Swings Mauno, whose real name is Esbon Kinyanjui Mwangi, is a Kenyan TikTok creator who has risen from a difficult childhood and a series of low-paying jobs to become a familiar face on social media.
As a content creator, Mauno has cautioned content creators about the choices they make in pursuit of fame.
“If you have the hunger to be famous, you can do something wrong. People forget that what you do online is what people will know and associate you with,” he said during an interview with Jeff Kuria.
Early Life and Family
Mauno hails from Mithiga Village in Kandara, Murang’a County, where his grandparents raised him, and he is the firstborn in a family of six.
He grew up with one of his sisters under his grandmother’s care, while three other siblings, two sisters and a brother, were raised by their father.
His youngest sibling lives with their mother. However, Mauno clarified that he learned about his mother only after he became an adult.
Swings Mauno’s grandfather has also featured in some of his online videos. Mauno refers to him as “Jackie Chan”.
For his education, Mauno completed primary school but dropped out in Form One, third term, after his grandmother was scammed into paying people who promised to pay his fees.
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Career and Employment Journey
At the age of 16, Mauno moved to Nairobi.
His first job was in Kangemi, where he cooked chapati from 4 a.m. for KSh 200. After about a year, he left the job following complaints from his employer.
Mauno then turned to a friend, Kamau, who sold carpets and hosted him after he learned that he had been sleeping on the streets in a Kiosk in Kangemi after quitting his job.
After about three months, Mauno secured another job cooking chapati. As he worked, he learned how to make ‘mutura ‘.
Skating Journey
Mauno later got an opportunity to teach children how to operate hover boards after a friend’s recommendation for the job.
As a skating trainer, Swings worked at Hillcrest and Braeburn, as well as at Garden City during weekends, earning KSh 700.
By 2018, he had established himself as a competitive skater in Kenya, but eventually quit since the sport did not earn him a sustainable income. Later, he secured work at Skate Studio as a skating coach.
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Swings Mauno’s TikTok Rise
While returning from swimming one weekend in 2018, Mauno asked a friend to record a humorous video of him.
The Trend and Churchill later shared the video, among others, giving him his first major exposure to a wider audience.
Mauno joined TikTok and gained only 200 followers in 2019.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Mauno remained unemployed for three months before he got a job at a phone repair shop owned by his friend.
According to Mauno, he started with about 1,000 followers and gained roughly 10,000 followers by the evening.
He subsequently combined dancing with talking and storytelling content.
His growth stalled when TikTok banned his main and backup accounts during an online Kenya-Tanzania rivalry.
An attempt to create another account using his friend Martin’s email also failed, resulting in the account being banned and his friend losing an account with about 2,000 followers.
Mauno eventually bought a new motherboard for about KSh5, 000 and created another account. One of his early videos on the new account focused on Djibouti and gained about 10,000 followers.
Mauno’s content mainly focuses on storytelling, humor, and what he describes as overthinking.
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