Kenya’s music industry is currently undergoing a quiet but undeniable shift in favour of vernacular artists. As urban, secular artists dominate the media and online conversations, musicians singing in local languages are now the most booked entertainers in the country.
Many secular musicians are reportedly struggling to fill their calendars. In sharp contrast, vernacular performers like Prince Indah(Luo) and Samidoh(Kikuyu) are getting booked up to at least four times a week. This trend may look surprising on the surface, given the dominance of pop culture media.
Vernacular artists are tapping into something deeper than fleeting pop trends, which is their community identity. They do much more than simply entertain as they affirm a shared cultural space that resonates strongly with audiences.
Their lyrics resonate deeply and the stories they tell feel familiar to the crowds, and the energy from the audience stems directly from this shared sense of cultural identity and belonging.
This level of intimacy is often missing from secular music, which frequently relies on overall ‘vibe’ rather than narrative depth to connect with listeners.
For event organisers and club promoters, the rise of vernacular acts is also a matter of simple economics and value. Vernacular artists have built strong reputations for delivering long, powerful live shows.
Clubs and event venues are specifically looking for musicians who offer a complete performance, often involving a band, rather than a short set backed mainly by a DJ and playback.
“The market is correcting itself by rewarding the musicians who guarantee returns.”
Many secular artists, by comparison, charge premium fees but often fail to offer that level of depth or sustained performance quality. The market is naturally moving to reward those who guarantee a strong return on investment.
Another crucial, often overlooked, reality is that vernacular music now drives the real party scene in Kenya. Genres such as Mugithi and Ohangla are no longer niche cultural genres, they have become the currency of local nightlife.
Vernacular music has evolved into the heartbeat of local nightlife. Clubs are simply responding by booking the artists whose performances elicit the strongest and most reliable response from their audiences.
In the current digital era, which rewards personality and cultural nuance, vernacular artists thrive because their ambition is to be authentic and real, not necessarily global. Their music is rooted, relatable, and genuinely unpretentious.
The trend does not signal the complete fading of secular artists. Instead, it challenges them to fundamentally rethink their connection with today’s audiences.
The crowd has made it clear what it values most:
Relatable stories and strong community grounding.
Depth of artistry that feels lived rather than manufactured, and a guaranteed, powerful live performance.
Vernacular artists have mastered this formula, and the current booking trend reflects that success.
