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Octopizzo: the Kibera rapper who made a career out of possibility.
Kibera Creatives is a KNN series on the artists, designers and performers who built their names from Kibera. Profiles are compiled from published reports and the subjects' own public pages; sources are listed at the end. Spotted an error? Write to news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke.
Henry Ohanga, better known as Octopizzo, is the most famous musician to come out of Kibera. He raps mostly in Swahili and Sheng, and he has spent close to two decades turning the place he grew up in into a brand and a cause.
He went to Mashimoni Primary and Kibera Glory High School in Laini Saba. His music career began in 2008. His break came through a British Council arts programme, and he founded Young Gifted and Black (YGB), a Kibera youth arts collective that gave early stages to other artists from the settlement.
Albums and the Grammy list
His second album, LDPC, was launched in Nairobi on 8 August 2015. The curtain-raisers were eight refugee artists from Kakuma camp. Later albums include Jungle Fever, released around 2020, and Lamu Nights in 2022. In November 2021 Jungle Fever appeared on the Grammy list of recordings under consideration for Best Global Album. That is the long list, not a nomination, but it was a first for a Kibera artist.
CNN profiled him on African Voices in June 2016, and AFP ran a profile in January 2018. "I want to be the face of possibility," he told AFP.
Artists for Refugees
In April 2015 Octopizzo and cartoonist Victor Ndula launched Artists for Refugees with UNHCR in Kakuma. By October 2017 the project had coached 118 refugee artists, and he mentored the 2016 refugee album Refugeenius. In 2021 he told The Star, "One day I'll bring this to Kibera, I believe."
The foundation and the politics
The Octopizzo Foundation works on music and the arts, sanitation, mental health and technology. During the COVID-19 lockdowns it ran a food drive in Silanga.
On 4 November 2025 he told supporters he may run for the Kibra parliamentary seat in 2027. By February 2026 K24 was describing him as a Kibra MP aspirant after a rally in Kitengela. He has not named a party, and no formal candidacy had been declared when this profile was published.
Sources: AFP via The Citizen, 30 Jan 2018; The Star, 17 Nov 2021; The Star, 4 Nov 2025; K24, 16 Feb 2026; UNHCR Kenya, 8 Aug 2015; UNHCR Kenya, 19 Oct 2017; Capital FM, 27 Jun 2016; The Standard, 2020.
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
Kibera Creatives is a KNN series on the artists, designers and performers who built their names from Kibera. Profiles are compiled from published reports and the subjects’ own public pages; sources are listed at the end. Spotted an error? Write to news@kibranewsnetwork.co.ke.
Henry Ohanga, better known as Octopizzo, is the most famous musician to come out of Kibera. He raps mostly in Swahili and Sheng, and he has spent close to two decades turning the place he grew up in into a brand and a cause.
He went to Mashimoni Primary and Kibera Glory High School in Laini Saba. His music career began in 2008. His break came through a British Council arts programme, and he founded Young Gifted and Black (YGB), a Kibera youth arts collective that gave early stages to other artists from the settlement.
Albums and the Grammy list
His second album, LDPC, was launched in Nairobi on 8 August 2015. The curtain-raisers were eight refugee artists from Kakuma camp. Later albums include Jungle Fever, released around 2020, and Lamu Nights in 2022. In November 2021 Jungle Fever appeared on the Grammy list of recordings under consideration for Best Global Album. That is the long list, not a nomination, but it was a first for a Kibera artist.
CNN profiled him on African Voices in June 2016, and AFP ran a profile in January 2018. “I want to be the face of possibility,” he told AFP.
Artists for Refugees
In April 2015 Octopizzo and cartoonist Victor Ndula launched Artists for Refugees with UNHCR in Kakuma. By October 2017 the project had coached 118 refugee artists, and he mentored the 2016 refugee album Refugeenius. In 2021 he told The Star, “One day I’ll bring this to Kibera, I believe.”
The foundation and the politics
The Octopizzo Foundation works on music and the arts, sanitation, mental health and technology. During the COVID-19 lockdowns it ran a food drive in Silanga.
On 4 November 2025 he told supporters he may run for the Kibra parliamentary seat in 2027. By February 2026 K24 was describing him as a Kibra MP aspirant after a rally in Kitengela. He has not named a party, and no formal candidacy had been declared when this profile was published.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
