Sauti Sol’s Bien: Music paid my entire university fees
Sauti Sol vocalist Bien Aime Baraza paid for his university education from music proceeds even though he already knew he wouldn’t pursue a career once in the field.
Baraza studied journalism at the USIU university but has never pursued it as a career, even though his features have been published in the Daily Nation occasionally.
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“I take education very seriously, that’s why I paid for my journalism career even though I already knew I wasn’t going to pursue it once I graduated. Music paid for my fees from year one to year four,” he says.
As part of Sauti Sol, Bein and band members made their breakthrough into the music scene with the Lazizi hit song.
“We released Lazizi while we were first years. That’s when I knew I wasn’t going to have a journalism career but pursued it regardless,” Bien said.
There was a time when the Sauti Sol group almost disintegrated.
During their weekly reality show, Sol Family, Bien revealed that he was in his sister’s company when he was hit by a speeding car when crossing a road in the CBD.
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This accident occurred in 2007. It changed the boy band’s fate.
“I was with my sister; we were crossing the road in town when a car driving on the wrong side hit me. The car came and crushed my knees and I hit the windscreen with my face,” Bien said during the show.
“In 2007, I was crossing the road with my sister, Wakamba Wawili (a rap duo) and Wendy Kimani. We were from doing a song about the post-election violence. We were crossing the road at Tuskys Pioneer in town headed towards Kenya Railways. I saw a car speeding and my sister noted that the driver was reckless and was bound to hit a pedestrian,” he once said during an interview on Churchill Show.
When Savara received the news of his accident, he was in Nakuru.
“I get there, and I am like, what the hell?” Savara exclaimed.
Chimano added that Bien had lost all his teeth in the freak accident.
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The Sauti Sol lead singer got his teeth fixed, and he jokes that they are now international.
“That is why I have teeth from Germany. The Mercedes-Benz of teeth,” he said.
The group says during the time of the accident, each of them had wanted to pursue their own dreams separately in the line of education.
“When we finished school in 2005, this was not gonna happen because I was meant to go to the States for school, Polycarp was to do actuarial science, Savara was to go to the States and study medicine,” Bien revealed.
On the other hand, Chimano wanted to go to Paris, France.
Chimano said Bien’s accident probably brought the group together.
Bien is currently in London recording his first solo album, which he intends to release once he returns back home.
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