Khafi is a former housemate of the 2019 Pepper Dem edition of the Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) reality TV show. Her real name is Kafayat Kareem. In this article, you will read the full biography of Khafi including facts and details about her, before and after she competed in BBNaija.
Also, there are many other important facts about Khafi that are contained in this biography. We provide a summary of 10 of the most important facts about her in the next section to make.
10 important facts about Khafi
- Khafi was born in 1990 in Ekiti State, Nigeria, and her real name is Kafayat Kareem. She will turn
- She is from Ekiti State but was raised in London along with her three younger brothers.
- Khafi can speak five languages – English, Yoruba, French, Italian and the sign language.
- She joined the Metropolitan Police, UK, in 2015 as a police officer after working as a volunteer special constable for four years.
- As a UK police officer, she earns £30,000 every year.
- Khafi runs a YouTube Channel called Khafi Kareem and a travel vlog named A Cup Of Khafi.
- She was a housemate on the BBNaija Pepper Dem edition in 2019.
- Khafi was evicted from the BBNaija show after 77 days and she left with prizes including a car worth NGN3.8 million.
- In December 2019, Khafi accepted the proposal of fellow ex-housemate Gedoni and they became engaged.
- In June 2020, she lost her 20-year-old brother Alexander Kareem to gun violence in London, UK.
Also read: Natacha Akide (Symply Tacha) Biography: Early life, Instagram fame, BBNaija, Controversies, and more
Khafi Biography: Early life and education
Khafi was born as Kafayat Kareem in 1990 to Yoruba Nigerian parents and according to our investigation, she is from Ekiti State. While we do not have all the details, it seems that Khafi was raised in London, England.
Kafayat Kareem, popularly called Khafi, was the only girl in a family of four children, she had three brothers. They all grew up in their family residence in the city of London.
According to an article about her in The Guardian, Khafi has not seen her father in 17 years. Likely, this means that her parents broke up when she was around 12 years old. Thus, she and her brothers grew up with their mother.
Khafi schooled in London and may have had dreams of making films when she was younger as she said she hoped to use the BBNaija money to hire a film crew. But, when she completed her education and graduated, Khafi did not actually go into full-time professional film making.
While we do not have much information on her professional qualifications, there is no doubt that she is well educated. She attended drama school and also went to university. Additionally, she can speak five different languages including Italian and sign language.
In the next section, we provide details about her career with the information we gathered from different sources.
Khafi Biography: Career (Before BBNaija)
After she completed her education, Khafi started as a special constable in West London around 2011. As a special constable, Khafi was a sort of volunteer police officer. She wielded the same amount of power as regular police officers.
She said she had joined the police force to stop crime after her 16-year-old friend was stabbed to death.
Khafi worked about four hours or more every week supporting the police to fight crime in London communities. Several years after, she got a job as a full-time police officer with the Metropolitan Police, UK, in 2015.
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To join the Metropolitan Police, UK, as a full-time officer according to its official website, a person has to have a certificate from a higher education institute in the UK.
Besides, Khafi runs a YouTube channel that she uses to comment on social trends, give her opinion on books and films, and also to talk about herself and experiences as a police officer and a London resident. It also features travel vlog called #ACupOfKhafi.
She started the channel about 11 years ago. The channel has over 40K subscribers as of the time of writing. Khafi also made a cameo appearance in the 2017 Nollywood film, Lost in London, and she shares a scene where she acted with Alex Ekubo on Instagram.
Now, let us look at how Kafayat Kareem, or Khafi, became popular.
Khafi Biography: BBNaija Pepper Dem
Kafayat Kareem became popular after she participated in the fourth edition of the Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) as a housemate. The 2019 edition, tagged Pepper Dem, featured names that are now popular like Mercy Eke, Frodd, Mike, Omashola, Tacha, and many others.
Kareem used her moniker, Khafi, during her stay in the house. While she did not win the grand prize of NGN60 million, Khafi walked out of the show with some prizes. This includes an Innoson car that is worth NGN3.85 million, a cash prize of NGN916K, a Scanfrost TV worth NGN220K, and many more.
Read also: BBNaija’s Khafi receives her car prize, names it Lady Foxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7d1AqCJcDN/
Khafi stayed in the BBNaija house for 77 days and was the Head of House in the 9th week. During her stay, she and fellow housemate, Gedoni, developed a romantic relationship. Viewers and some housemates even believed that the duo had engaged in a sexual activity beneath the sheets in the show’s third week.
There is a video of Khafi denying having sex with Gedoni under the sheets in the BBNaija House.
Following the end of the 2019 BBNaija edition, many other things have been happening in Khafi’s life and we chronicle them next.
Khafi and Gedoni’s engagement
About five months after meeting Gedoni in the BBNaija Pepper Dem house in July 2019, Khafi announced on her Instagram page in December 2019 that they were both engaged.
