Big Man Stevo, aka Comrades Flavor, is one of the most popular Youtubers in Kenya. He is best known for his ‘loyalty test’ videos, where he exposes cheating couples live on camera.
However, not many facts are known about Stevo as he rarely opens up about his background and family.
This is his story, as told by WoK:
Early Life
Stevo’s real name is Stephen Kawa. He spent most of his childhood in Nyanza before moving to Nanyuki while in class 5. There, he attended Mary Immaculate Primary School, where he sat for his KCPE in 2010.
His stellar performance earned him an invitation to Lenana School. However, he was instead admitted to Kanga Boys in 2011 due to undisclosed reasons.
Although he was bright, he shifted focus from his studies to entrepreneurship while in form two.
With the principal’s permission, he started a club called Junior Achievers, which focused on promoting entrepreneurship to other students.
The principal also allowed him to own a shaving machine, which he used to give haircuts to other students at ksh 20 per head. It was during this time that he developed a lifetime passion for photography.
Despite juggling his studies with entrepreneurship, Stevo sat for his KCSE in 2014 where he passed with good grades.
He was awarded a partial scholarship to Strathmore University to pursue a diploma, which he declined because the accompanying costs were too high.
University life
Life at home became too dull, forcing Stevo to move to Kahawa Wendani to reside with his elder brother who was a student at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology.
Life in Kahawa was also challenging. He tried to seek teaching jobs in neighboring schools but was unsuccessful. After three months, he decided to move to the University of Nairobi where another of his brothers was a student leader.
There, he blended and interacted with university students and even partnered with his brother to sell potatoes. The business made him a celebrity among the students.
Around that time, he was luckily invited to the UoN to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Geoscience, which entails the study of rocks. He enrolled in 2015, residing at Chiromo hostels.
Politics
As a first-year student, Stevo hawked mandazi and chapatis to get money for upkeep. He would rise early in the morning, hawk the mandazis, and be in class by 7 a.m.
He then graduated to become a mitumba seller and later started modelling. This earned him the title of Mr. UoN Chiromo campus in March 2016.
Inspired by his brother, who was a student leader, Stevo dived into university politics and vied for the position of non-resident representative, which he won overwhelmingly. At that time, student representatives were paid a monthly stipend by the university.
Suspension
During the same year, chaos erupted after the University student leader Babu Owino and his rival Mike Jacobs clashed. Lecture hall windows were smashed, hostels were burnt, and school property was damaged.
University operations were suspended and students were sent home while investigations were ongoing.
By bad luck, Stevo was among the students found to have been responsible for the chaos. He was suspended for two years from the university.
This was a rude jolt to his otherwise smooth life. He sank into depression and even started taking alcohol.
Photography
Desperate for a way to make money, he tried online writing but was unsuccessful. Luckily, his brother, who owned a shop, invited him to run the shop and split the profits.
He worked at the shop for six months at a salary of Ksh 500 per day. This job and other irregular gigs enabled him to save sh 80,000, which he used to purchase his first camera.
He worked as a photographer for three months, making between sh 500 and 1000 per day. Unfortunately, he lost the camera while filming a chaotic political event in Mathare that he had been hired by a politician to cover.
Despite his pleas, the politician refused to compensate him for the camera. His second job was in sales and marketing, where he was paid a commission-based salary to push new products.
This job taught him vital business skills such as the ability to make a good impression to a customer within the first ten seconds of meeting. These skills would later be handy in his future career as a YouTuber.
House of Steve
His next job was as a pool chalk man where he could make sh 50-100 per day. Life became so tough that he could only afford to eat at the UON school mess despite his suspension.
Luckily, a friend bought a Canon 6D camera and hired him as a photographer. Ever the entrepreneur, Stevo cultivated a brand for himself through the name Stevo.Is.Bae.
Comrades Flavor considers himself the pioneer of Nairobi CBD photoshoots.
Within several months, he had saved enough to buy his own second-hand camera, meaning he was now his own boss.
However, due to increased competition, he decided to start a modeling agency called House of Steve and used his photography skills to market the business.
YouTube
Stevo’s suspension was terminated in 2019 when he re-enrolled at the University of Nairobi. However, he changed his course from Geoscience to Bachelor of Arts.
Back on his feet, he managed to clinch the Mr. UoN 2020-2021 title. He participated in various modeling gigs before starting a YouTube channel.
He tried several ideas until he started doing advanced loyalty tests, using the name Comrades Flavor.
In terms of his dating life, his most public relationship was dating triplets. However, they broke up due to undisclosed reasons.
Comrades Flavor is now a successful YouTuber with over 300,000 subscribers and over 50 million views on his channel.
