In a whirlwind tour across Kenya's hinterland sampling the country's music from each community, the picturesque scenery of the lush green tea plantains of Kericho prepares one psychologically, for an enchanting musical cuisine, especially factoring the reality that Chandarana, the legendary music recording company set base in the town before the country's independence, long before other towns enjoyed such privileges.
Kericho is home to the Kipsigis sub-tribe of the Kalenjin community. They are the most populous of these 11 subtribes, and some quarters also consider them elitist. The sub-tribe occupying two counties has the most vibrant music industry, which can be traced to the nascent days of the country's independence.
Today, Kericho can be said to be the place of the region's musical roots. The town has an influx of musicians than any other place in the Rift Valley, although the music isn't so well defined in genre and hasn't cultivated a niche for itself in the National circles, mostly because it consists of poor copies of South Africa's kwaito.
Nonetheless, Kericho represents the face of music in the Rift Valley, and can be described as a musical oasis in desert, considering that very little if any music has originated from places like Pokot, Turkana, etc, since the advent of recoding technology.
Among the superstars who set the pace for the community's supremacy in the region's music, stretching the entire length of the valley was Kipchamba Arap Tabutuk. This musical legend of the Rift Valley was born in 1937 in Olbutyo, Bomet, and died in April 2007, aged 70.
He was the son of Mugulaya Tabotuk Arap Sitienei and Tapsabei Kipchamba. His thrst for education hit an abrupt dead end in 1955, when de dropped out of Kaplong Intermidiate School for lack of school fees. Young Kipchamba spent most of his childhood days in the company of his father, an avid history lover, a factor that was greatly contributed to his success in music in the latter days.
He was employed as a casual laborer in Njoro on a colonial farm, and this is where he got exposed to a guitar. This he didn't have to entirely learn anew, as he has previously taught himself how to play chemonget, a Kalenjin traditional instrument and he was more of transitioning to a guitar, than learning it anew
He became an accomplished acoustic guitarist, and it is his skills that came to define his musical prowess, with most of his songs becoming instant hits.He formed his first band, Koilonget, in the late 1950s. The other members of the band were Oriango arap, Chepkwony, Francis arap Langat, Morris arap Mainek, and Sageri arap Talam, and they started recording their music at Chandarana Records in Kericho. This band, however, didn't last long and ran into headwinds, leading to dissolution in the early 1960s, with Kipchamba taking the path of a solo career, still recording at the same facility. His songs Ohamba, Makanika, Magdalena, Bwana Tumbo, and hundreds of others are masterpieces that inspired a younger generation of musicians from the region, Tumbalal Arap Sang.
His peers were Mengo Arap Chumo, Alexander Arap Kering, among others. Kipchamba in squalor despite his muisv success, most of his sweat being enjoyed by music pirates. However, royalties from Chandarana, where he recorded his music, kept him going.
He rose to fame in the early 1960s, an era where Kalenjin music and to an extent Kenyan music were undergoing a transition from the local traditional beat mostly built along cultural practices and traditions, to modern music with melodies influenced by influences from other civilizations, and the theme influenced by colonialism
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