Xtian Dela is an award winning Kenyan social media influencer, YouTuber, radio presenter and producer. He takes advantage of various social media platforms, such as, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram to share entertaining content and make money in the process. He has been making waves in the internet right from the beginning and at a young age has done what many would only dream of.
Real Name
His real name is Aurther Mandela.
Age
He was born on 18th February 1990 in Ngara, Nairobi, Kenya.
Education
The 30 year old attended Liki Hill Primary School before joining Moi High School, Kabarak. From Moi, he proceeded to the University of Nairobi business school in 2009. It was during his University years, that he discovered his love for content creation.
Career
A video on YouTube of Xtian Dela dancing vigorously and singing his lungs out was shared on social media platforms giving a glimpse of the bloggers past life. The gospel song ‘Shikilia Yesu’ featured Caroline Nyongesa. Xtian found another path in life and he seems to thrive.
In 2015, he worked with Nation FM (formerly called Easy FM) as a radio presenter for the morning show called Detox alongside Deejay Xclusive.
In May, 2018, he joined NRG Radio Kenya as a presenter. He was the host of a popular hip hop show called ‘Full Throttle’ alongside Fatman Scoop, a Grammy award winning radio personality and DJ Vince.
In 2019, he joined Kiss 100 as the producer of ‘Breakfast with the Stars show’ hosted by Kamene Goro and Andrew Kibe.
He is also the head of social and digital media at the Jeff Koinange Live (JKL) show on Citizen TV.
Awards
The radio show producer has won award after award. Here is a list of the awards:
2014 – best personal blog in the African Bloggers award and most influential Twitter personality in the Kenyan social media awards.
The same year, he started a Twitter initiative called #BringBackOurKDFSoldiers in a move to force the government to bring back the Kenyan Defense forces that were deployed to Somali to help fight the Al-shabab militants. The story was picked up by BBC news.
2015 – Best Twitter personality in Africa in the African Bloggers Awards.
- Kenyan corporate social media personality of the year award at Jumia Kenya Glamor Awards.
- Kenya Twitter personality of the year in the KenyaBuzz People’s Choice Awards.
2016 – Best Facebook profile in Africa and second most influencial Twitter personality in Africa in the African Bloggers Awards. The African Bloggers Awards was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
2018 – named among top 100 most influential young Africans in the continent.
Instagram Live
Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entertainment sector. This has prompted many entertainers to use social media platforms to keep people entertained. Xtian Dela started an IG live show called ‘Club Covid’ twerk show that airs from 12 midnight to 4 AM, outside the watershed period.
In the show, he asks girls to twerk and compete for money that viewers contribute to his Mpesa number during the live show. This idea was copied from the Canadian rapper Tory Lanez who was the first one to bring on this type of entertainment to social media users through his ‘Quarantine Radio’ show on Instagram live.
Some parents came out to condemn the show and sued the online personality for hosting such an obscene show. According to the three parents, club covid not only affects them but other parents as well. Online reports claiming that the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is after Xtian due to the controversial nature of the show.
Take on Police Brutality
When the president declared a curfew in Kenya, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people were brutally attacked by the police for defying the law. Many came out to criticize the police force and Xtian Dela had an opinion as well. This is what he tweeted:
“Kenyans ain’t serious. You were told to be in the house by 7pm. You had the whole day to plan yourself and get your ass in the house by 7pm. On this, I support the government! We need to be serious if we are to stop coronavirus! #CurfewKenya #coronaviruske #Epukacorona” read the tweet.
Kenyans on Twitter came out and accused him of ignorance and sounding like a privileged kid. They said some of them left work early but were unable to beat the curfew due to congestion and lack of public service vehicles. Comedian Mulamwah also condemned these remarks saying he should use his power to advocate for People’s rights rather than shifting blame to people who were heading home. Mulamwah went ahead to say:
“ Tangu ukue beshte ya Jeff unaonanga ni kama uko kwa Government bana Truth ni watu wanaumia bro, sio lazima ukue controversy ndio upate retweets na views, use your power to educate and advocate for People’s rights. #PoliceBrutality” said the comedian.
YouTube
The award winning social media influencer is also big on YouTube. He has over 103k subscribers, 11M views and 215 videos on his channel currently.
