breadwinner until she got a brain tumor.” Mejja recalls this as a devastating occurrence since their sole reliance was no longer stable enough to sustain the family. “I started hustling and trying to do music after my mom got sick.”
Mejja rolls back the years to during her mother’s upbringing. “My mom was brought up in a children’s home. My grandmother brought her up [initially] but when she died, my mom was thrown out after they claimed she was not their ‘daughter’.”

Mejja went on to add that he has been a loner, not by choice, but by the fact that he has had no known relatives up until his marriage. That it’s only now that he can claim that his wife’s family is his too. “This really affects me when it’s holiday season and everyone is going home to see their loved ones and I have no one to go to…. The people I meet are my family,” he says.

Families are not the same out there, and many may feel as though their folks are a messed up bunch, but Mejja’s story is a clear indication that we should all count our blessings if we have people to call ‘family’.