Tuesday 20th of May 2025

Nairobi, Kenya

Digital Hustle: How Social Media Content Creation is Empowering Kenya’s Youth

In a country where traditional white-collar employment opportunities remain scarce, many young Kenyans are embracing digital platforms to carve out alternative careers. Content creation and photography, once seen as hobbies, are now becoming viable income sources for Kenya’s youth, who are leveraging social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to build audiences and generate income.

According to the United Nations, 35% of Kenya’s population is aged between 15 and 34, with an alarming 67% of this demographic currently unemployed. Against this backdrop, content creation has emerged as a beacon of hope for many.

Turning Creativity into Livelihood

Every Sunday, groups of young Kenyans gather in parks and public spaces armed with cameras and smartphones. They choreograph dances, film skits, and create engaging content, later uploading their work to various social media platforms. For individuals like 22-year-old Vincent Otieno, this effort provides more than just entertainment—it is a livelihood.

Otieno, along with his six-member dance team from Nairobi’s slums, earns money through tips from TikTok fans, YouTube ads, and live performances at events. Each team member makes an average of $120 per month, which Otieno sees as a significant step toward financial independence. “We post on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where we make around $100 a month, which is better than nothing,” he says.

Rising Stars of Social Media

For 25-year-old street fashion model Caycee Achieng Mboya, known as “Lupita Nyakisumo,” social media is more than a creative outlet—it’s a professional venture. With over 200,000 TikTok followers, she advertises products for clients, showcasing how social media can rival traditional jobs in income generation and exposure.

Similarly, the trio of 20-year-olds—Angeline Muema, Trisha Pangie, and Cecilia Nyambura—have been active content creators on TikTok for a year. Together, they make $600 monthly through fan contributions and partnerships. Angeline, still a college student, views this as a pragmatic choice in the face of Kenya’s unpredictable job market. “It’s better I do these videos and earn something than just staying idle. Even if I graduate, there’s no guarantee I’ll get a job,” she reflects.

Government Support and Policy Changes

In 2022, the Nairobi County Government acknowledged the growing role of creative industries by waiving all business permit requirements for photographers and filmmakers. This policy change eliminated the need for licenses from the Kenya Film and Classification Board, which previously posed barriers with heavy fines and potential arrests for non-compliance.

A Pathway Away from Social Vices

For 25-year-old dancer and nursing graduate Mark Maranga, content creation is about more than financial stability—it’s a means to steer clear of social ills. After failing to secure a job in his field, Maranga turned to dancing and content creation to support his family and provide a positive alternative for youth in his community. “Instead of indulging in activities like stealing, now they engage in dancing and earn something to feed their families,” he explains.

A New Dawn for Kenyan Youth

As traditional employment avenues shrink, social media platforms are becoming lifelines for Kenya’s youth. By combining creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship, they are not only earning incomes but also redefining the concept of work in a digital age. For many, content creation isn’t just a hustle—it’s hope for a brighter future.

Content courtesy of  NFH Digital Team

10 Ways to Respect Your Photographer

Photographers invest considerable time, effort, and creativity into their work. To foster a respectful and productive relationship, here are ten ways to show your appreciation and consideration for their craft:

