The Diversity of Genres in Kenyan Music

There is no denying that in 2025 Gengetone is back! However, there are questions on everyone’s mind: will it last and where had it gone? In the last month, we have received new releases from breakout Gengetone groups Ochungulo Family and Boondocks Gang. We now wait to see whether the comeback will be long or short-lived, with many people’s prayers answered by the comeback of Gengetone.

In 2020, as the world seemed to be falling apart, out of Eastlands Nairobi, Gengetone was born from its parents, Genge and Dancehall. Genge is a Kenyan music genre birthed and popularized by Kenyan record label, Calif Records, which hails from the California neighborhood in Nairobi. At the time that Genge was born, there was very little popular music from Kenya, which forced the then radio stations to refer to Kenyan music as local music. Upon hearing this, artists like Jua Cali and Nonini decided to brand their style of music as Genge to stop being referred to as local artists and start being referred to as Genge artists. Today, after over 20 years, the genre Genge is a genre that is recognized by the Grammys.

The Kenyan music industry is heavily influenced by dancehall music, which is why the current popular genre in the country, Arbantone, is very similar to dancehall music, similar to how Gengetone was a combination of the Genge and Dancehall genres. Whereas Gengetone was reminiscent of its parent genre, Genge. Arbontone artists have received a lot of backlash due to their sampling of popular songs to create new hit records.

At Radio 254, we believe in, love, and advocate for the different diverse genres that exist in the Kenyan music industry. Kenya has so many gifted artists who practice different genres, and it would be unfair to them to say that Kenyan music should only have one genre. At the end of the day, according to Radio 254. The genre does not matter; what matters is that we, as Kenyans, support Kenyan music regardless of genre. We believe that if you focus on genre, then you end up alienating so many great musicians who practice genres that might not be popular or mainstream but are still very important to the growth and evolution of the Kenyan music industry.