I cleaned toilets to earn school fees- NTV’s Crysto Panda breaks down live on TV

Media personality Crysto Panda emotionally broke down on live television on Monday morning while detailing his journey to becoming an award-winning television presenter. Panda, who was appearing on NTV’s “Mwasuze Mutya” morning show says he was raised by a single mother with nothing but love. “My mother was my everything. She left me with my grandmother in the village and came to Kampala in search for a better life for us. I wanted to go to school but there was no school fees,” he says.

He also adds that while in Masaka, he used to walk a distance like from Kyengera to the city center to and from school and there is no job he didn’t do; from cleaning school toilets as his school fees contribution to later becoming a mason at construction sites, fetching water for people in the village and other odd jobs.

While in A’level, he figured out he loves to entertain, went to be a part of the live audience of NBS TV’s Youth Voice where he realised he is better than the host, Humphrey Nabimanya. “I discovered I was better than Humphrey, only thing he had on me was good English and I knew I had to practice harder. I begged the show’s producers for a chance but nobody did let me try,” he recounted.

Panda also says it took him three years walking in and out of NTV offices to get the job that he spent another one year on probation before getting a contract. “I think they were testing my patience because so many young people would have given up.”