Nairobi News

She is a campus student enjoying online fame with her social commentary and clap backs involving topics common among Kenya’s Gen z, including living a soft life, mafia mum, school and examinations; and young adulting among many others. Meet Saumu Sauti, a quirky, critical comedian whose TikTok fame “motivates her in life” as she continues to amass followers amounting to 56,400 followers at the time of this exclusive interview.

Saumu spoke to Nairobi News on January 20, 2023, where she spoke about her TikTok journey and her goals in life.

“When people notice me on the streets and know who I am, it really motivates me because I know that I am putting out content that people like and some people look up to me, some people see me in school and go like ‘Oh my God, your content inspires me or makes me laugh when I’m not in a good mood.’ So it makes me feel nice and want to create more content because I know who I am making these TikTok videos for,” began Saumu.

Saumu revealed she began creating TikTok content while in Form Three in 2020 and felt driven to keep at it at the height of the covid-19 pandemic in order to pass time. Her TikTok has since blown up and among her famous videos is of her talking of her new clothes as she headed to sit for examinations as well as the mafia mum video. Her mother is a nurse and Saumu was of the opinion that she knew everyone in different industries and could plug people to various contacts with simple phone calls.

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“A mafia mum is a mother who knows everyone and if you want something done immediately, like getting your passport in the shortest time possible, this mother knows everyone and she will be like ‘I know a friend, I can call him right now so don’t worry.’ Anywhere you are, you can’t get into any problems because she knows someone who will come through for you. She’s resilient and strong,” explained Saumu , revealing that she based this character on her mother.

On dealing with trolls, Saumu accepted that not everyone can love what she does; and takes the bullying comments in stride while she also filters the comments on her TikTok profile to keep it friendly.

In spite of her fame and her family supporting her, her parents remain adamant that she will not derail from pursuing a solid career to follow a career in content creation for social media consumption.

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“My dad is receptive to what I do but he’s always telling me that this is not what I’m going to be doing in life. I have to have a career and should not take content creation seriously just because I love doing it. My grandmother is also of the opinion that social media content creation won’t benefit me a lot and that I should follow a career like maybe be a doctor or lawyer and so forth,” explained Saumu.

Her father’s sentiments would appear to be reinforced by Saumu’s admission that content creation for social media does sustain her but every other time because gigs come few and far in between. Currently, she is doing native advertising for several big and small brands on her platform- this is where someone advertises a product or service without having to make it obvious that it is an advertisement.

She also revealed that she gets inspiration for her videos while she is in school and never has to balance between studying and creating content because it comes easily to her. The only difficult time she has with the balance is when she has to sit for examinations.

Saumu Sauti said she wanted to achieve as much as her potential would take her, saying not succeeding in life or becoming a one hit wonder was her greatest fear. In her parting shot, she revealed that she was hoping to be part of a reality television show, hoped to go into producing music commercially and becoming an actress like Kate Actress, born Catherine Kamau.

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