Captain Otoyo: My first salary was less than my allowance

Piece by: MILLICENT ATIENO

12 April 2023

• The comedian has lit up the entertainment scene for the last decade-plus

Renowned comedian Kazungu Mutano popularly known as Captain Otoyo revealed the amount of money he was paid as his first salary as he was working at Royal Media, Citizen.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Kalondu Musyimi during one of his shows themed; "Till money do as part", the comedian revealed that his allowance was more than his salary.

The entertainer explained that he was paid eight thousand per month with an additional ten thousand as his allowance.

"My real salary was eight thousand at Citizen but my allowance was ten thousand."

At this particular time, the entertainer was working on another show called "Shika Pata Potea" before 'Papa Shirandula' which was much loved by Kenyans.

The funny man also brought up memories of how Citizen TV wasn't the IT channel before some of the flamboyant news presenters such as Julie Gichuru and Swaleh Mdoe were brought;

"Citizen TV used to air their news at 8 pm and 10 pm instead of the normal 7 pm and 9 pm in that. Citizen did not believe in themselves at that time and they did this just to avoid competition from the other channels."

He added that their stories were very unique at that time giving an example of some of the news like;

"People biting dogs, camera people chasing chiefs and thieves, and suddenly Citizen got everything they were looking for and the workers at the time were replaced by the buoyant and energetic presenters we have now."

About his expectations for this year, he said that he just wants to go bigger and wants the boys he has been working with to just get shows on TV for more exposure.