RIKE LAUNCHES SONIC NATION, A DOCUMENTARY CAPTURING KENYA’S MUSIC LEGACY

The Recording Industry of Kenya (RIKE) has unveiled a documentary titled Sonic Nation, an audio-visual archive tracing the country’s recorded music journey from its earliest days to the present.

Sonic Nation serves as a historical record of Kenya’s sound recording industry, narrated by the very individuals who shaped it. The documentary captures the determination, ingenuity, and vibrancy that have defined Kenya’s musical identity across generations from the pioneers who laid the groundwork to today’s key players driving ongoing transformation.

The story of Kenya’s recording industry is complex and connected to the nation’s social and cultural development. In the years following independence, broadcasters faced a shortage of locally recorded material, and live bands remained the dominant source of Kenyan music. The shift to FM radio, alongside the rise of bold and forward-thinking producers who broke new ground to capture and elevate Kenya’s diverse musical expressions, marked a truly transformative era.

“This documentary was not only necessary, it was powerfully revealing,” said Angela Mwandanda, Producer of Sonic Nation and National Coordinator of RIKE. “For years, we have asked ourselves, ‘What is the Kenyan sound?’ What we discovered is that we have never had just one identity.

Our music has never followed a single path; it moves to the beat of our own creativity. To confine Kenyan music to a single definition would be to deny who we have always been: a nation that creates, innovates, and moves unapologetically to its own diverse rhythm.”

The project is directed by Eric Musyoka, who serves as RIKE Chairman and Executive Producer at Decimal Records. With more than twenty years of industry experience, Musyoka describes Sonic Nation as both a retrospective and a rallying call, “This project allowed us to connect the dots, celebrating how far we’ve come, while also confronting the challenges we must address to secure the future of our industry.”

The documentary features an impressive roster of influential figures from Kenya’s music landscape, including: Fred Obachi Machoka, Muthoni Bwika, DJ Pinye, Suzanne Gachukia-Opembe, John Katana Harrison, Shaffie Weru, Japheth Kasanga, Tedd Josiah and Francis Bikedo among many others.

Sonic Nation marks the first in a series of RIKE initiatives aimed at building and strengthening Kenya’s recording industry. The documentary was made possible with support from the British Council and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).