Brian 'Thee beast' fights his way to Kenyan gaming domination!
When his family fell into poverty, a young boy in Kenya found comfort and strength from video games. Now he's the country's gaming ambassador, a mentor to kids in the slums — and a firefighter.
In some ways, you could say the life of Kenya's video game master Brian "Thee beast" Diang'a is itself like a video game – trapped in an unhappy place by forces beyond his control, he fought his way out! And a console was his salvation.
Brian Otieno Diang'a started his life in a comfortable suburb of Nairobi, Kenya. He lived in a nice home with his parents and siblings. He had his own bedroom. He went to a good school.
Then, suddenly, things took a turn for the worse. His dad lost his job as the head of medicine storage at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority because of a drinking problem, Brian says. The family of, a sprawling slum in Nairobi, into a one-room house with mud walls and a roof made of rusty sheets of iron pocked with tiny holes.
