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Evangelist Lucy Wangunjiri: My dad was too strict to let me attend music festivals


Popular radio presenter and preacher Lucy Wangunjiri has narrated the challenges she went through in school, due to her poor performance.

The Kameme FM gospel show host has publicly revealed that she was not gifted academically, something that often put her at loggerheads with her strict father.

“I didn’t even perform well in Christian Religious Education (CRE). My father knew me as a failure,” recounted the host of Itaha Ria Muoyo on Kameme FM during an interview with fellow radio presenter Muthoni Wa Kirumba.

Also read: How Evangelist Lucy Wangunjiri met the love of her life, Lameck Ngunjiri

However, the now celebrated pastor was a gifted singer and she participated in music festivals during her secondary school days. On one occasion she emerged the best performer at the National Music Festival.

“That day I was recognized countrywide. Ironically, my dad refused to grant permission to participate in the contest. Instead, he instructed me to attend to the chores in our shamba. The school had hired a bus to take me for the music festivals which were being held at Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi,” Wangunjiri recounted.

“On leaning that my father had been denied me permission to attend the event, the school head teacher, alongside fellow students, came to our home and found me planting potatoes in the farm. They helped me with the work and by 7am we were done. We then proceeded to the event,” she recalled, while stating that she always obeyed her father.

Also read: Maureen Waititu shares the story of her humble beginnings

They arrived late at the festivals, but she was allowed to perform. To her surprise, when the results were announced, she emerged the overall winner.

“During the prize giving day in school, my dad came dressed in a suit. He was acknowledged, but some students murmured, something that upset him further,” Wangunjiri recounted

That evening, she said, her father vented his frustrations on her and her mother.

The media personality, who is the founder and senior pastor at Prayers Beyond Ministry in Ngara, Nairobi, however, said she eventually made peace with her father.

She is happily married to Mr Lameck Ngunjiri. The couple has two children.

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