Comedian Timothy Kimani Ndegwa, widely known by his stage name Njugush, has made public his intentions to adopt his alias as his legal name.
During an interview with his good pal Phil Karanja, the funnyman explained that the widespread recognition of him as Njugush, rather than Tim, has created challenges in distinguishing between the two identities when he is in public and not in an acting role.
“I have thought about changing my name to Njugush actually because it is impossible to use them apart. Going ahead, and I know some people who have already done it for ease. So instead of the alias I just use Njugush and go on with it,” he said.
The actor also mentioned that Njugush has allowed him to navigate situations and experiences that would have been more challenging if he had been recognized solely as Tim.
“Njugush now is being exploited by Timmo and he doesn’t know it yet. He is often used for excuses. When Timmo wants to insult people he uses it,” he said.
Njugush also set conditions for the names various people can call him.
“Beautiful ladies can call me Timo, boys call me Tim but (best friend)Abel Mutua, it is Kimani,” he said.
Kimani has used his stage name since 2013 when he starred as ‘Njuguna’ on the satirical comedy show, ‘Hapa Kule News’. He had a segment dubbed ‘Masaibu ya Njuguna’, which was hilarious. You just had to be there!
Njuguna slowly transitioned to Njugush as he simultaneously acted on ‘The Real House Helps of Kawangware’.
The name would later gain international acclaim in 2014 when highflying Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o gave him a shout-out.
Lupita had just won an Oscar for ’12 Years A Slave’ when she tweeted that she was enjoying ‘The Real House Helps of Kawangware’, and that Njugush should be blessed.
Right there and then, Tim decided to fully adopt Njugush and added ‘Blessed’ in front of it. You could say Tim and Lupita manifested his blessings as his career has been on an upward trajectory over the last decade.
I kid you not, President William Ruto recently admitted that Njugush earns more than him.
“When we started shooting ‘Real House Helps of Kawangware’, there is a bigwig who tweeted, blasting us for producing ‘show ya mamboch’. Wanafanya show ya mamboch na wanataka kufika level ya Lupita Nyong’o. Hawawezi fika by creating such shows.’ At the time Lupita had won an Oscar,” Njugush recounted the story a few years ago.
“A few months later, I woke up to congratulatory messages. On checking why, I saw Lupita had tweeted saying she was watching our show. ‘Watching Real House helps of Kawangware. God bless Njugush.’ At the time I was called Funny Njugush. After Lupita’s tweet is when I changed my name to Blessed Njugush. We worked hard on the show till it became the most-watched show on TV.”
