Remember the YouTube series that dramatised how Kenyans get conned? It’s back.
‘Janjaruka’ is this time enlightening viewers about the elections in a limited edition, co-creator Aggie Nyagari said.
“This is a passion project that we hope will help connect the Janjaruka audiences with the realities of how politicians con the public who end up paying a much bigger price than just money,” she said.
Janjaruka, which loosely translates to ‘wise up’, took the masses by storm in 2019-20.
It uses entertaining characters and a captivating script to highlight the culture of con and corruption in Kenya.
Aggie and co-creator George Salt were inspired to make the series, which was initially meant to be a movie, because of how rife con is in the country and, by extension, corruption and lack of social justice in general.
The story was inspired by a personal experience that Nyagari experienced when younger. It extrapolated from current affairs, general observation of life on the ground and the real-life experiences of others.
Indeed, Janjaruka became popular after the creators collected interviews from Kenyan celebrities sharing their own real con stories, with the likes of Bien Aimé of Sauti Sol, Eric Wainaina, Janet Mbugua and Nini Wacera (‘Country Queen’) narrating their harrowing experiences.
In the actual series itself, the story follows the main characters Sasha, Johnny, Kelly and Patrick as they try to bring justice against Mrs Mwaniki, a cunning and conniving woman who cons and steals from unsuspecting victims.
They encounter several challenges, which include but are not limited to greedy police officials and other corrupt members of the authorities, eventually endangering their lives to the point where they decide to take matters into their own hands and work alone to get revenge.
After the success of the series, the creators have been trying to get funding to make a second season, which they have already written.
That has since proved to be a challenge, which has stalled their plans, but George said it did not stop them from instead creating an election special episode at their own cost.
“We have no regrets spending our savings on such a venture because we consider the impact the series had in 2020 and the conversations we managed to start a success in itself,” he said.
The series made headlines with the celebrity con stories and the audiences it attracted continue to leave almost 100 per cent positive comments about how much they enjoy the show and how much more enlightened, educated and empowered they feel after watching it.
The ‘Janjaruka Election Special’ episode, along with the entire first season of the dramatic series, are available on their YouTube channel Janjaruka Series.
You can also catch all the celebrity interviews if you’re curious to know how they were conned and see what you can learn from their experiences.
