The nicest and nastiest stars I have interviewed this year

South African musician Hugh Masekela is one of the good-natured stars with whom you can easily get along. PHOTO | FILE\DIANA NGILA

What you need to know:

  • Lupita Nyong’o was detached and appeared bored throughout the rest of the interview, which prompted some to say she didn’t value African presenters, compared with her American appearances. The interview ended abruptly when I asked about reports that she was a prima donna and I was ushered out without a picture.
  • Victor Wanyama is an exceedingly polite, patient and humble star who is always a big hit with the show’s staff. His kind make up for others like David Rudisha, who has consistently refused to do the show with an ever-expanding list of excuses.
  • Every so often, there is also a guest like Nyashinski who confirms, then stops answering calls and ends up on another station station.

One of my most mortifying moments this year was keeping bona fide legend Hugh Masekela waiting when he came in for a recording of an interview for #theTrend. In my defence, I was waiting for an outfit to be delivered and the 77-year-old South African jazz star was early.

But Masekela was unfazed, and I found him effortlessly holding court, leaving the crew members in stitches. When I placed my phone too close to my crotch, he cheekily warned against the adverse effects of that, kicking off a new round of laughter. He was so outstanding that a two-minute excerpt of our insightful conversation has been viewed more than 1 million times on Facebook.

You meet a lot of famous faces in my line of work. Sometimes, they become good friends with whom you abuse emojis on WhatsApp, but often they are just people you don’t look forward to meeting again.

I was back in Kampala for a show in late September when I heard that the Oscar-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o, was in town to premiere her new film, 'Queen of Katwe'. I made a few calls and got an interview. Traffic was horrendous that Sunday because of a huge festival that was taking place in the middle of the city, so I jumped onto a boda boda to get to her. Like all the other journalists at the junket, Disney gave each of us just 15 minutes. In her room, Lupita was sitting between co-stars Madina Nalwanga, 16, and her on-screen son, Martin Kabanza.

“We like your ugali video,” I told her as we settled down, referring to a Vogue-produced clip where she learns to cook the Kenyan staple from her mother.

“You put me in a lot of trouble,” she responded with a smile. She had confessed to me in a previous interview that she missed ugali but didn’t know how to make it, which set Kenyan social media alight. She was detached and appeared bored throughout the rest of the interview, which prompted some to say she didn’t value African presenters, compared with her American appearances. The interview ended abruptly when I asked about reports that she was a prima donna and I was ushered out without a picture.

Afterwards, I sat down with British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo, a gracious gentleman, if ever there was one.

“Should I remind you that George Bush Jr won the presidency twice?” American singer Aloe Blacc warned us in June when he came on the show. I had asked about Donald Trump’s chances of winning the presidency back when it was still a moonshot. He was so engaging and revealing that then Chief Justice Willy Mutunga told me later how much he enjoyed the chat. Another favourite was another American singer, Trey Songz, who surprised us by apologising for coming a few minutes late for our interview. He shook hands with everyone on the set and introduced himself, as if it was necessary. We had a great, goofy conversation during which he pretended to walk out at some point, all the while acting like we were old friends when we had just met for the first time. He then stuck around to take pictures with each cameraman and producer and fool around some more on their Snapchats.

He reminded me of Tottenham midfielder Victor Wanyama, an exceedingly polite, patient and humble star who is always a big hit with the show’s staff. His kind make up for others like David Rudisha, who has consistently refused to do the show with an ever-expanding list of excuses. Even that is still better than Jimmy Gait, who cancelled last October in a text message to producer Kevin Gitau, then refused to answer calls.

Then there are those who are booked in advance but decline to come on when they land in Nairobi, like Koffi Olomide, or Nigerian artistes Flavour and Sinach. Well before he got deported for his airport drama, Olomide just couldn’t be bothered to honour an invite. Flavour reportedly had drama with immigration officers when he arrived that ruined his mood while Sinach wouldn’t leave her hotel room.

Every so often, there is also a guest like Nyashinski who confirms, then stops answering calls and ends up on another station station.

Mercifully, most of our guests are lovely people who will teach you new words, like Mafikizolo; drop tonnes of wisdom, like Oliver Mtukudzi; or bring genuine joy, like Yemi Alade. There will be kind people who respect your colleagues, like British rapper Tinie Tempah, or misunderstood personalities like Chameleone, who is nicer then people give him credit for.

There are often beautiful souls like Alaine, the vibrant Mi Casa trio, or South African celebrity chefs Benny Masekwameng and Siba Mtongana. Here’s to another year of divas, drama kings and down-to-earth characters. Merry Christmas! 

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TRUMP EFFECT

Fake news and a post-fact world

The election of 70-year-old Donald Trump ushered in a post-fact world in America. So bad is his lying that the Washington Post now has a Google Chrome extension that fact-checks the American president-elect’s tweets.

“We made a tool that slips a bit more context into Trump’s tweets,” explained writer Philip Bump in a post. “It’s still in the early stages, but our goal is to provide additional context where needed for Trump’s tweets moving forward (and a few golden oldies).”

It came just a day after Facebook announced extra measures to deal with hoaxes and fake news on the social network.

“We’ve started a programme to work with third-party fact checking organisations that are signatories of Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles,” wrote Adam Mosseri, who is in charge of Facebook’s News Feed. These are both American examples but fake news is spreading on the Kenyan Web so fast that we might soon need similar checks.

It’s not just misleading or clickbait headlines from blogs; there are now complete lies getting shared as gospel truth. The worst bit is that there are people who believe it in the giant echo chamber that is the Internet. Heaven help us all. 

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MAGIC MONEY?

MMM is here, watch out!

A notorious Ponzi scheme named MMM has just launched in Kenya, promising 40 per cent returns. Don’t put your money here because you will most certainly lose it.

“MMM gives you a technical platform which helps millions of participants worldwide to connect those who NEED help to those who are ready to PROVIDE help, for FREE,” its website proclaims. Keep in mind that MMM, founded by Russian Sergey Mavrodi, pulled off one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes in the 1990s in which as many as 40 million people could have been conned of about $10  billion ($1 trillion).

A “consultant” popped up on the website when I visited for a live chat and assured me it wasn’t a pyramid scheme. Yeah right! If you believe in money magically falling into your lap from the sky, go ahead and “invest” in this. If you work hard for your money and don’t want to throw it away in a shadowy scheme, run.