• He nearly quit in life after losing his job but slowly and surely built himself a brand
Image: Courtesy
Comedian Henry Desagu says he almost went back to his home in Nakuru after losing his first job.
Speaking to Jalang'o TV, Desagu said he pulled through and is now earning Sh800,000 a month through YouTube.
He says he even faced eviction from his house over rent arrears but reached out to comedian Otoyo, asking him if he would live with him and help with the cleaning.
"He told me he already had people at his home but he did pay my rent," he said.
"I called my mum to ask whether my small house back in Nakuru was still available. She told me it was transformed into a storage unit but I could still use it."
Desagu's journey started back in 2016 on Facebook, where he would post short skits but got almost zero views.
"When I posted my videos, I used to share them on Kilimani mums and other forums," he said, adding that he when he joined YouTube, he would create fake accounts then use those pseudo accounts to comment on his videos.
"I would comment, 'You are the next new big thing on YouTube', then come back and reply with the original account. Then I would comment as a lady, 'You have killed me', then reply, 'Don’t die, I will still need you tomorrow.'"
Desagu said he dreamt of hitting 10,000 views on YouTube to now having a total of 62 million views.
He hit 100,000 subscribers in 2019 and has seen his audience grow to a total of over 400,000 in just a year.
"I promised to shave my hair when I hit half a million subscribers," he said.
His advice to upcoming content creators is, "It is all about packaging, and once you start this is, it is for better for worse because once you give up on it, even your viewers will give up on you."
Desagu is ranked as one of the top YouTubers in Kenya.