A Music Career Marred With Family Fall-Outs, Hard Drugs, Prison, and Finally Sweet Redemption

Peter Njoroge Kagwe, who goes by the stage name Sharvin, is a Kenyan music artiste. He runs a youth organisation called Focused Youth Movement. The mandate of his organisation is to empower the youth and help restore those who lost themselves in drugs.
He readily offers an affable smile that quickly makes you realise he is a kind and sociable young man. His dreadlocks have however made some people judge him, at first impression, and when he started his music career journey, the same dreadlocks tore him apart from his relationship with his parents.
Sharvin narrated his story to me, of how passion for music broke his ties with his family, sent him to the streets, to remand prison at Industrial Area, and then back on track as a gospel musician and mentor to many youths in Kenya.
***
The year is 2012. Peter Njoroge is a form four student at St. Stephen’s Secondary School in Narok, a town he was born and brought up in. Peter is passionate about dancehall music, and to pass time, he writes down the lyrics of dancehall songs and sings along with their original artistes (on radio). Redsan, mostly. He adores Redsan. If he ever becomes a musician himself, he wants to be just like him – Redsan.
He is popular in school as an entertainer who during break time, sings Redsan songs and buoys the moods of other students in this mixed secondary school. The school is a mixed day and boarding institution. Peter and most of his friends are day scholars.
He is just a young kid with fire for music burning in the fire pit of his heart. But what he doesn’t know, there is a ticking clock, drawing him nearer to disaster with each jerk of the second hand. His life is about to plunge into unthinkable darkness.
Tick, Tock.
One of his classmates records a song at a local music studio. It goes without saying that as a “musician”, Peter hangs out with others like him. It’s that thing that they say about birds of the same feathers. They flock together. 
“Hey, I have recorded my own song. Unlike you who can only sing along to Redsan lyrics. I'm better than you,” the friend boasts.
“That sounds like a challenge to me. And you know, I’m never one to back out of a challenge.”
With that, Peter writes his own lyrics, guided by dancehall music instrumentals he downloads on the internet. He diligently practices, sings it to some of his school-going friends, and the flow blows them all away.
“You’re the GOAT!” They tell him. Greatest of all time. 
Armed with this uplifting validation, Peter walks into a small recording studio in Narok town and from his meagre savings, pays one thousand two hundred shillings to record an audio song. The producer wants to support him, it’s the reason he quotes a low amount. Soon, Peter Njoroge has a new track out, his own. He's never been more proud of himself. His music track is a club banger titled Party Time.
“Goodness, I really can do this!” He shrieks, punching the air in victory. Elated. Dreamy. Visionary. A music career is what he wants to pursue after completing his high school. Kenya and the world, are you even ready for his talent and prowess at verse-spitting?
Tick, Tock.
***
Peter has sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, KCSE examinations and is now at home. Time comes easy for him; he has all the time to write more music. The results won’t be out for months. His song, Party Time, gets him a few gigs in local clubs and bars and events where he is invited to perform. Most of these are at night. Now, that rubs his parents the wrong way.
Strike one.
Peter has proven he can act the part, by rapping Redsan’s lyrics, word for word, and recording his own song. But can he look the part? Yes, he can! He starts rolling his hair into small locks.
Strike two.
His parents are mad at him. They have a tiff with him every now and then, but nothing serious. Yet. The adolescent in him tells him to go all the way, look like an artiste. He gets a couple of ear piercings.
Strike three.
At this stage, their home has turned into a fighting ground. Peter’s little sister, about three years old at the time, witnesses as her brother is berated and punished on a daily for his waywardness. The parents can’t let him spoil under their watch, not after all the effort they put to raise him up in a Christian setting. And isn’t it in the Bible, that ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’?
Narok revellers are elated, because Grand Pa Records is coming to town from Nairobi, with artistes signed under the music label. Music like never before will shake the floors of a local club, the host club. Among the upcoming local artistes selected to curtain raise for the ‘big-shots’, is Peter. By now, he has already picked his stage name; Sharvin. After former Arsenal football club striker Andrey Arshavin. Peter is a big fan of Arsenal.
Tick, Tock.
The wheels moving to his devastating cut-of-ties with his family keep rolling.
