Phares Oluoch Kanindo

Full name	Phares Oluoch Kanindo
Date of birth	29 November 1942
Country	Kenyan
Date of death	24 May 2014

Phares Oluoch Kanindo (29 November 1942 – 24 May 2014) was a highly influential Kenyan music producer and veteran politician who became the architect of the Benga music explosion across East and Southern Africa. Born in the Awendo sugar belt of South Nyanza, Kenya, he began his career as a radio technician for the Kenya News Agency after studying in Czechoslovakia. He eventually rose to lead EMI Kenya before founding his own labels, including POK Music Stores and Sungura, which produced legendary artists like Collela Mazee and Victoria Kings. His marketing influence was so profound that the high-energy, guitar-driven Benga style became known simply as "Kanindo music" in Zimbabwe and Malawi, where it laid the foundations for the modern Sungura genre