  1. Don’t Ask for RAW Photos
    Requesting RAW files is often frowned upon by photographers. These files are unprocessed, large in size, and not intended for client use. They also require significant effort to transfer and process. If a photographer wants to share RAW files, they will include it in your contract. Otherwise, respect their decision to provide only the finished, edited images.
  2. Avoid Adding Filters or Re-editing Without Consent
    Photographers put extensive effort into editing their images to achieve a specific aesthetic. Applying filters or making additional edits not only disrespects their work but also misrepresents their style. Always seek permission before altering any photos and avoid tagging them in images that have been edited without their approval.
  3. Choose a Photographer Whose Style You Love
    If you don’t appreciate a photographer’s style, it’s best not to hire them. Look for someone whose work resonates with your vision. Trusting your photographer’s artistic direction is crucial for achieving the desired results.
  4. Be Patient with Output Time
    Quality photo editing takes time. Photographers meticulously adjust details, set moods, and ensure every image meets their standards. Rushing this process can compromise the quality of the final product. Understand that good work requires patience.
  5. Don’t Expect Free Photos
    Photography is a profession, not a hobby. Just like any other job, photographers deserve fair compensation for their time and skills. Avoid requesting free services or expecting them to bring their camera to personal events. Respect their need to relax and enjoy time with loved ones without work obligations.
  6. Credit the Photographer
    Always give proper credit when sharing photos online or in print. This not only acknowledges their hard work but also helps promote their business. Tagging them and providing a link to their portfolio or social media is a courteous gesture.
  7. Respect Their Creative Process
    Photographers often have a unique workflow and creative process. Allow them the space and time to shoot and edit in their own way. Avoid micromanaging or offering unsolicited advice unless asked.
  8. Communicate Clearly and Respectfully
    Open and respectful communication is key to a successful collaboration. Clearly outline your expectations and be receptive to their professional input. Address any concerns politely and constructively.
  9. Honor Their Time
    Punctuality and respect for schedules are vital. Arriving late or not being prepared can disrupt the shoot and affect the final outcome. Value the photographer’s time as you would your own.
  10. Provide Constructive Feedback
    If you have feedback, share it constructively and privately. Public criticism can harm their reputation and is often unnecessary. Express your thoughts in a way that is helpful and respectful, aiming to improve future collaborations.

By following these guidelines, you can build a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with your photographer, ensuring a smoother process and more satisfactory results for both parties.

Content courtesy of NFH Digital Team

Photographer Meley Sie Celebrates African Culture and Diversity Through Her Lens by Capturing the Essence and Identity

Meley Laetitia Sie is a well-known photographer who has made a name for herself in the fields of fashion and fine art photography.
Meley, a native of Cote D’Ivoire in West Africa, has found her own creative identity and purpose via her lens, revealing the rich tapestry of African ancestry and embracing diversity in her work.
In the revolutionary year of 2020, Meley set off on a voyage to her ancestral home of Cote D’Ivoire, where she reunited with her African history and discovered a passion for creating photographs that honor black brilliance, African culture, and beauty.

This crucial turning point in her life inspired her to build an inspiring network of collaborators, models, like-minded creatives, and brands on Instagram, who all had the same goal of advancing positivity and representation.
Meley began her artistic adventure in her own home, but she has since expanded her wings throughout the American continent, settling in the culturally diverse city of Los Angeles, California.
Her core conviction that her camera has the potential to inspire women of all hues and races is what drives the expansion of her portfolio to include more inclusive models and studio photography.

Meley Sie’s distinctive style of photography goes beyond simply capturing beautiful images to foster a sense of inclusion, empowerment, and belonging. Her camera catches the various hues of beauty found throughout the world, celebrating a diverse spectrum of cultures and races.
Meley uses natural settings, carefully chosen hues, warm tones, and neutral tones to create photos that tell stories that her audience can relate to on a deep level.

Every image, according to Meley, “holds the potential to convey a potent message.” “I want to convey how diverse, powerful, and beautiful our global community is through my work. My medium for promoting inclusivity and change is photography, which is more than just a love of mine.

Meley’s quest for education has also influenced her creative process.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Advertising from the Art Institute of California in San Diego, and then she went on to the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles to receive her Master of Fine Art in Photography.
She has been able to incorporate strategic thought into her visual storytelling thanks to her academic education, which has also improved her artistic vision.

Meley is a popular Instagram aesthetic content developer in addition to her engaging photos.
She promotes her work on her platform and provides insightful advice on skincare, makeup, hair, and photography in addition to sharing her own creative work.
Her interaction with her fans shows how dedicated she is to building a community of people who share the same beliefs in addition to producing art.

The journey of Meley Sie is one of empowerment, exploration, and celebration.
She reveals the layers of identity, beauty, and culture that make up our world with each click of her camera.

Her work serves as an example of the transforming power of art, motivating others to embrace their culture, improve their neighborhoods, and come together via the common language of visual storytelling.

