Kidum
escapes death narrowly
This is the life story of Jean Nimbona popularly
known as Kidum. His narration will make you know that our lives are in the
hands of God and that God knows our fate. As Kidum expresses in his own words
that it was 22 years ago when he as in high school in Burundi that the civil unrest
was at its climax. He was in a boarding high school and it was then that as a
group of 17 young boys had planned to sneak from school at the dead of night
and trek through a forest to a neighboring girls secondary school and have a “nice
time” . Kiddum acknowledges that the girls were “yellow yellow ” beautiful girls and that fact alone exaggerated
their teen blood pressure to high levels. Having strategized on the nitty
gritty of their mission they went on to sleep early to evade any suspious eye. Not
known to them, one of the student had gotten a tip of their mission and went
ahead to inform security apparatus. the government security conclusion was that
the boys were sneaking from the school to go and join the rebel army. back to
the school when the time came for the boys to sneak out Kiddum overslept and
his friends knowing that kiddum was a
sweet talker, guitarist and a poet and that he could outshine them once they
reach the girls school they decided to ditch
him and did not wake him up, they left without him. it was while enroute to the
girls school that the boys were confronted
by the government army and they were all killed, a record of 17 teens. The
next morning their bodies were brought to the school assembly and they were
badly mutilated; “it was a chilling, horrifying and obscene scene” Kiddum
narrates. After the tragedy the government forces became hostile to the school
as they had branded the school as a “a center for recruitment of young boys to
join the rebel forces” they threaten to finish the school.
Kidum had to flee the school and trekked 45
kilometers back home only to find that his family had also fled for their own
safety. he later traced his family who were now living in an IDP camp. his old
man feared for the life of his son since
he knew that if kiddum stayed in Bujumbura for more days he will be recruited
into the rebel army as other village youths had done ,so he gave him $60 and
chased him “my old man told me to leave the country ” kiddum narrates. the $ 60
was not enough, so kiddum had to fix himself in the luggage of a train bound to
Dar salaam , he reached his destination. kidum narrates that that while in
Tanzania he was a street urchin and that he fed on garbage and leftovers “it
was only by the grace of God that I was able
to feed, “ I would wake up not knowing where my next meal would come
from ,but by lunch time God would sent someone to give me food ” “ God
literally fed me” kidum says. life
become unbearable while he was in Dar salaam , and he thought of his next move,
which was to journey from Darsalaam to Kakuma
refugees camp (in Turkana ,Kenya ).he thought of himself that at least in Kakuma
there was relief food and also social attachment of fellow refugees. so he left
Dar salaam for Kakuma ,but on reaching Nairobi he changed his mind, he
registered himself as a refugee living in Nairobi and albeit this was the
genesis to his success. While in Nairobi he started attending clubs where live
bands used to play, and mind you , this was the time where bands had started to
rock. It was while at it that he was invited to play drums for the Rod Band
which saw the talent in him and took him in. he worked with this band till
2003,when he formed his own band ;Boda Boda (which literally means border country
to another border country) he admits that he has been able to release several
albums including Yaramenje (2001),then Shamba album (2003),then Ishano album
(2010) and in 2012 released Halina Mali album which includes singles like Kimbia,
Enjoy, Mulika mwizi among others. Kiddum is a composer, and drummer per
excellence.
Kidum has likened his life story to the story of
Joseph of the Bible and say it take passion, hard work, morale and far more God, to succeed in what you do .he ascertain that
Kenya is his second home having lived here in Kenya for the last 22 years ,he
lived in Burundi and left when he was 21 years old.
