At the age of around twelve years old, movies and music started impacting his life and imaginations in many profound ways. Bella recalls the 80s break-dance era as very amusing. Mr. Akanda (his standard 5 teacher) would come to class dressed like the early Lionel Richie - He was so cool back then and every student wanted to be like him. He formed a break-dance group which consisted of five boys. Bella was one of those boys. Mr. Akanda would organize contests and shows for his boys and they would constantly win many fierce break-dance battles. Bella was known as BB (Bella the Breaker).
The dawn of the 90s took Bella from Muthaiga Primary School to Ruiru High School. Surprisingly, both schools did not have Art and Drawing subjects. But Bella always found a way to draw. More exercise books were turned into comic books when he was not studying.
On September 1st 1990 while a form two student, he created a cartoon character that would later change his life forever. Deriving the cartoon's name from his two names "Bella Kilonzo", Bella created Belzo. Belzo has gone through many changes to get to the look he has today. Bella admits that Belzo is his best character because he is very close to his heart.
After four years in high school, Bella joined Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts (BIFA) in 1993 - thanks to his comic arts collection which convinced the lecturers of the Institute to admit him.
He took up a diploma course for two years through which he studied Graphic Design, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture and Art History.
Right: Bella before joining Ruiru High School as a form one student in 1989. The school was bought by Kenyatta University and no longer exists as an high school. Left: One of the very first looks of Belzo. He was created on September 1st, 1990.
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In 1994, he joined Jacaranda Designs, a Graphic Design company as an internship student. Coincidentally, Jacaranda Designs was about to launch the first children newspaper in Kenya with the Nation Media Group.
Around a week later the Young Nation was published as a monthly newspaper with the Sunday Nation. It received an overwhelming positive respond that it quickly jumped from a monthly edition to a weekly edition. Part of that success was attributed to Belzo comic strips which instantly gained fans beyond Kenya. Readers from as far as Uganda, Tanzania and yes, Ethiopia grew fond of Belzo comic strips and it showed in many letters Young Nation was getting.
Later, Young Nation readers were invited to participate in a writing competition - and winners were rewarded with Belzo T-shirts.
His sudden jump into the Fine Art world, would later broaden his understanding of the elements that make great artworks, this automatically influenced how he drew his cartoons and how he imagined them.
