When one plays back the interview recording for Timothy Owase, CEO of Kenya Film Commission, one hears long ideas and new thoughts that spill into various wells of guarded feelings.
They hear pride; a boy from Busia raised in a humble home full of order and discipline who seeks the same structure in his life. You hear the validations from acquisition of academic qualifications; three degrees in law, communication, and marketing.
You also hear love, which means you hear trouble. You hear death, a sudden one. You hear mourning, endless torturous mourning that has followed him everywhere like a stray dog. You also hear endless dedication, not just to himself, but to his children and his work and dreams, which he pours himself into relentlessly.
All these come in very long sentences, through the theater of words. It’s not surprising, this storytelling for Owase, by virtue of his position as the boss at the film commission, is entrusted in promoting storytelling through film, work that ultimately influences our emotional, social, cultural, and intellectual experiences.
"There is evidence that those who support and champion storytelling have major tales of their own."
If you have only one story to tell about yourself, what would that story be?
My upbringing, for sure. I was born in a small village in Busia County and there, I don’t think there were children growing up wanting to be a CEO.
I’m turning 49 in the next three months. My mother was a teacher, my father was a senior chief and growing up under them gave me a sense of order.
My father liked order in his jurisdiction, as a senior chief does. I attended the school my mother taught in and it gave me a lot of pressure not to break rules because if I got into trouble I’d be punished twice; in school and at home. Initially, I wanted to become a doctor but I went to university and studied marketing because that is all about dealing with people.
My critical focus was I want to be the best marketer I could be. I focused on that until I became a Fellow, which is the highest level of qualification you can get in marketing.
What made you a good marketer?
I'm able to create relationships. I'm also able to identify the needs of customers. I'm able to connect people, create networks. I’m also a storyteller. Storytelling is pure marketing.
There are other habits, of course, that spill into everything that I do successfully. Like wake up at 5 am, meditate, read at least two pages of a book, and so forth.
Tell me about meditation. Do you sit cross-legged and stare into space?
[Chuckle] No, it’s mostly reflection. I have my biblical reflections on each day. It’s basically what the Bible says each day of the year. What is God guiding me to do? I deal with people almost all the time; filmmakers, employees, my children.
I'm responsible to all these stakeholders. So through meditation, I'm able to attach my thinking and my service delivery to all those techniques.
Your relationship with God must be great.
I think God is everything. In 2018 something terrible happened to me. I left work, went home, and had my usual engagement with my wife who was pregnant at that time. She was about three weeks to her due date.
We had dinner and after that, she chose to retire to bed. Ten minutes later, she complained of a headache which grew increasingly worse. I decided to drive her to the hospital and halfway there she started throwing up a lot. When we got to the hospital, she was declared dead.
What?
Yes. Apparently, according to the postmortem, when she was throwing up is the time she started dying. Apparently, she died from what’s called preeclampsia. Her blood pressure was above 280, which led one of the nerves to rupture.
It was disturbing because she had been fine. Three days to her death, we had seen her doctor and she was doing great. I had even booked her delivery bed at Nairobi Hospital. Back to God. It’s only God who knew what happened. It's not upon us to judge or to even make a choice. If I had a choice, I would have saved my wife because she was an inspiration to my life and she was my very best friend.
I’m sorry for your loss. What was the gender of the baby who died?
My son. It was very tough. Extremely tough. I had children who were questioning me where their mom had gone. Especially my youngest, my daughter who was only three at that time. Every day she would ask me, what happened to mom? What happened to mom? You know, the day my wife died and I remember leaving Nairobi Hospital alone at around 4 am.
That night I couldn’t get anyone on the phone, everybody's phone was either off or on silent mode. I got home at 5 am. I couldn’t sleep, of course. My daughter was expecting to be taken to school by her mother. Where is mom, she asked. I didn’t want to have that conversation, and I didn’t know what to say, so I told her mom had left early for a meeting.
