Awinja opens up on her brother’s killing and how it affected her

Jacky Vike, popularly known as Awinja, has recalled the tragic death of her younger brother, who was shot dead.
Speaking to a local TV station on Friday, May 30, 2025, Awinja, who rose to fame through the Papa Shirandula show, narrated that her brother was felled by bullets for associating with individuals suspected to be thugs.
According to the celebrated comedienne, her younger brother was caught up in the ghetto lifestyle, where some dwellers assumed that association with suspected thug members would help them get fine things in life, including attracting beautiful women in the hood.
Without authoritatively confirming that was the kind of life her late brother desired, Awinja noted that he was shot.
“My brother was shot and was through association. The people he was hanging around and the fact that if you are a thug, you get chicks easily, or probably when you hover or hang around thugs,” Awinja said during the interview.
Affected her
According to the actress, the tragic incident fueled her desire to move out of the ghetto. Coupled with other issues, including early pregnancy and other forms of crime in the ghetto, Awinja revealed that she felt the place was not accommodating to her.
“When I lost my brother, I felt like this was not a place for me,” she further explained, noting that the tragic shooting also took a toll on her mother.

In previous interviews, Awinja stated that the shooting incident happened around 2011, when her brother was just 20 years old. She also shared the emotional impact of this event, including receiving a horrifying call from him before his death and the struggles her family faced in burying him due to societal judgment about his lifestyle.
During her previous interviews, she also shared that it was not an easy journey dealing with life after his funeral.
“Sometimes when my mum was outside cleaning and his friends passed by, they would greet her happily and she would look at them and burst into tears remembering her late son,” she said.
Awinja also disclosed that her brother ignored warnings.

“My mother used to talk to him till she decided to leave him to God. One day, my brother went drinking. As usual, they got drunk till they slept at the bar. Something happened and the culprits were able to run away,” she said.
“A friend of his told me that my brother had been killed. He said my brother had gone to eat lunch with friends when they came face to face with some officers, who shot all five guys.”
It was so hard on the family that even in the village, a decision was made to bury him at night according to the Luhya culture.
Nonetheless, Awinja managed to get out of the Majengo Area in Nairobi, where she was raised.