If you are active on Kenyan social media, you might have noticed a car guy named OG_Papa_Jones. I am not talking about Khaligraph Jones the Rapper, but a Nakuru-based tuner famous for the slogan “Kuny*mb*sha” or “Kuweka Freno.”
As vulgar as that might sound in Swahili, OG_Papa_Jones refers to pops and bangs expelled from a car’s exhaust system, not the process of excretion.
We decided to do a feature on OG_Papa_Jones because we feel, and by “we,” I mean this two-man show (Waweru and I) called Motindechu.com.
I admire OG_Papa_Jones’s hustle because he saw an opportunity and grabbed it. And for that, he’ll not get much credit from a particular caliber of guys in the Kenyan car scene who believe the space is their birthright.
Still, at least he’s making tons of chums, traveling the country, and offering his unique skillset to car owners who’d have wished to have their cars tuned but would have never gotten the chance.
That last sentence is in bold because it’s the anchor that reveals OG_Papa_Jones’s genius.
Here’s the thing: Performance car circles are very toxic—globally. And not in the sense that they’d convince you to leave your wife and kids and move into a garage, but in how they sieve out the chaff.
It’s common to attend an auto show or event in Kenya and feel like you don’t belong. And sometimes, it gets you thinking about whether the organizers put up a show to make money or meet up with their old friends. The same culture transcends into the Kenyan tuner scene.
Access to specific tunes, garages, and rare parts is reserved for specific characters under the guise of ‘Price.’ Trust me when I tell you you won’t get the same quote for a simple tune as the guy who hangs around that tuner shop with a pass-down from his paps.
“It’s too expensive to have your car throw flames,” “It’s shady to have your N/A throwing flames,” or “That’s going to hog fuel and brick your engine eventually.”
Those are some of the remarks you’ll meet trying to tune your rig around car circles in Kenya. But OG_Papa_Jones is changing this narrative. He drives around in a conspicuous, heavily decal-ed Toyota AE90, a.k.a Baby Mama, and is willing to tune your car for pops and bangs on a budget – regardless of the make.
We are talking about Proboxes, Classic Datsuns, or Peugeots—if it has a combustion engine, he will make it throw flames at a fraction of the cost.
I’ve been in many car groups in Kenya, and the biggest topic is always tuning. Every performance buff, regardless of the demographic, wants their car to look nice and drive fast—or at least feel like it’s going fast.
Here’s the truth. Not many tuner shops in Nairobi are willing to do that at a reasonable cost. What they’ll likely do is tell you to get a Stage 1 tune, which loosely translates to a factory air intake delete, a plug swap, and a Map – They will quote your monthly rent or two if you are lucky and say it is the professional thing to do.
Fine! I have no squabble with doing things by the book. But where does a guy go when they just want their 90s rig to throw flames? No bedtime stories, no dera sessions, just a simple appointment to get my rig shooting flames down Mombasa road.
There are tons of locations in the city, I presume, but I can tell you for a fact that no two guys will tell you of the same establishment. And it’s not because the market is saturated. Nope! It’s because no one exclusively offers that service at a reasonable price- and this is where OG_Papa_Jones’s genius comes in.
He identified a huge market and built a brand around it. It might feel like a fluke, but I believe he’s being deliberate and is on to something.
His conspicuous car, witty videos, and language are his marketing tools, warming up to a demographic that’s been ignored just because they don’t own a cult-approved performance car. He is catering to a market that most mainstream auto shops have looked down on for years, and because of that, he is making a killing.
Here’s the thing. OG_Papa_Jones makes weekly trips around the country to Embu, Eldoret, Meru, Nanyuki, or Machakos, thanks to his tune’s demand.
Hiring a mechanic to travel isn’t cheap, but it should tell you something about his clientele. They are ready to do anything to get those tunes. What they won’t do is go to a tune shop and get treated like second-class citizens just because their car is not a cult classic.
Anyone can buy a car nowadays thankfully the old days are gone. And because of people like OG_Papa_Jones, just about anyone can get a ‘tune’ regardless of the technical aspects involved. And for that, he deserves his flowers!