Media Contact
Company Name: Meley Sie
Contact Person: Meley Laetitia Sie
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Website: www.meleysie.com

Content courtesy of Digital Journal & NFH

Flo Ngala, Photographer Behind Some of Cardi B’s Most Iconic Moments

Photographing one of the world’s most sought after celebrities may seem a daunting task, but for Flo Ngala it’s all part of the day job. For two years, the photographer captured parts of the life of musician Cardi B, from video shoots to intimate moments with her family to sold out arenas. Here writer Alix-Rose Cowie speaks to Flo to find out what it takes to snap shots that are seen by millions, and document moments that will go down in music history.

Flo Ngala We’re both young women chasing our dreams and doing our work

When everyone on a Cardi B music video set is being told “strictly no phones, no photos,” Flo Ngala is quietly snapping away, swooping in between takes to get the shot. “There’s not really anyone telling me what to do,” she says. Since 2017 Flo has gained exclusive access shooting behind the scenes for the hip hop superstar on music video sets, at music festivals, awards shows, talk show appearances and two Met Galas. “It’s not like an outlined role,” she says. “It’s more like a kid who has a good eye and gets a chance to work with a big artist, and I’m just going to go in and do my thing.”

Flo was first given the opportunity to shoot Cardi B by Atlantic Records in October 2017. Her single Bodak Yellow had been a hit all summer and she was performing it at the BET Hip Hop awards in Miami. The audience saw a kaleidoscopic fur-laden Cardi B in hot pink high-waisted velvet trousers and a bra made of jewels stake her claim on the stage before going on to win multiple awards. Backstage, Flo captured a wholly more private moment as Cardi B celebrated her own firsts with her close-knit team and her now husband Offset in her dressing room. “I was just happy to be there, like a fly on the wall, just observing,” Flo says. “It’s a little intimidating when you’re around a big star. It was my first time being around someone who was as famous as her. I think she’s so used to having so many people around her that for a while she even recognized my face.”

Shooting the same subject over time naturally fosters a familiarity between a photographer and her subject and over the two years that Flo has been shooting Cardi B, she’s captured her in high spirits: cracking jokes with her team and turning up the volume to entertain an audience of thousands, but she’s also captured her tired, hungry, and pregnant. “I think she definitely knows how to bring it out and be this funny, outgoing person when she needs to be, but in general she also has a pretty low key side as well,” Flo says.

One thing she’s learnt over time is to gauge what images of herself Cardi B will like and which she won’t. Early on when Flo would show selects to Cardi’s hair stylist or make-up artist they’d immediately pick out the ones she wouldn’t like. “They were like: this doesn’t look like her, she’s not going to like the picture,” she says. Any picture she posts to social media has the potential to be picked up by numerous fan pages, re-posted and re-tweeted until it’s seen by millions of people. The intractable nature of an online image means that what she decides to post comes with a certain responsibility. Although there’s no formal approval process for the images Flo shares online, she’s sensitive to Cardi B’s insecurities.

“Being a woman informs the way I photograph a woman. Nobody wants an unflattering image of them out there,” Flo says. “There might be what I think are incredible photographs but if she wouldn’t like how she looks in them, I try to respect that and avoid putting it out there.” The way tabloid press treats celebrity pictures has led us to believe that celebrities waiver this right in exchange for fame. But this only makes their image more fiercely controlled. It’s through Flo’s respect for her subject as a person that she’s gained Cardi B’s trust and the trust of her label and, in turn, she’s invited behind closed doors to document what others don’t get to see.

Flo doesn’t take this access for granted. Her gift is capturing human moments from within the pop machine: the late hours on a music video shoot when Cardi B can’t keep her eyes open as her make-up artist re-applies her lip liner in bed; or satisfying a pregnancy craving for watermelon between takes while dressed in a voluminous wedding gown designed to cover her growing belly. These photos are the ones Flo has come to appreciate the most.

Showing the public persona and the private persona of someone is pretty cool.

