When Bien of Sauti Sol sat down with The Breakfast Club in New York, it was hailed as a breakthrough moment. Few Kenyan musicians have ever graced one of America’s most influential radio shows.
But for his wife and manager, Chiki Kuruka, the occasion carried mixed emotions.
Speaking openly, Kuruka said she was proud of Bien’s composure but unsettled by the tone of some questions.
“It is hard to be in a space where someone is asking you ignorant questions, and you’re just there being respectful, educational, and trying to explain where you’re coming from,” she said in a recent interview.
Kuruka noted that artists from East Africa are too often made to feel invisible on international platforms. “Many times when we travel, we have to explain that East Africa is on the map, that we know what we are doing, and that Bien is magic,” she said. “It’s exhausting to keep going through that circus.”
Even so, she praised Bien for keeping his cool. “He handled it with so much grace. He was respectful, he educated without being defensive, and he represented not just himself, but Kenya and East Africa.”
Kuruka pointed to another moment that underlined Bien’s approach. At a press conference in Tanzania earlier this year, he was asked about supposed rivalry between Kenyan and Tanzanian artists. He refused to be drawn into the debate.
“He said if you travel around the world, you realise how dangerous this Kenya versus Tanzania thing is,” she recalled. “Nigerians have 250 million people. Kenya is 50 million. Uganda and Tanzania equally small numbers—if we don’t stick together, how do we command a global space?”
For Kuruka, Bien’s Breakfast Club appearance was both a victory and a reminder: international recognition comes with applause, but also with the burden of challenging outdated stereotypes about African music.
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