Azziad Nasenya On 5 Challenges She Faces Daily As A Content Creator

Kenyan TikTok star, radio host and influencer, Azziad Nasenya on Monday, June 5 opened up on the behind-the-scenes events that led to her explosive rise to fame during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Speaking to Nairobi News, Azziad noted that the early stages of her career were a baptism by fire given that there was a widespread lack of understanding by Kenyans regarding the internet space, which they were forced into owing to COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the government, including working from home.

She acknowledged that Kenyans were yet to fully understand the techniques of being a content creator, giving examples of how they were left in confusion on revealing to them that she was working in content creation as a profession.

Azziad Nasenya at Soundcity Radio studios on February 28, 2023. /AZZIAD NASENYA

“People have not really gotten a grasp of it, they don’t really understand if you say you’re a content creator, but I’m just as in where we were in 2020.

"And here we are in 2023. People are beginning to understand what it is really,” Azziad noted.

She added that she encounters what she termed as creative blocks that come with the pressure of coming up with and producing content that is current and resonates with the audience, almost akin to writer's block.

“Sometimes you create and create until your mind cannot think anymore. Yeah, but it gets easier," she added.

Furthermore, she believed that occasional self-doubt is a natural part of the creative process, giving an example: “The moment you’re like, ‘I can do it. I can do it,’ and you have no second guesses, then? Maybe there’s a problem somewhere?”

Azziad also revealed that content creation on her end, which includes building her own brand, is a whole team sport involving a small but strong team that has her best interests at heart, enabling her to reach greater limits. To just appear on her social media accounts takes a collective team effort.

"I am just the face of my brand. There is a lot of work that goes into just building the brand that is not in front of the camera that you cannot see at the moment.

"Our team is around five to six people. So yeah. A whole company," she added.

Azziad's talents had initially flourished on the theatrical stage, recalling the days when she joined the theatre in 2018, revealing that the likes of the late Joseph Kubende were among the people who connected her. During her theatre endeavours, she met her manager, Peter Kawa.

Her transition to TV was courtesy of short films here and there as well as a stint as an extra in a couple of TV series before she went viral on TikTok with her 'Utawezana' challenge, which blew her open to more opportunities and made the transition easier.

While Azziad hopes to return to theatre someday, she faces challenges in managing her busy schedule, despite remaining optimistic about her comeback to the theatre.

“The problem is just time. Right now my schedule is tricky. If my schedule opens up, then definitely," she added.

Azziad and her fellow content creators were given a lifeline on Friday, June 2 after President William Ruto relaxed his hardline stance on content creators in Kenya by promising to review the proposed 15 per cent withholding tax for content monetization in the Finance Bill 2023.

He particularly directed the ICT and finance committees to go back to the drawing board on the proposal to tax digital content creators and practitioners with the aim of cutting down on the stubborn measures to enable content creators to thrive.