“When things are set up — it’s not a bad thing — but you are seeing what the director, the photographer, the agency, whomever wants you to see whereas when you’re taking pictures as they’re happening you can catch in-between moments and the candid, the off guard,” she says. “Especially with celebrities, the images are so well-curated, taken care of before they’re put out into the public. I think a big reason why Cardi B rose to fame is because she’s really good at being real and just being honest, being transparent.”

There are two photographs that Flo shot at the Broccoli City Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2018 that were taken within an hour of each other. In the first, a blue-haired Cardi B ascends the stairs to the stage, mic in hand, for her last performance before taking a break to give birth to her daughter Kulture (whose first birthday party Flo was asked to shoot a year later). She’s surrounded by security, festival crew, cameras and a crowd of fans with phones raised to nab a pic. In the second image she’s laying feet up on a couch, scrolling through her phone, alone, surrounded by take-out boxes.

When viewed as a pair, the before and after shots provide a rare glimpse at the duality of celebrity. “Showing the public persona and the private persona of someone is pretty cool,” Flo says. “It’s a duality we all have.” It’s this humanness that Flo sets out to capture.

The most viewed image of Flo’s from Broccoli City Festival was a different one though: an image of Sasha Obama hanging out backstage with Cardi B and Offset. The image went viral instantly. “It was literally TMZ hitting me up and Page Six. It was on the Daily Mail, it was crazy,” Flo says. While she appreciates the artistic opportunities being on music video sets or backstage allows her, Flo can’t ignore the platform it’s given her too.

“I was taking pictures for a couple of years before I got the opportunity to work with Cardi,” she says. “I definitely credit working with people like Cardi and Gucci Mane for why my images really started to be seen. In America we glorify celebrities and put them on this pedestal so I understand as an artist, but also as a consumer, that this is something people want to see. I think being able to use my eye and what I love about the world and capture a Rihanna or a Beyonce or, you know shoot Leonardo Di Caprio for Vanity Fair — and I’m just kind of throwing stuff out here — but whatever it is I think that’s definitely going to be a running theme in my career for sure. I appreciate being able to meet these people that a lot of people know or respect for their craft or their money or whatever and be able to figure out how to approach them to create a powerful image.”

 I’m not trying to be her best friend, I’m trying to give her the best images.

And to get the shot Flo has had to learn to work with what she’s got: sometimes this is a few seconds squished into a narrow hallway backstage while Cardi B does a quick outfit change in a closet, and other times this is the luxury of having a professional lighting set up to take advantage of on a music video set. “It teaches me to work with different scenarios and just try to make the best of a situation,” she says. Moving between different lighting set-ups, Flo keeps a consistent look to her images by almost always shooting on the lowest aperture possible. It has the desired effect of making you feel like you’re in the room with her. “I think that’s part of why people look at my photos and feel this sort of intimacy or feel this proximity,” she says.

Flo usually relies on chatting to her subjects to make them feel comfortable in front of the camera but with Cardi B it’s different. “I know I’m there for a job, she knows she’s there for a job, so I don’t really have to cushion the situation to make it more comfortable,” she says. Instead she gives small, quick directions where she can.

“Cardi’s already on a video set and she just spent four hours in a chair getting her make-up and hair done and now she has to perform this one scene five times, so I try and minimize the talking where I can,” she says. “Once I get the shot, I keep it moving, it’s important to be alert when shooting BTS. I’m not trying to be her best friend, I’m trying to give her the best images. When there has been down time in her trailer it is fun to chat and joke with her team but I’ve actually never even asked her for a picture!”

By keeping her head down and her camera up, Flo has inadvertently created a vast and colorful archive of one of the world’s iconic entertainers. It’s a collection of images that she’s only recently realized will mean a lot to look back over both personally as a record of her early career but also for the world remembering a historic time for women in hip hop. “Hopefully one day these pictures will mean something more than me, more than throwing them up on my social media or my website or her Instagram, you know, so that’s exciting,” she says. But for now, she says, “We’re both just two young women who are chasing our dreams and doing our work.”

