Kisumu City to host Kenya Schools and Colleges Festival

“After seven years the festival is coming back to the lakeside city, the home of many talents including Lupita Nyong’o,” said Benson Abwao, the festival’s Executive Secretary.

The festival will be hosted by Kisumu Boys High, Kisumu Girls High, Lake Primary School and the Aga Khan Hall. The festival’s theme will be ‘Promoting National Values and Ideals.’ The Government plans to introduce this theme in the school curriculum to instill patriotism and as a way of countering radicalization among young people.

Charles Mwaniki, assistant director at the Directorate of National vales and Cohesion in the Interior Ministry, told The Standard: "If that young man who scored straight As in his law school has a sense of national values, he would respect the sanctity of life and would not have done what he did with his colleagues to students at Garissa University."

Professor Emily Akuno from the Technical University of Kenya emphasised the need for teachers to select music that is suitable for children. "Is it culturally relevant for performers to present knowledge that is commensurate with the performer's experiential age?" she asked, before promising that her university would work with the festival to start a new journal to document and spread knowledge from the many musicologists at the workshop.

Festival chairman Peter Wanjohi confirmed: "Prof Akuno has agreed to put together a journal that will preserve the rich music knowledge shared at the workshop and elsewhere."