“I said Yes”, Khafi wrote on her page. The relationship was evident in the BBNaija House but not many expected it to blossom outside of it. This was because fans had seen many relationships that started during the show that didn’t last beyond it.
However, Gedoni himself had said that he planned to continue the relationship with Khafi. “I see a future with Khafi outside the house. I don’t know how she feels but this is my thought. She is a keeper”, he told listeners at the end of the show.
Khafi also confirmed that they had continued the relationship in October 2019. During an interview in April 2020, Khafi said that she and Gedoni had planned to get married on the day of the engagement but had to postpone as their families requested.
Here is a video of the couple’s engagement:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRDI5svcY64[/embedyt]
Their engagement took many by surprise but it was an overwhelmingly pleasant kind of surprise and many of their fellow ex-housemates congratulated them.
Gedoni and Khafi have not announced a wedding date but the COVID-19 pandemic is likely impeding plans and it could be anytime soon.
Khafi Biography: Career (After BBNaija)
Filmmaking
Khafi had said that if she won the BBNaija Pepper Dem grand prize of NGN60 million, she would hire a film crew and host a travel show to display the beautiful tourist spots in Nigerian states. However, as we have seen, this dream did not materialise but she may have not given up on making this documentary.
She released a short film titled Torn in June 2020 on her YouTube. You can watch it below:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuUXIe-Knws[/embedyt]
A Cup of Khafi Mug
In February 2020, Khafi launched the Khafi shop, which she called A Cup of Khafi. The shop sells special mugs inscribed with motivational quotes. At the time, Khafi announced the mugs were available for pre-order.
https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/p/B8KNa8ipOfn/
Khafi Biography: Controversy
Khafi is a cool-headed person and has not been known to get into controversial circumstances frequently. However, when she appeared on the BBNaija Pepper Dem TV show, it raised dust between her and the London Metropolitan Police.
According to an article on The Sun, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards investigated her appearance on the show after she had been told not to go. Khafi was on unpaid leave at the time she went for the BBNaija contest.
The article quoted Khafi’s employers as follows: “The Met is aware that the officer has since appeared on the show without authority. The Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed and will be investigating the circumstances.
“The Met does not support the officer’s appearance nor does she represent the Met whilst appearing on the show. All officers have a duty to behave with professionalism and in a manner that does not bring the Met into disrepute whether on or off duty.
“Those who do not behave professionally risk breaching police standards of professional behaviour, and may be dealt with by way of misconduct proceedings.”
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One of her colleagues also said about Kahfi’s appearance on BBNaija, “She’s a serving British police officer — it’s outrageous. She asked permission to go on the show but, when her request was refused, she went anyway.
“Her out-of-office email reply blatantly says that she is away from work, yet no one does anything. Other officers working with her are furious that she can just disobey orders then swan off to Africa and tarnish the reputation of the force.”
We do not have any recent information about what later became of this controversy. Although there were rumours that Khafi might be sacked, she discredited these. In fact, her management had said that the Met Police did not even conduct an investigation.
In September 2019, Khafi said that they were waiting for her to return to work and there would be a discussion about the matter. Also, in November 2019, Khaffy revealed that she and her bosses have ‘talked’ and that she would soon resume work.
Khafi’s brother death
In June 2020, Khafi’s 20-year-old brother Alex Kareem was shot dead on his way home from a store in West London. He died within an hour from the wounds he sustained in his chest and abdomen.
The news broke Khafi’s heart and she posted about calling people to pray for her family as they go through a difficult time. She also thanked those who had shared their condolences.
Alexander Kareem’s death came at the time when protests about the killing of George Floyd were loudest. And many included Kareem’s name as they tweeted about #BlackLivesMatter.
There were calls for the murderers to be found but while the police revealed that they had begun investigating, the perpetrators are not behind bars yet.
Khafi Biography: Net worth
There is no accurate information on what the net worth of Khafi is but we found a blog that claims that she is worth about $100,000 (NGN38 million). We find this hard to believe because the blog mentioned does not cite any credible source for this information.
However, Khafi earns £30,000 annually as a police officer in London, UK. She is also a brand ambassador of Close Up and Natural Girl Wigs as well as the first Tourism Megacity in Africa.
Therefore, while we do not have accurate information on the net worth of Khafi, we think knowing about some of her sources of income will give readers a better perspective.
Final thoughts …
Kafayat Kareem, or Khafi as she is popularly called, is a hardworking woman who has shown time and again that she believes in working for results. In order to join the Police force in the UK, she worked for four years as a volunteer first.
Also, to make her a suitable candidate for several job roles in the future, Khafi learned Italian, French and sign language. Showing her understanding of the need to communicate with people in the language that they understand.
Her determination to go to the BBNaija show despite being blocked by her superiors also points at the fact that she does not let obstacles stand in her way.
We hope she heals fully from the ache of losing her younger brother. You can follow Khafi on her verified Instagram account @acupofkhafi to stay up-to-date.
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