Yaddah Wanjiku
After an intense and highly-competitive star search, Yaddah Wanjiku emerged the winner of the KFM ‘Who’s Got The Mic’ talent search that lasted more than a month. Privah Elibz and Hannah Arinaitwe were the other finalists that she beat for a slot on the Turbo Charged K-Drive show alongside Collins Bareija Magezi, commonly known as Emeka, the Romantic Mukiga.
The first born of two, born to a Kikuyu father and a Mutku mother from Uganda, Yaddah Manjiku is a bubble of good vibes.
“I am goofy to those who know me very closely but to those who do not, I might be a very tough person to approach because I do not welcome people like that until you come and talk to me and I will be a goof ball in that moment, ” the Journalism and Communications graduate from Makerere University says.
Media journey
Despite practicing and studying in different fields in media, Yaddah’s passion has always been in radio.
“I discovered that when I went through the Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) fellowship where we went through a whole 360 training in journalism and everything to do with it and so I leaned more into my strengths, which are basically my voice and speech. I discovered my passion for radio then and started to pursue it a lot more seriously.”
She started her media journey at SEE TV in 2022 where she was doing an entertainment show called 411 Paparazzi for one year before the TV closed. She then joined Galaxy FM doing the 7PM countdown and then requests from 9pm to 10 pm, which she did for eight months before she was let go with reasons that she had a disconnect with their audience given that they are a Luganda-based audience yet she speaks a lot of English.
She worked in communications for a while before trying her chance at NRG radio after their competition but did not go through. Because of her love for radio, she thought that would be a better place because of the vibe and language, but it did not work out.
The KFM opportunity
On a random day, she came across a KFM poster on a friend’s status that was advertising a star search and she reached out to Emeka to clarify whether it was legit and he encouraged her to go for it.
She, however, sought another opinion and asked her mentor whether it was a good idea.
“I spoke to my mentor, t programmes director at Galaxy FM, Timothy Jumba, and he also told me to go for it. He called me to his studio in Makindye and we recorded the first video, which I posted the following day and it got a lot of engagement,” she said.
Yaddah managed to get selected in the top 10 but had to go through some challenges, including testing her creativity, personality and vibe, among other things, which she says were scary but also very fulfilling and after the process she earned a slot in the top five and later top three.
Biggest challenge
Of all the challenges, she says the social media challenge was the hardest. People had to vote online, meaning the power was out of her hands unlike other times where she had to show her personality and how authentic she was.
“One of my competitors, who is also a friend, Hannah, had the backing of students at campus where she was a leader yet I was just appealing to strangers. It was scary to see her numbers going higher and her callers were also engaging.”
Competition threat
Despite being her friend, Wanjiku reckons that Hannah was her biggest competitor because besides being talented, beautiful and super amazing, they have gone through similar journeys.
“We were both debaters in high school and I remember during the media challenge initiative fellowship, somebody entrusted her under my care and she joined the following year after me. I won best anchor English in 2020 and she won 2021.”
When she saw that Hannah was part of the contest, she knew it was going to be a tough competition.
Winning the competition
Wanjiku believes that besides being talented and eloquent, she believes she won the KFM ‘Who’s Got The Mic’ talent search because of her previous experience on radio. It helped her because people who previously listened to her always looked out for her next move.
Yaddah gets goofy with her K-Drive co-presenter Emeka. PHOTOS | ISAAC SSEJJOMWE
What is she adding on KFM
Being both Ugandan and Kenyan, Yaddah feels her ability to speak multiple languages, including English, Swahili, Rutooro, some bit of Luganda and some French helps her connect with many audiences.
She says she is also fun and a very opinionated person who will be that reliable friend to people.
“I am that one person you will rely and count on to give you reasonable advice, especially the youth and having grown up both in Kenya and Uganda, I have been exposed to different communities and cultures, which I will be able to share with people.”
The reception
On her KFM beginnings, Yaddah says the people at KFM have been very welcoming, friendly and warm.
“I have struggled with imposter syndrome for a very longtime whereby I question myself despite knowing that I am good at something but I have spoken to Becky and Emeka and they have been very encouraging and helped me find the best personality to bring out to people.”
Trying moment
Barely a month on the station, Wanjiku got her biggest taste on the airwaves last week when she had to present the K-Drive on her own.
“The agreement was that I was supposed to sit behind the console with Emeka taking me through but he was involved in an accident. I was forced to be there by myself on a Friday. Now Friday is a day when we do not have any specific programming rules. It is just free styling yet I love structures. With me, things have to run a certain kind of way but there I was behind a console, working on an entirely new system. It was terrifying,” she said.
But because Friday is less talk more music, she managed to pull through while Monday was a smoother show as bringing to life that saying that “Pressure can make you better”.