The Kenya Film Commission (KFC) CEO Timothy Odhiambo Owase during an interview at Spring Valley in Nairobi on March 7, 2025.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
And this is what she said. She said, ‘Dad, if you are saying mom has already left for work, how come today she didn't brush her teeth?” I asked her, how do you know that she didn't brush her teeth? She said, “Her toothbrush has not been used.” This is a three-year-old. So it was tough.
How did you cope?
Of course, I got somebody to take care of my children in terms of a psychological doctor who would be able to guide and help us go through this whole motion. But I also had very good neighbours. When my wife died, the entire neighbourhood took over my house, especially the women. I was staying in Langata. They simply took over the running of my house.
The church played a very critical role, but my neighbourhood women were the real heroes. Dealing with the children post-burial was challenging. It meant I had to be strong for them even when I wasn’t. I put their needs before mine and ignored my own self-care.
And in the third year, while on my routine jogging, I collapsed by the side of the road whereupon I was admitted to Nairobi Hospital for seven days.
They said I had encountered a mild stroke. The doctor said I was depressed. He said I needed to take care of myself now. I would see him every week, that was some time in 2021. Now I'm down to seeing him every six months.
How is the toothbrush-daughter doing? Do you have other children?
The toothbrush daughter is now 11. [Grins] A very good swimmer. My son is now 23. My second-born son is now 17, a candidate for KCSE.
Are you married now, seven years after your wife passed on?
No, I'm not married. I just take care of my children. My priority is those children for now, but maybe sometime I will, but not yet.
What about companionship?
I'm fully aware that I need somebody in my life. But that time has not come. When that time comes, I will focus on it. But for now, I think I've refocused my energy to taking care of these children.
Taking care of children alone and working must keep you busy, but you must be lonely.
[Laughs] Of course. Loneliness can never go. When my wife died, I stayed for five years without touching her closet. The day I drove her to the hospital - March 26, 2018 - she left her shoes in the car. I never removed those shoes for five years.
Her portrait still hangs on the wall. Mourning is complicated because one minute you are feeling okay and the next minute you are hopeless.
You have three degrees - law, communication and marketing. Why?
Because storytelling is a business, and an entertainment. I studied marketing because it’s a business. If you are a storyteller, you want to protect your rights so that you are able to earn from it.
That's where law comes in. Intellectual property, copyright, all those elements. Then when we talk about communication, I'm looking at the medium of communication - Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, among other platforms.
You tell a story and you package it. Packaging is purely marketing. But you also need to protect your package. Law.
You are turning 49. What are your plans?
I want to see my children become self-reliant. I want to support them fully to a level where I serve as an example to them. Another personal plan is to grow as a leader.
I'm inspired by a few writers. Nick Craig with his book Leading from Purpose, there is Liz Weisman with her book Multipliers; how the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. Going into the future in my 50s, I would like to be able to utilise the creative economy space that has not been fully exploited in a way that currently as the CEO, it's my responsibility to create an enabling environment.
I want everyone to appreciate the role of storytelling in our environment. So I’m asking myself questions; What more can I do to achieve my aspirations?
What do you fear?
I fear the complications of the world. Technology is running very fast.
[Pause] It's not really fear, it's an opportunity that we must, as a people, strive to compete with ourselves. That's why one of my mentors gave me a very interesting scenario.
He challenged me to look at myself as a man who is running on a highway and he's running alone. We are not competing against anybody.
And the lesson from this was, as we strive to be ahead of our competition, the best competitor you can always look at is yourself.
When was the last time you failed ?
We fail every day. We wake up in the morning, and you start failing yourself in small ways; running late for meetings, saying something unkind to someone at work. But I also succeed in many things. I love running, so when I get up to go running, I win.
I also love reading and travelling. I wake up on a Saturday morning to cook breakfast for my children or make chapatis for them on a Sunday evening. Those are wins.
We must be aware as parents, we must be able to shape our children in a way that we are dealing with them with an understanding that the environment is different.
