Despite earning a gross monthly salary of Sh739,600, singer Crystal Asige says she lives a modest and frugal lifestyle, with her monthly bills averaging Sh50,000.
Asige, who shot to fame in 2019 as one of the first signees of Sauti Sol, the Sol Generation record label, is currently a nominated senator.
And despite earning what many would consider a decent income, the chanteuse says she lives a very modest lifestyle that most of her colleagues in the Senate see as below her stature and status.
“When I first came to the Senate, I was still driving my little KBS Toyota IST, it was too small and my fellow senators said, ‘Asige, you have to upgrade. I am living way, way, way below my means. I think my monthly sort of expenditure including rent is about Sh50,000 and that’s when I have everything I need,” Asige reveals.
The singer says her spending habits were greatly affected when she lost her eyesight to glaucoma at the age of 15.
“My perception definitely changed when I lost my sight. I think it was part of the lesson I was supposed to learn from losing my sight. What do I focus on? What really matters in my life. Are material things more important than learning character or improving your personality, your emotional being and things like that? So I have certainly lost my appetite for physical things. At the moment I hate shopping, it’s one of the things that gives me a migraine when I have to do it. I save a lot more; I spend a lot less. I don’t have children either, so that’s another factor. Whenever I get a pay cheque from a gig or something, I just say 80 per cent goes into savings and I wouldn’t blink an eye because I live simply and I still live simply (even after becoming a senator). And I think it is absolutely related to my eyes because a lot of people who have eyes are tempted, they feel envy through their eyes and with my eyes gone, that cuts half my stress into wanting material things,” she adds.
Asige says she would still like to drive her tiny Toyota to work, but her colleagues won’t let her.
“If I could still drive my Toyota IST, which I still have, I would. When my colleagues said I had to upgrade, I asked them, ‘But why? Is it to make you feel awkward, weird and uncomfortable, or is it to make me feel cool in this car? It’s you and your perception that is distorting what you think an MP should look like, drive in, live in or travel in”.
