From Gikomba market to Kenya’s most requested wedding lens
I didn’t set out with a five-year plan. I set out with a borrowed camera, a stubborn nickname, and a refusal to go home empty-handed.
I was born in Nyandarua. School was never stable, and by Form Two the money simply wasn’t there. Nairobi meant odd jobs — cleaning hotels, unblocking sewers, hawking in Gikomba. A colleague started calling me Kapedo because I wouldn’t let opportunities go. The name stayed.
After the pandemic erased the spoken-word and DJ work I had been building, I charged fifty shillings a frame with a borrowed camera. When that was taken back, my mother sold a piece of land and placed 150,000 shillings in my hand for a Canon 90D. That decision is still the foundation of everything I do.
“I don’t ask people to perform. I ask them to stand still long enough for the real expression to arrive.”
A session with comedian Eric Omondi opened doors to Kenya’s public faces — MC Jessy, the WaJesus family, and couples who simply wanted their wedding documented without the stiffness of over-direction. Work has taken me to Paris and New York. The Instagram community sits above 400,000. None of that changes the standard on the day: clear light, honest moments, and guidance that makes people look like themselves.
The style is emotional and crisp. I avoid heavy over-editing. Posing is taught in small, practical steps so you never feel lost — then I step back so the frame can feel lived-in rather than staged.
His work and story have been covered by The Kenya Times, Daily Nation, Pulse, Tuko, and interviews including NTV — see the full list on the Press page.