American comedian Ellen Degeneres reunites Kenyan family and surprises them with Ksh5 million

American comedian Ellen Degeneres reunites Kenyan family and surprises them with millions

Mumbi Mutuko

May 3, 2019 8:31 AM

Ellen Degeneres hosts Kenyan family

Kenyan family reunited on Ellen Degeneres show

American comedian and host of the Ellen show, Ellen Degeneres surprised Achieng Agutu, a Kisumu-born girl by reuniting her with her family.

Achieng', who studies in the United States, was part of the Ellen Show audience before Ellen called her on stage pretending to have been impressed by her dancing skills.

She narrated to Ellen how she had learnt English by watching her show and being influenced by some of the singers the host had invited to her show.

“I moved here (to the U.S) about five years ago for higher education and it’s been amazing but it’s also been really hard for my family back in Kenya," Achieng' said.

Kenyan family reunited on Ellen Kenyan show Pulse Live Kenya

Multiple jobs

"They (family) have honestly done every single thing from selling land to taking loans to be able to pay my school fees and make sure that I’m comfortable,” she added.

Achieng' impressed Ellen by the number of jobs she does. The student said she has a full-time job as an admissions counsellor, she babysits, washes people’s cars and cleans their houses, she's also an Uber driver and she also teaches English to international students.

Ellen had pretended that she had sent her crew to Kenya where her parents were and also sent another crew to South Africa where her brother was.

However, Achieng was surprised after her parents emerged on stage after the signal was pretentiously cut short.

Kenyan family reunites on the Ellen show Pulse Live Kenya

Visit to Kenya

The excited reunited on stage and were given a chance to play a game where they are required to pick one card from a group of three – labelled 1,2,3 – with different figures inscribed at the back.

Fortunately, they select the card labelled 2 which had the highest amount out of the three and they won Ksh5 million.

Last year, Ellen had visited Kenya while en route to Rwanda where she and her wife Portia de Rossi are building a permanent home for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for the wild, endangered gorillas.

Ellen had shared a series of clips of herself and her wife actor Portia de Rossi at Giraffe Manor.