Njoro wa Uba continues to resonate with audiences because it centres on an imperfect, everyday Kenyan navigating life in an unforgiving Nairobi. Njoro’s struggles such as parenting, co-parenting, financial pressure, and complicated family relationships mirror the realities many viewers live daily, which makes his character deeply relatable.
Maisha Magic Plus recently caught up with the producers of the show:
How do you go about ensuring the storylines are relatable?
Many storylines are drawn directly from real taxi drivers who share their lived experiences with the writers, ensuring the narratives remain grounded and current. In addition, we regularly invite some of our most ardent fans into the writers’ room to give feedback on past seasons and engage with ideas for future stories. Their perspectives help us stay connected to audience expectations while remaining true to the show’s core.
Rather than idealising Nairobi or its people, Njoro wa Uba reflects real lives with empathy and humour and it is this honesty that keeps audiences deeply invested season after season.
What are the key themes of Season 15?
Season 15 focused on health and survival in a system where one medical emergency can lead to financial ruin. Through Njoro’s health crisis and life‑saving surgery, the season explores mortality and the power of second chances. Love across social class is examined through Njoro’s relationship with Dr. Joy, questioning whether intimacy can survive economic and social divides. The season also explores modern parenting and blended families, reflecting the complexity of contemporary Nairobi households. Running parallel is Stacy’s coming‑of‑age journey. A 17‑year‑old navigating identity, class pressure, and social media influence which grounds the themes in the current generation’s reality.
Why these stories mattered now?
These themes reflect the anxieties shaping Kenyan life today: rising medical costs, economic uncertainty, shifting family structures, and class disparity. They speak to a moment where people are living with the constant fear that one diagnosis, accident, or hospital admission could wipe out their savings or derail their families entirely. Njoro’s survival and reset after illness symbolise a wider desire for hope, renewal, and the possibility of choosing differently.
What do you hope the audiences will take away?
The show aims to spark reflection rather than provide answers. Each episode is designed to start conversations encouraging empathy, self‑examination, and shared understanding. Ultimately, the takeaway is connection: connection to one another, to shared struggles, and to the understanding that none of us are alone in navigating the messiness of life.
What was the most challenging and rewarding episode?
Episode 17 “The streets are calling’, set against a live demonstration in Nairobi’s CBD. The episode was both the most challenging and most rewarding to produce because it required us to step directly into a moment that was actively unfolding in the country. Questions around security, safety, and perception were constant. Would we attract unwanted attention from authorities? Could we be mistaken for inciting unrest when, in truth, we were simply reflecting what was already happening around us?
From a production standpoint, the episode was ambitious. We had to figure out how to achieve authenticity without putting cast or crew at risk. How to manage crowd numbers, sourcing the right props, choreographing movement, and capturing the chaos of a protest without creating one.
Which episode are you most proud of or excited for viewers to watch?
The same episode stands out as the one we are most proud of and most excited for audiences to experience. It pushed the production creatively in execution, logistics, and storytelling.
Any standout character pairing this season?
Njoro and Dr. Joy emerged as a standout pairing this season. Njoro exists in constant motion, chaos, and uncertainty juggling work, parenting, strained relationships with his in-laws and baby mamas, and his many clients. Dr. Joy enters his life from a completely different world: structured, professional, and seemingly more stable. Yet despite that difference, their connection feels genuine and unexpected. Their dynamic allows the show to ask whether love can thrive within unequal worlds.
Which character had the most meaningful growth?
Stacy experienced the season’s most significant growth. At 17, she struggles to fit into a privileged school environment shaped by class and social media pressure. When her attempt to belong ends badly, her parents’ support helps her reassess her choices. Her arc unfolds across the season, showing maturity, self-awareness, and accountability, her journey reflecting the realities facing many young people today making her growth not only meaningful, but deeply relatable
How do you manage to keep the stories authentic?
Authenticity is something we are very intentional about, and it comes from continuous collaboration between the writers, the cast, and real-life storytellers. We have largely the same writers from when we started the show and therefore work from a deep understanding of the characters and their emotional journeys.
During table reads, the cast is encouraged to give honest feedback on dialogue, motivation, behaviour, and whether a moment feels true to who the character is and where they come from. These conversations often lead to small but important adjustments that keep the stories grounded and believable.
Njoro regularly sits in the writers’ room, where we also invite real taxi drivers to share their lived experiences. This allows him and the writers to ask direct questions, test scenarios, and understand the emotional and practical realities of life on the road.
When a story, moment, or detail resonates strongly in those conversations, we allow it to organically shape arcs across the season. This ensures that the show remains rooted in real experiences rather than imagined ones.
Njoro wa Uba airs on Maisha Magic Plus DStv 163 and GOtv every Thursday at 7:30 pm.
Not connected? Reconnect now with #MyDStv or #MyGOtv. OR stream it anytime on the GOtv Stream or #DStv Stream apps.