Tom Daktari is widely regarded as one of Kenya’s most entertaining and successful comedians.
His current achievement is the culmination of a long journey that has seen him overcome challenges that nearly ended his dream of becoming a well-known director.
Tom was born Andrew Wambua Mboya in the Zaikoni district of Kathiani, to a family of nine children, five boys and four girls.
He attended Kombu Primary School before continuing his schooling at St Martin Kithongoine High School. Financial constraints made it difficult for him to gain entrance to secondary school.
In an interview, Tom mentioned that his family sold animals and obtained financial assistance from their church to fund his education.
After high school, he moved to Nairobi and lived with his brother, who helped him start a company selling boiled eggs with mixed onions and tomatoes, also known as “mayai pasua”.
Tom comments that the business failed due to his lack of expertise about it, causing him and his brother to close it down.
“The egg business should have eggs, onions, and tomatoes, I just went with eggs and tomato, and customers would ask me why doesn’t this one have onions, and then they’d decline to eat,” he said.
Tom later attempted selling oranges, but it did not work either, leading him to consider alternative choices.
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Following an unsuccessful business venture, he began his acting career with high school oral literature, landing minor roles.
Although performing for schools paid well, it was insufficient to fund his higher study.
His brother opted to take out a loan and enroll him at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, where he studied filmmaking until graduating in 2020.
Tom met Sammy Kioko while performing oral literature in high school. They didn’t communicate much until they met at KBC for tryouts for a competition called ‘Comedy Arena’.
Tom and Kioko became friends and entered the Top Comic Show, which the latter won. Tom was eliminated at the beginning of the competition.
Following the tournament, the two collaborated and launched a YouTube channel where they posted sketches where Tom portrayed a teacher in their channel, and Kioko was the student.
The show did so well on YouTube that the duo had to add more people to keep it exciting.
Additionally, Tom is widely regarded as one of Kenya’s most influential TikTok users.
His excellent mastery of Kiswahili, combined with his funny personality, has made him one of the most sought-after influencers.
On TikTok, he has over 700,000 followers and 9.6 million likes. He is well-known for his video clips on a variety of topics, including fashion, investing and relationships.
