DIRECTOR LIKARION WAINAINA OPENS UP ON HIS DAD BATTLING ALCOHOLISM AND BEING HOMELESS

Director Likarion Wainaina has opened up about his difficult childhood. Speaking in an interview with Buzz Central’s Cheptoek Boyo, Likarion said his father’s alcohol problem affected their family greatly to the point that they lost everything, “My dad had a problem with alcohol and you know once you start with that, it’s not just about the fun times it trickles into your life and so that’s how we ended up just losing everything and then they split up with my mum.

I ended up being raised by my mum. She was struggling doing odd jobs here and there and we moved around Nairobi a lot. I think we’ve moved probably 8 or 9 times up until I was an adult so for me it was a hard time but it was also interesting because I got to be raised in different cultures.“

One of the places they lived was Kibera after a stranger welcomed them to her home, “At that time we were literally locked out of our house we had nowhere to go, my mum went and talked to a stranger at church and told her she had 4 kids with nowhere to go and she was also a single mom, raising 2 kids and she was like just come and live with us. We were taken in by a stranger.”

He however appreciates moving to Kibera because it was where he discovered his love for film, “Growing up we were fairly wealthy but then we lost everything, I ended up in Kibera. I don’t say it as if it’s the bottom, for me Kibera is what I’m used to. It was not terrible, it had so much culture and it is what infused me with the love for film because I used to go watch zile ‘sinema za watoto keti chini‘” he said 

According to Likarion, after watching Drunken Master he knew he wanted to become a filmmaker, “One day the guy in charge of the place allowed me to watch adult movies, drunken master by Jackie Chan, I think I was 9 years. I remember watching it and all my friends were talking about how Jackie Chan used to do all these stunts and I’m like, how do they do it? I want to know how they did it and after that movie is when I knew I wanted to make movies.”