Nairobi, September 26

Celebrated comedian Lawrence Macharia, famously known by his stage name Terence Creative, has revealed that he was engaged in an illegal business at a tender age.

Mr Macharia, who has recently created ripples in the Kenyan comedy industry with his Wash Wash video, is one of the creative directors of the famed Churchil Show - hosted by Daniel 'Churchil' Ndambuki of Laugh Industry.

The comedian's Wash Wash video depicts how Kenyans, for the love of quick success and money, are swindled by foreigners from some Central and West African countries.

In the video, gullible Kenyans are seen investing millions of shillings through the foreigners only to realise the commodities they received and were to make them astronomical profits were all fake.

In a narration on his facebook page, the creative says that when he was six years old and was living with his grandmother, who recently passed on as he was building a house for her, he would be sent by his granny to make delivery of locally brewed illegal liquor, fully dressed in his school uniform.

Mr Macharia narrates the illegal liquor, known to many as Chang'aa and is famous with the residents of informal settlements, was his grandmother's main business.

"We grew up in the slum - Mlango Kubwa- my grandma used to sell chang’aa," he narrated, adding that she could send him to make the delivery while dressed up in school uniform so as not to attract the attention of police officers.

"Alikuwa ananituma nikiwa na school uniform naweka kwa bag, kumbe ilikuwa ndio askari wasinishike (She would send me while in full school uniform so that police officers would not arrest me)."

He narrates she would go ahead to ask him to drink the illicit brew should those he was delivering to asked him to do so. He, however, says that she asked him to just taste with his tongue and feel how bitter it was.

Mr Macharia says he started taking the illicit brew at that age despite him not liking it.

"Funny enough, sikuwahi penda chang’aa, nilianza kuikunywa nikiwa class 6 (I never liked chang'aa, but I started drinking it while I was in standard six)," he added.

The grandmother, he narrates, abandoned the business later after she became a frequent guest of the state with police officers always taking away her profit in form of bribes.

The comedian narrates how his grandmother even printed an obituary of a police officer identified only as Kinyanjui and who was then stationed at Pangani Police Station upon his demise, saying that he was notorious for arresting her and taking away the little money she made from the illegal trade.

He adds that since abandoning the illegal trade, the grandmother would later focus on her small scale retail, commonly known as Kibanda, and that is where she used to fed for them.