Top universities in the country have registered outstanding performances at the Kenya National Music Festivals.
Kenyatta University, Mount Kenya University, the University of Nairobi, and Daystar University are among the higher learning institutions whose teams scooped top awards in various categories.
The 2025 Kenya Music Festival were held in Meru County, with the main venues being Meru School, Kaaga Girls High School, and Meru Teachers Training College. The theme for this year’s festival was “Enhancing the Creative Economy through Artistic Expression for Sustainable Development”.
Kenyatta University took home more than 30 wins at the just-concluded 97th edition of the Kenya Music Festival. With over 56 entries, the institution, a bedrock of creativity for years, established itself as the team to beat at the fete, which attracted 26 universities, up from eight last year.
For the last five years, KU has maintained its consistency in the music despite the stiff and growing competition.
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The MKU team had considerable prominence in instrumentation classes, both in African and Western instrumentation assemblies, winning the following categories: African wind instrument, African solo drum, African and Western instrumental ensemble, African string fiddle, and brass solo. In the verse category, the Verse group was the giant in its category, scoring eight wins and more than 10 podium finishes in other classes.
Other winning items included the university choir’s winning arrangement for boys and a sponsored song by ODPC on the safe use of data on online platforms.
The institution’s winning cultural dances were the Meru folk song and Meru cultural dances.
MKU’s choral verse at the event stirred public debate after confronting what it described as a “moral crisis” in schools and universities.
The performance blended poetry, rhythm and drama to warn of rising immorality, lesbianism and homosexuality among students, urging urgent action.
“It is time to expose the ills maovu tuyakemee, ishindwe, hayo ni mapepo. We should come out and say what is bedevilling our institutions so that we can get ourselves from this danger,” the group recited.
MKU Head of Sports, Film, and Creative Arts activities, Mr. William Luta, said that the University’s team had 17 wins, ranked runners-up in 10 categories, and took third place in eight competitions.
“I am proud of these young souls. What makes me happier is that as a university, we maximise and limit our performance only to current and active students, we train and groom the students to be performers, and when we see them perform well, the satisfaction is fulfilling,” Luta said.
The 12-day festival, which showcased the best in music, dance and elocution, attracted nearly 150,000 participants, with female learners dominating the event.
National chairperson Prof Frederick Ngala raised concern over the gender disparity, noting that female participants far outnumbered their male counterparts.
“We must make a concerted effort to help the boy child participate in the festival after we had over 95,000 females against 45,000 male participants recorded this year,” he said during the winners’ Gala at Meru School.
Higher Education Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala stated that the festival provides a platform for shaping national discourse.
“Art is more than entertainment, it is persuasion, expression and healing. Music and performance can tell the story of climate change in a way data alone cannot. They can speak against gender-based violence more powerfully than policy documents, and they can call us to unity when the nation is under strain,” noted Inyangala.
She encouraged young people to see creativity as a career path, noting that the government is committed to supporting learners “from the classroom to the stage and into the market.”
The winners will head to Kampala, Uganda, for the East Africa Music, Dance and Drama Festival, alongside winners from the Drama and Theatre Festival. The East African festival will run up to August 25.
By Kamau Njoroge
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