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Makueni County Shines in the KMCF

Makueni County has made impressive performance at the Kenya Music and Cultural Festival (KMCF) held in Kitui County from 1st to 7th December 2022.
The County government presented five teams at the festival: Makueni County Choir; Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) Makueni Campus; St. Jude Catholic Church Choir, Kwa Kotoe; Kee Botanical Garden and Akim Nginda Kithanse, the Crown Prince of the Angulya people.
The Makueni County Choir emerged position one in the following classes: Class 434 Own choice of a sacred accredited piece – ‘ Lift up your heads o-ye gates’; Class 435 Mixed voices adaptation and arrangement of African melodies – ‘ Ndivukye Mutivuko’; and Class 436 African American Spirituals – ‘Ain’t That Good News’. The choir garnered position two in Class 432B Mixed voices set piece for County choirs.
Making their debut in the festival, the KMTC Makueni Campus emerged position one in Class 913Z Dramatized contemporary dance, position two in Class 707Z Akamba Folksong and position three in Class 701Z Luhya Folksong.
St. Jude Catholic Church Choir, Kwa Kotoe emerged position five in Class 511 Mixed voices set piece for church choirs.
Kee Botanical Garden garnered position one in Class 1402 for its well curated exhibition of live traditional medicinal plants and products.
Akim Nginda Kithanse, the Crown Prince of the Angulya people, emerged position one in Class 1305C Folklore (storytelling of traditional stories) in English or Kiswahili and Class 1303D Dramatized monologue. He also garnered position three in Class 1007 Public speaking on climate change, position five in Class 1008 Spoken Word and position eight in Class 1305B Narrative (storytelling in contemporary style) in vernacular.
Out of its excellent performance, the Makueni County Choir has been selected to perform in the gala-the winners concert.
With 14 entries in the festival, Makueni County has won over four trophies, seven certificates for entries that emerged position one, two certificates for entries that emerged position two and two certificates for entries that emerged position three.
A delegation led by the CEC for Trade, Marketing, Industry, Culture and Tourism, Peter Mumo Nyamai, met with the Executive Committee of the KMCF and expressed the interest of Makueni County in hosting the festival in 2023.
Hon. Elizabeth Mutindi Kiio, the Chairperson of the Makueni County Assembly Committee in charge of Culture, has accompanied and cheered the county teams throughout the festival.

Makueni county choir shines at peers’ major music jamboree

The Makueni county choir was crowned  overall winners in the 92nd edition of the Kenya Music and Cultural Festival held in Meru after making its first appearance at the national level.

The county choir, which had registered  in two categories for presentation took the lead with the song “Ain’t That Good News,” of class 435 Negro Spiritual category, beating other several county choirs competing in the class.

According to the gender, children, culture and social services executive member Dr Godfrey Makau who had accompanied the team during the festivals, it was a big surprise for the choir to emerge winners owing to the fact that it had just made its first entry for the competitions.

“Amazingly, the choir appeared for the first time at the national level during the 2018 Music and cultural festival and emerged overall winners. It was a big surprise to all of us!” Dr Makau exclaimed.

However, the win didn’t come easy, according to Pius Mutinda who is the vice- secretary, Eastern Regional Music Festival and one of the choir trainers, adding that the members sacrificed their time to perfect the items for the competition.

He said: “The group, as young as it is, was able to register a superb performance. However, they sacrificed their time to polish and compete favorably, which they did.”

The 92nd edition of the national festival, which ran from November 23 to 29, attracted over 30,000 participants from across the country.

The group, established in July this year has 42 members comprising of county staff and members of the public drawn from various wards across the county.

The county director alcoholic drinks control, Joseph Katumo who is also the second trainer said that the team was formed to among others nurture talents in arts, sensitize the public about the government programs, create awareness on social issues within and without the county and promote national and county cohesion through diverse cultural practices, sentiments which were echoed by Dr Makau.

The choir has since received several invitations to perform in various events, and was applauded by the Country First Lady Margaret Kenyatta for its awesome presentation when she graced the official commissioning of the county Mother and Child Hospital in Wote.

The county government is set to officially commission the choir during the county prayer and thanksgiving ceremony to be held on 31st this month, an event which will be graced by governor Kivutha Kibwana.

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