Event organisers print posters and stick them on electricity poles and walls all over Narok town. On the posters, although a tiny picture, is that of Sharvin. The baby locks and bad-ass artiste style are visible in this picture that sells him as one of the curtain raisers for the event. Which will be at night. In a club. Where people indulge in alcohol. His dad comes across one of these posters, and that’s his anger’s tipping point.
“I’ve seen your face all over town, on posters. I tell you, you will not perform at that club. Not under my watch. You go ahead and perform, and I will disown you. You pack your bags and leave my house.”
Sharvin promises his dad that he won’t perform at the club. On the night of the event, however, he sneaks out of his home and goes to the event his dad warned him against. The show is great. Sharvin is fantastic, he entertains masses at the club. They take note of his name, saying, “That young man, Sharvin, will be the next big thing; a great musician, someday. Remember his name.”
The organisers of the night-time event pay a teenage Sharvin five thousand Kenyan shillings. In the mind of a high school leaver, this is a lot of money. Whoa! Dreams really do come true.
***
Early in the morning hours, precisely at 4 a.m. the following day, Sharvin sneaks back home. But something is wrong. He angered his dad, a man who is not to be crossed. Retaliation is a must, and it has to hit hard. Sharvin’s small house which is separate from his parents’ main house stands in the same compound. It has a cemented floor, iron-sheet walls, and a wooden door. This dawn, the door is missing. His dad ripped it off its hinges, and also brought down an entire wall. It’s no longer what was once Sharvin’s house but an open space with three iron-sheet walls. And memories of what used to be a house.
At the first hint of sunrays, Sharvin and his dad are at it again. The fighting. This time, the dad wants his son gone. Sharvin’s mother has been indirectly supportive all along, but now that the dad is raging and dead serious, she can’t dare take her son’s side.
“Okay, I’ll go! I’ll be fine by myself. Music is what I choose over you!”
Sharvin, angry and adolescent, packs a bag and leaves. He crashes at a friend’s place. In his teenage mind, he knows, no, he is sure, that his parents will come looking for him, soon. Weeks pass by, and then months. Nothing. The threat was real, and his dad is making good on it. The little money Sharvin had runs out. He can’t keep burdening his friend. He resorts to taking walks near his home, hoping that his parents will see him and call him to patch things up.
A mother's love is always strong, and true to this battered yet profound saying, Sharvin’s mum lets her son in whenever she sees him. On only one condition, that her husband be away. She quickly feeds her son and gives him some money. Their little secret, however, crumbles like a house of cards, when, Sharvin’s innocent three-year-old sister tattles on her mum and brother to daddy.
“Ata Peter hukuja hapa ukiwa umeenda.” (My brother comes here when you are away)
Sharvin’s mum gets in trouble, and it soon escalates from angry questions to beatings, because, upon investigations, the dad figures out that his wife has been sending some money to their “notorious” and “disowned” son via M-Pesa. A son he cut off.
When word of his mother's suffering reaches Sharvin, it breaks his heart. He tries to reach out to his dad and make amends but his efforts are unwelcome. His dad wants him gone. Amidst so much pain and faced with nothing but hopelessness, he vows to leave Narok for Nairobi, hustle hard, make it big in the music industry, and prove his dad wrong. A courageous Sharvin goes home one last time to face his dad.
“I want my national identity card. I’m leaving for Nairobi.”
“You will not have it!” his dad fires back. “I won’t let you use the family name, disgrace it.”
Clearly repulsed and disappointed by his son, Sharvin’s dad adds comments that would live with Sharvin, forever searing his heart.
“With those dreadlocks, they will shoot you dead in Nairobi. I wait for a day they will call me to come collect your corpse!”
***
When Sharvin gets to Nairobi in 2013, it's his first time setting foot in the city. He doesn't know anyone. It's just him, his dream, a backpack, and hope that a deal he is close to clinching will go his way. A record label in Nairobi has promised to sign him and give him accommodation.
The deal goes sideways.
This leaves Sharvin with no place to go. The streets of Nairobi are his only option. He had sold his battered phone at a loss to get money for fare to Nairobi and now, has no money on him to travel back.
The Modern Coast bus stage in Nairobi becomes his home. He walks the streets during the day, and then sleeps at the bus stage at night, in the company of night travellers waiting to catch an early morning bus. Soon, he changes his “home” and takes it to Nyama Kima stage.
