The singing nurse of Murang’a

Erick Kamau’s soothing voice often fills the hallways of Murang’a County Referral Hospital as he goes in and out of patient rooms. He is a nurse in the hospital. His colleagues nowadays refer to him as the singing nurse. 

He is a budding musician quickly rising to a household name in Mt Kenya region. 

“Erick’s musical journey started when he was young. But I asked him to concentrate on his studies first before venturing into music. After his secondary school education in 2016,he was interested in pursuing music as a career immediately since he had composed several songs. But I remained adamant. I wanted him to have a primary career before going into music,” says Erick’s mother, Grace Kamau.

She shares how the family took note of his passion for music when he was just three years old. You would catch him singing anywhere, anytime. In fact, many of the family members thought he would either become a pastor or a lawyer. This is because as he grew up, he liked reading the Bible and preaching, and further expressed his desire to be a lawyer when he grew up.  

“Music has been an ongoing passion for Erick. While he’d been singing intermittently since his teenagehood, it wasn’t until two years ago when he recorded his first song, Akinyi and since then he hasn’t looked back. He first sang gospel songs, before changing to secular rap music. But upon realising that was not where his strength was, he opted to do Kikuyu secular songs, which have catapulted him to the limelight,” she says

So far, Erick whose stage name is Eli Jay has three video songs Munyaka, Dodosa, and Ndia Kihanya. Ndia Kihanya, especially became an instant hit and almost became a Gema anthem. He has several audio songs that he hopes to work on their videos soon. 

Though the family is anticipating Erick’s busy years ahead because of his two careers, they can’t predict for now ultimately whether nursing or music will be the dominant career in the future. “What keeps him going is the belief that just like nursing, music can also heal people because it goes beyond the physiological or physical and straight into the heart. Because of this, he doesn’t feel like he is juggling both medicine and music he says that he is pursuing what he is passionate about and using music to complement his work,” Erick’s mother shares.