Dennis Ombachi, also known as @theroamingchef in Kenya, was named the overall winner of TikTok’s inaugural Top Creator 2022 award ceremony on Saturday.
The awards were held at the Mövenpick Hotel and Residences Nairobi in Kenya, and the platform recognised and awarded Sub-Saharan African content creators for their talent and creativity.
“I already dedicated this award to my kids and partners but this is for Kenya,” Dennis Ombachi said in his acceptance speech.
The awards were decided by a highly competitive eight-day public voting process on the app in Southern, West, and East Africa.
The ceremony was attended by members of the media and fellow creators from Sub-Saharan Africa, and the award winners were presented with the Top Creator 2022 TikTok trophy.
According to Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok’s Sub-Saharan Africa head of content programming, the award ceremony is TikTok’s way of recognising storytellers, creativity, and the positive impact all creators bring to the TikTok community.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating our creators who have been a driving force behind some of the exciting trends for 2022. With these inaugural awards, TikTok aims to give creators in Sub-Saharan Africa the recognition they deserve and to encourage them to tell the African story while spreading joy at all times,” Boniswa said.
@charityekezie from Nigeria was the overall runner-up in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The winners of the Top Creator Awards for West, Southern, and East Africa were Nigeria’s @e4ma, South Africa’s @Pilot onthegram, and Kenya’s @natasha gwal.
Dennis Ombachi is a well-known ‘chef’ and rugby player who rose to prominence through his food-related videos, which were featured by First We Feast, a well-known American online media outlet.
Ombachi, a self-taught chef, has developed “next level kind of recipes,” to which well-known TikTokers have reacted in line with his catchphrase “done”.
