Ben Mutua Jonathan Muriithi - Early Life, School and Career

Early Life, School and Career

Muriithi and his now late brother, Stephen Njagi Kironji, started acting in their village church at a very young age. He later joined Kangaru School, Embu, Kenya, from where he graduated in 1986. He later joined a private School in Thika, Kenya. He became the YMCA Drama Club Chaperon in 1988 and later that year, he was elected to head the Youth Department at the Thika YMCA branch. In 1990, he trained as a registration Assistant at Kenya Institute of Surveying and Mapping (KISM) in Ruaraka, Kenya. Upon graduating, Muriithi was hired by the Kenya Government and posted in Eastern Province as a Registration Assistant. While working with the Lands Department at the Eastern Provincial Headquarters in Embu, he joined renowned thespian, Joseph Murungu in the newly formed Mt Kenya Theatrix Drama Group under the auspicies of the Kenya Red Cross, Embu Branch. While on an Exchange program tour co-sponsored by the Kenya Red Cross Society and the Norwegian Red Cross Society, he enrolled for a certificate course in acting and Photojournalism at Haraldvangen Institute in Norway, graduating in 1992. Upon his graduation, he featured prominently in Kenyan Radio, Television and stage productions, culminating in being appointed the Executive Chairman of Mt. Kenya Theatrix Club in 1995. Some of the productions he featured in included Athol Fugard's Sizwe Bansi Is Dead; Joseph Murungu's So Sweet a Bite; and a few of Kenyatta University's Professor Francis Imbuga's published works. During his days in Nairobi, he featured in some high profile TV commercials, including one by then Celtel (later Zain and now 'Airtell'), one of Africa's leading telecommunication companies.