Daniel Okwiri, better known as Squiro is a content creator and comedian from Nakuru County.
The comic had a difficult time growing up due to his physical appearance that saw people discriminate him.
In an exclusive interview with WoK, Daniel spoke on his upbringing, life growing up and how his appearance affected his life.
Here is his story.
Background
Daniel was born in 1998 in Kapenguria, West Pokot County where he grew up until the death of his father when he moved to Nakuru County.
He was taken in by his uncle who offered to sponsor his education; and enrolled him at Crater Academy.
“When my dad passed away, my uncle came through and took me and my brother in, and sponsored our education
“Dealing with the death of my father was hard but at least my uncle came through for us and held our hands to this point,” Daniel stated.
He studied at Crater Academy for his primary school education before joining St Nicholas High School and later Bahati Boys’ where he sat for his KCSE.
Growing up was not easy, he explained, especially because he was brought up by a single mother who did not have formal employment to depend on.
“Some times we’d sleep without eating anything. We are five including our mother, there were days we would get or lack completely,” Daniel said.
Life growing up
Daniel did not enjoy his childhood life like other children.
He says he was shy and he would avoid interacting with other children because of his appearance and what other children would think of him.
“My childhood life was really tricky because I was shy, I wasn’t talking because I wasn’t sure about what other children would say about me,” Daniel noted.
However, the comedian noted that his teenage life was the best, especially his time in high school when he started interacting with his peers.
“My teenage life was the best because I had stopped being shy and at least I would talk to people. It was during this time when I started moving on from events where I was discriminated,” he said.
Daniel also explained how discriminations affected him while in school and lessons that he learnt from the same.
“Discriminations in school affected me to a point I didn’t want to answer questions in class because of how my classmates would look at me,” he explained.
Adding;
“I highly discourage discrimination because you have no idea what that person is going through and you don’t know how much someone might be affected by the mean things you’d say.”
Daniel also recalled an instance where he was abused by a teacher who to taught English classes in his school.
“She would come to me directly and if I hadn’t completed an assignment, she would call me names and say that I should be in a game park with animals
“That incident affected me education-wise and I was not performing well in her subject. It contributed to my poor performance in school because I was not interacting with teachers and my fellow students,” he said.
However, Daniel found solace in another teacher who was always concerned about his well-being.
Comedy
Daniel tells us that he got into comedy to inspire other people going through the same challenges as his.
He also noted that he was inspired to get into comedy by comedian Chipukezzy whom he said he also mentored him.
“I’m doing this to inspire people in situations like mine, not only in Kenya but across the world. My dream is to go to Hollywood and share a platform with great acts,” he stated.
The comic encouraged people dealing with challenges like his to be themselves and do what they like.
“Do what you love and don’t limit yourself because if you do so, you’ll not get to where you want to be,” Squiro said.