Weeks pass by. He has to eat. He is tired of begging. Filthy and stinky, he needs a good bath. But more importantly, he needs food. Sharvin begins rummaging garbage cans in Nairobi, hoping to find good enough food left-overs he can eat. In Nairobi, the streets have rules. There are areas you can't go to sleep and garbage cans you can’t rummage through for food if you are not in the family of the street kids who ‘own’ the space or garbage cans.
***
A stranger who must have been observing a frail and skinny and dirty Sharvin approaches him one afternoon. It’s mid-2013 now (Sharvin left home before his KCSE results came out. When they came out, he didn't even know what he scored. He learned about his grades three years later)
The stranger proposes a deal. He wants to recruit Sharvin to help him make drop-offs to clients. Drugs. Some are hard drugs, and Sharvin is the best for the job because he is “tiny” and “innocent”, therefore no police officer will think to stop and search a kid like him for drugs.
It’s seemingly the only option Sharvin has. To entice him, the stranger gives him money. Good money, enough for him to eat and clean up. He says yes to the deal.
Months later and Sharvin is making a decent income from the random drop-offs in Nairobi. Enough income that he has rented a small room in Rongai. He doesn’t know the source of the drugs, but from the phone calls he overhears, though one-sided, he can tell that his employer is only a middle man. He doesn’t care, though. There are clients. He doesn’t need to know their details. His job is to collect the drugs and drop them off where he is told, and then get paid. He has a small room. And food. He will save up the money and do music, maybe even start a business.
All this time, he hasn’t tried to reach out to his family. And neither have his parents reached out, anyway, there isn’t a way to get to him. Sharvin is bitter, and he has an ego. Definitely not a healthy one, but he has sworn to prove his dad wrong.
***
On a balmy Saturday afternoon, as he is walking towards Kirinyaga road for a drop-off, home-clothed police stop him.
“Kijana, what do you have in that bag?”
Sharvin can’t really tell how he is the specific one that they stop in a street bustling with activity. Did someone rat him out? Maybe. On this day, he is carrying drugs. Although in very small amounts, but drugs all the same. Illegal drugs.
Sharvin spends the night at Kamukunji Police Station. When reality hits him like a hard slap across the face, his mind recalls his father’s last words to him, “With those dreadlocks, they will shoot you dead in Nairobi. I wait for a day they will call me to come collect your corpse!”
Things happen so fast. The world beneath his feet is swirling. He cries. He is scared. They interrogate him, wanting him to give up the name of the guys who own the drugs. He doesn’t know, as he has been picking the package from different people, introduced to him by the stranger he met. It’s a chain, and he has no real name he can give up, of either his handler or the person or people up the drug ladder.
Sharvin ends up in remand prison, in Industrial Area, for six months as he awaits a court hearing.
***
Six months later, after a court hearing, a single one, the judge releases Sharvin. Sharvin is unable to tell what and how it happened. A miracle, he calls it. It must be the hand of God. He only recalls telling the judge that he was underage (he lied). The feeling was that someone forced a minor into this, and that person was the one the government was after. A minor had served time at remand prison for six months. Let him go. With a warning, and a lot of pep talk that he should go back home and make something out of his life.
Sharvin doesn’t talk much about the things that happened in remand prison. Maybe he isn’t ready, yet, or maybe he’s shut them inside a secure place in his heart, never to be let out. But some details sneak out clothed as parts of the lyrics of his gospel music, some recorded, some yet to be released publicly.
Sharvin, née Peter Njoroge thanks God after being released. He cries. He can't believe that he is alive and free. Sharvin can’t go back to the streets, or to Rongai. There are rules and assumptions. Once you are caught and then freed, it’s likely you have struck a deal with the police to be a rat. A disgusting sell-out. Sharvin borrows some money and travels back to Narok, his home town.
***
He can’t go back home. He is bitter that his people never looked for him. He misses his mother and baby sister. He hates his father. Sharvin gets a job at a car wash. He cleans vehicles and earns enough to survive on.
Narok is a small town. Word quickly reaches his family, that Sharvin has been spotted in town, washing cars. His father doesn’t care. His mother does. She takes her daughter and goes out looking for her son.
On a random day at the car wash, from a distance, Sharvin sees his mother and baby sister, stranded, throwing glances all over the place as if looking for someone. He is emotional and happy to see them. He drops his work tools and runs toward them. When his mother spots him, however, she lets fly a wail that quickly attracts attention.
