Kelis, famed for her hit “Milkshake,” has left the United States behind, embarking on a new chapter with her family in Kenya.
The 46-year-old singer, who faced the loss of her husband to cancer in 2022, made the move to the East African nation earlier this year. Her focus now lies in agriculture and the creation of a luxurious retreat.
Residing on a sprawling 150-acre estate near Nairobi, Kelis is eager to acquire additional land to further her ambitious ventures.
While she is enthusiastic about this fresh start, she candidly acknowledges certain challenges that come with life in Kenya.
In a widely circulated video, Kelis outlined her top three drawbacks of residing in the country, highlighting issues with the roads, drainage, and waste management systems.
“Some of the potholes here are so severe, they could literally dismantle your car,” she remarked.
‘And they have these speed bumps and these speed bumps are in the dark, they’re not marked, and you will hit a bump and leave your soul behind you, so the roads definitely take a little getting used to.’
She then slammed the city’s drainage system and said that it doesn’t work, ‘so when it rains, it floods.’
Milkshake hitmaker Kelis has ditched the US to begin a new life with her family in Kenya, but the move has come with some surprising downsides
Kelis also showed footage of garbage littering the streets, saying, ‘The waste management here is trash. It’s absolutely awful, it doesn’t exist.’
The Trick Me songstress then revealed that the price on shipping and importing is shockingly high.
‘If you want to live like an American here it’s definitely gonna cost you like triple the price,’ she said.
‘Anything imported. Not just American, but European, anything brought into the country, they’re gonna jack you.’
She also called buying a car in Kenya ‘an absolute nightmare’ and complained that it was almost impossible to get a brand new vehicle at a reasonable price.
‘I think if you think you’re gonna come here and live like an American, definitely triple the price,’ she warned.
However, she did say that some things in Kenya are still cheaper than in the US, most notably healthcare.
Despite the downsides, Kelis has insisted that she and her three sons are happier than ever since leaving America for life in East Africa.
In a viral video listing the top three cons of living in Kenya, Kelis criticized the country’s roads, drainage system, and waste management
‘If you want to live like an American here it’s definitely gonna cost you like triple the price,’ she said
In an interview with the Earn Your Leisure podcast in June, the star admitted that her decision to leave the US was partially driven by the political and racial issues in the country.
‘It’s at the stage right now where it’s like, if I’m continually investing in a place that doesn’t make space for me, to me it’s just not good business,’ she explained.
‘I can do things here on the continent that I can’t do in the States,’ before explaining that getting a business loan in the US is incredibly difficult despite how much money she earns.
‘I look at my kids. I’ve got these beautiful black kids and I put so much energy and time and money and schooling into them, and then I’m gonna give them to a nation that’s just gonna s**t on them? It makes no sense to me!’ she continued.
The mom-of-three then indicated that her children are much safer in Kenya than in the US.
‘I don’t have to worry about them getting shot or getting arrested,’ she explained.
‘And not that things don’t happen everywhere because they do, we’re being realistic, but if we can just take that out of the equation that when I walk into a place they’re not immediately hating my bloodline and my lineage and everything that I come from, everything that I stand for, that’s worth its weight in gold to me.’
In an interview with the Earn Your Leisure podcast in June, the star admitted that her decision to leave the US was partially driven by the political and racial issues in the country
Kelis is best known for her global smash hit Milkshake which topped the charts in 2003
She then encouraged the African diaspora to invest their money in Africa like she’s doing.
‘Why are we putting all of our education and all of our time and all of our energy and all of our money into a place that doesn’t have anything for us?’ she asked.
‘I have to fight for a loan in the States. Why? I make enough money. It’s dumb.’
The Manhattan-born singer is now working on building a luxury resort and wellness retreat in Kenya, along with a large farming project.
This isn’t the first major move that the Grammy-nominated singer has made.
In 2019, she sold her $1.8 million Los Angeles mansion and relocated to a rural property in Temecula, California to open a farm.
The farm eventually grew to have more than 100 animals and Kelis was able to launch her own brand of handcrafted organic products called Bounty and Full.
The company sells sauces, supplements, teas, and a line of natural hair and beauty products that the 46-year-old credits for her ageless appearance.
Kelis, who grew up in the Harlem area of New York City, started her career as a backup singer for the hip-hop group Gravediggaz.
She then started working with the musical duo The Neptunes, made up of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, and caught the attention of Virgin Records before landing her own record deal.
In 1999, she dropped her debut album Kaleidoscope, which went on to be certified gold and shot her to stardom.
Since then, she has released five more albums, dominated the charts with singles like Milkshake and Bossy, embarked on a series of world tours, and earned a slew of awards and accolades for her work.
She was previously married to rapper Nas from 2003 to 2010 and was later romantically linked to actor Bill Murray.
Kelis married her second husband, photographer Mike Mora, in 2010. They had two children together.
Tragically, Mora passed away in 2022 at age 37 following a battle with stomach cancer.