This article originally appeared on Wepresent 

Content courtesy of Wepresent & Nairobi fashion hub

Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week 2014

Just Like That Ltd Kenya’s Leading Fashion Events Company, Brainchild of Founder/Designer Sonu Sharma, has hosted various Premier Fashion Events in the Country over the last 5 Years, such as Trendz Kenya Fashion Festival / Trendz Kenya Fashion Week. The above events have gained great Regional / International attention and have rapidly become Sub-Saharan Africa’s most beloved Fashion extravaganza, Strongly contributing to consolidating Kenya’s positioning as the Fashion / Urban Lifestyle Capital of Africa. Keeping the Heritage Alive of “Bringing the World to Kenya and taking Kenya to the World”, we present “Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week “which will witness yet another grand gathering of World Class International and Regional Fashion Designers, High Profile Labels, Sponsors & Media this Aug 2014.

THE AIM –To Expose Kenya as the Established Fashion & Urban Lifestyle Capital of Africa.

THE OBJECTIVE – Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week Believes in building Relationships, Creating Opportunities & Encouraging Excellence in Quality.

THE EVENT FEATURES –

Fine Designers from Africa and around the world showcasing exquisite collections. World Class entertainment. Exhibits of Lifestyle & Luxury Products and Services. VIP Red Carpet Dinner & reception. KWFW After Party-“Celebrate the Nite” Schedule- KENYA WORLDWIDE FASHION WEEK 30 & 31 AUGUST 2014

DATE- 30 AUG 2014– GALA FASHION SHOW , DINNER AND AFTER PARTY.ENTRY BY TICKET –

Best Dressed Couple at KENYA WORLDWIDE FASHION WEEK 2014- Wins-Joburg ’/ Nairobi / Joburg’ Airline Ticket Courtesy South African Airways

Venue – The Tribe Hotel , Pool Side(VIP Gala Fashion Show & Dinner (6PM – 11PM)

11PM-After Party” CELEBRATE THE NITE“ @ The Village Market

CALL- +254-0-706376796 or DROP MAIL – Kenyaworldwidefashionwk@gmail.com

DATE – 30/31 AUG 2014 EXHIBITION OF LOCAL & INTERNATIONAL DESIGNERS

ENTRY FREE !

Venue – The Village Market (Food Court)

9AM – 6PM , Great Raffle Prizes to be Won !!

Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week 2014 SUPPORTED BY –

Mercedes Benz
Glenfiddich
Red Bull
Raka Finest Kenyan Cheese.
Xpose Ltd
Valon
YOU C – 1000
South African Airways
Pride Drive
Dhiiren’s Hair & Beauty College
Safari King –Natural Spring Water .
Healthy U
The Village Market ( Exhibition & After Party Venue Partner)
Tribe Hotel – VIP Gala Show Venue + Hospitality Partner
Media Partners –

Nation Media Group- Official Media Partner
Fashion One – Official Fashion Channel
Couture Africa Mag’
Kenya Buzz
East FM
Participating world renowned Designers/Labels

Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week 2014 will be graced by the Finest designers/Labels that will strut their collections down the runway.

There will be a concoction of demurring charm, dazzling luxury and eternal classics from fashion’s most sought-after designers.

This Years Line up of Designers –

1. John Kaveke – Kenya

2.Mandira Bedi – India

3. Joan Ibuzo *House of Marie – Nigeria

4. Deepak Perwani – Pakistan

5. Wanyoike Lewis- Kenya

6. Sougat Paul *Soup – India

7. Paledi Segapo *Palse – South Africa

8. Madafu Moxie*Madafu Moxie – Kenya

9. Spero Villioti *Spero Villioti Couture-South Africa

10. Margaux Marionette*Margaux – Reunion (French Islands)

For more information contact –

Sonu Sharma, Founder Kenya Worldwide Fashion Week & MD – Just Like That Ltd.

Mail – sonu@justlikethatltd.com           Tel Mb- +254-736-779259

Website-www.kenyaworldwidefashionweek.com
Content Courtesy Of Kenya Fashion Week

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