Maina Kageni reveals job he would be doing if he wasn't on radio

Piece by: Maureen Waruinge

09 October 2022

• Maina Kageni wants to retire this year.

• The media personality has revealed his retirement plans.

Maina Kageni who is the undisputed King of Radio opened up to Kiss TV's Kamene Goro in a special segment on Saturday October 8th.

Maina opened up about how a trip to Capital FM, and a demand for a sh40,000 fee landed him a voice over job that led to his first Radio job.

"It's been 22 years in radio," he started.

Maina told Kamene he was on radio when she was 8 years old. He also spoke about his love for his job keeping him through the years on radio.

"It's love, the way you love your job, you've got to love what you do and do it well."

Was his plan to go into radio?

"I got on radio by fluke. There is a friend of mine called Trevor Kanja and Dj Pinye. We had brought in some Dj's from the UK and I had gone to book airtime on Capital. So I paid for the airtime then they said we need KSh 40,000 for the voice over."

Maina at the time did not know what a voice over was. He enquired and felt disappointed because he did not have the budget for it.

"They asked me if I can voice the ad if I did not have the money. So I did the voice over and they asked me have you ever been on radio? I said No..Then they asked me if I want to try it."

The Classic 105 presenter made his first attempt at radio and impressed the Capital folks.

"Basically if I had sh40,000 on that day I would never be on radio. I would have been a nyamthoga selling spares in River Road, probably a broker of sorts coz I just loved biashara."

Maina is known for his other side hustles. How many does Kenya's richest radio presenter have? He listed at least five.

"I see radio as the day job. That's the platform. The other hustles is influencing I work with some big politicians doing PR for them in terms of marketing."

He also does Government PR, "I also work with state organizations, I do a lot of their PR. Then I also do my own personal stuff like tujenge Kenya where we have all these partnerships with Isuzu, Sarova, Safaricom, and I work with the Kenya Tourism Federation."

The impressive list of side hustles earns him a pretty penny. He said one must have several sources of income.

"The day you only have one revenue stream you are finished. Totally finished."

What's the brokest he has eve been?

"Let me tell you, this is my policy. If there is a place I can go and eat, guaranteed and have a drink and I've got fuel in my car, I'm okay. I can go without a bob for a month."

When did he make his first million?

"When I was on Kiss Fm. The salary was really good and when I joined from Nation FM, he gave me two months salary gross, to go and wean myself off of Nation. So I went away for two weeks and I got a couple of gigs and before I knew it, I had banked a million."

What shocked Maina was that at that young age, he had made a million. It was so astounding to him

"I was a baby when we started so early 21/22. We were such children." He was with Shaffie Weru at the time.

He has come so far and to his title as King of Radio.

"I have done this for 22 years. So I know it's important to know what you are doing way ahead of yourself."

He added that his success on radio also has to do with 'understanding the role of your co presenter'.

He added, "In media its the quality of the minutes not the number of the hours."

Watch the video below;