It is then that Sharvin realises he is dirty and thin, worn to a frazzle. He can’t stand his mum’s screams, as they hurt him. The last thing Sharvin notices before turning and running off is how big his baby sister has grown.
That scene at the car wash haunts him. He is hurt that he has hurt his dear mother. Sharvin vows to work so hard and make something out of his life, then go looking for his mother.
***
Do you believe in miracles? They do happen. Ask Sharvin, he knows better.
With the little income he earns at the car wash, he buys a new phone and replaces his old sim card. Just then, a strange call from a guy who introduces himself as Alan comes through.
“Is this Peter Njoroge Kagwe?”
“Yes. And who is this?”
“Alan. I worked with Nairobi Aviation College some time back, during a talents show where you emerged position two…”
While in the streets of Nairobi, before getting arrested, Sharvin had bumped into a childhood friend from Narok. The friend schooled at Aviation College. During their fresher’s night, he sneaked Sharvin into the school under the disguise of a fellow first year. Sharvin performed at a talent show and bagged first runners-up. He was awarded some cash money, and gifts. Then that was it.
And now, a year later, Alan, a man who runs some businesses in South Africa, is calling him. He had made a promise to sponsor top talents, and he is calling to keep it. He wants Sharvin to show up at his office in Nairobi. The promise is that as from second year, he will pay half of Sharvin’s school fees (Alan believed Sharvin was a student at Aviation College)
It’s a shaky opportunity for Sharvin because he is not a student at the college. He however sees it as a rare opportunity to go back to Nairobi and transform his life. As Eminem asks in his music Lose Yourself, 
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Sharvin decides to involve someone. His dear mother.
***
The tail-end of 2014 found Sharvin in school, Kenya Institute of Media and Technology, pursuing a diploma in Mass Communication. He says it’s by God’s hand.
After seeing his mother and explaining what was happening, they whipped up a plan. Behind his father’s back. Sharvin’s mum took her son to Nairobi to meet Alan, and the rest is history. There are good people out here, and Alan is one of them. Sharvin feels eternally indebted to him.
Alan began to pay half of Sharvin’s fee, and then Sharvin secretly worked with his mum to raise the other half. He enrolled in Kenya Institute of Media and Technology, Aviation College’s sister school. Raising the fee was tough. His mum couldn’t make huge payments without his dad noticing. Sharvin had to get off-class jobs to help his mum out with the new burden. And then his life changed, for good.
At his new school, he made Christian friends. They were upcoming musicians. Gospel artistes. Walking with them inspired him to record a gospel song, Guide Me, although he wasn’t really saved but only singing gospel music for the fun of it. One day, his new clique invited him to church where he met their pastor and mentor. It only took a few months before Sharvin gave his life to Christ. He began to grow spiritually under the mentorship of the pastor. He wrote and produced his next gospel song, this time from his heart. The title was, Unanipenda (You love me).
Unanipenda became an instant hit, especially in Narok town after masses heard of their “boy” testifying on radio and TV interviews. His name and his story spread in Narok like a bushfire: ‘Peter a.k.a. Sharvin is saved. He is doing gospel music. His new music is dope. He has a new father, a mentor who is a pastor’.
Word reached his dad, who discovered the secretive moves his wife made to support their son. This time, he wasn’t angry. He was emotional. He regretted his actions and sought his son, inviting him to come home so they could talk and patch things up. He also wanted to organise a launch for his music track, Unanipenda.
At first, Sharvin wanted nothing to do with his father, but after talks and guidance from his pastor, he agreed to meeting and talking with his father to salvage what was left of their relationship.
***
Sharvin cleared his diploma and graduated. He made amends with his family. Each day palms out a new opportunity bond more with his family members, and he loves both his parents.
He lives in Nairobi and works in the events planning industry and has also ventured into film, putting out short comedy films on You Tube, working closely with Ondiek and Makoha comedy. The brand ambassador and influencer representing different companies, including a travel and tours company, runs Focused Youth Movement, FYM, a group he uses to mentor youths.
He still has his dreadlocks. He has released other gospel hits, including Unikumbuke (Remember Me); Nisamehe (Forgive Me) featuring Simbo Owade; Baki na Mimi (Stay With Me), and Confidence. The shoot of Unikumbuke has a scene (act) of Sharvin injecting drugs.

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This story was originally published on Qazini.