NAIROBI, August 26 – Big Brother has chosen another 12 housemates to board in his studio abode and this time Kenya’s hopes lie in one youthful, hearty bombshell from Gusiiland, Sheila Kwamboka.
She is aka Sheila Ominde, former TV presenter and Miss Tourism Kenya crown holder, who is now concentrating on her studies at the USIU – at least when she comes back.
A majority of Kenyans hope that the 23-year-old will reverse the bad streak that has made the black briefcase that contains the coveted $100,000 prize two times elusive for Kenyan contestants.
In the words of Stella Ondimu, the PR Manager at Multichoice Kenya, “This time, we have a fun, interesting contestant and we’re going for gold!”
“We need to make sure we vote because that’s where Kenyans go wrong. We don’t vote and then we expect other countries to vote for our contestant, it doesn’t work that way.”
With a bevy of hip and beautiful ladies and gents in the fairy-tale looking house, its going to be a tough game to play, and its almost a given that the 12 strong characters will clash.
It’s Day 1 and ‘everybody likes everybody’ – with a few exceptions mainly Latoya Lyakurwa from Tanzania and Tawana Lebani from Gabarone, Botswana.
Latoya, and Lucille Naobes from Namibia have each given Tawana the ‘bossy’ name-tag, while Sheila thinks that the Motswana (that is the name of a Botswana national) is a bit uptight. Malawi’s Hazel Warren in her diary session didn’t name names but only put out that she ‘may not like one or two people in future’ because of being ‘drama queens’ or ‘attention seekers’.
Lucille and Sheila are not sure about Latoya, a feeling that is mutual for the Tanzanian in Sheila’s case, while Mimi (27-year old Wilhelmina Abu-Andani) from Ghana, thinks Latoya is ‘bitchy’.
Mimi and Lucille think Sheila is ‘fun’, ‘nice’ and a ‘party animal’.
During her diary session, Kenya’s contestant expressed, “I like TK. He’s cool and laid back.”
TK is Zambia’s 25-year-old Takondwa Nkonjera, a rapper who describes himself as very charismatic. Mimi thinks he’s ‘lovely’, ‘like a teddy bear’.
Other contestants are Munyaradzi Chidzonga (Munya) from Zimbabwe, Ricardo David Ferreira Venancio (Ricco) of Angola, Uti Nwachukwu from Nigeria, Morris Herbert Mugisha of Uganda and South Africa’s very own Thamsanqa Prusent (Thami).
For the next 90 days, those who remain in the House will be subjected to Big Brother’s rules and regulations. Only what Big Brother says goes; and therein lies the excitement and anticipation.
There’s already a list of demands. Morris wants more dumbbells and bench-presses to fill his days, Munya thinks the house is small, and he predicts trouble between Sheila and Mimi in future!
TK thinks the House is strange and hates the ‘blue fluffy stuff’ in his room, but thinks the artificial grass in the living room is cool.
Tawana wants a line for hanging clothes and wants Thami to stay away from her!
She also said: “If people can’t drink without inconveniencing others, they shouldn’t drink! None of us started drinking together!”
Let’s see if unravelling emotions and characters will begin ruffling Big Brother’s feathers too, and let’s not forget to vote while we’re at it!
Oh, and by the way, in the mock nomination exercise between housemates during dinner on Monday, Sheila was tied at the top with Hazel, bagging three votes each.
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