As the provincial musical festivals are underway in Bungoma south district parents have been urged to acknowledge and support their children’s talents by encouraging them to participate in various school activities.

Speaking to the press the Friends school Kamusinga music Patron Mr. Simon Ndege who is also the secretary of the committee organizing the music festivals in the region said that some parents forbid their kids from participating in extra curricular activities arguing that the reason why students are in school is to learn.

He argued that many of the famous musicians also started their careers in primary and secondary schools quoting Webuye Jua Kali musians as one of the many musicians who have gone very far with their careers after beginning as early as primary school.

“Many of the famous musicians begun their career very early in life through school choirs etc yet they have now polished up their careers through practice and perseverance and a lot of encouragement from their families” he said.   

Mr. Ndege said that such social gatherings bring together teachers from different backgrounds therefore encouraging a cohesive relationship. He added that one of the many advantages of such events is creating national unity whereby students compete using songs from different cultures and tribes which encourages them to learn and appreciating other cultures and tribes thus the unity.

“Students competing in the musical festivals sing songs from different tribes and cultural backgrounds which enable them to learn that certain tribe or culture and in turn appreciate the song and it’s meaning thus encouraging unity as they are able to understand and relate with people from different cultural backgrounds,” he said.

He added that through such activities students are able to acquire social skills and learn a lot from their fellow students saying that they can also be able to establish their future careers through such activities as they are able to determine their passion in life instead of going through their education without a direction or interest.

Mr. Ndege confirmed that the event has brought together more than 8oo students from different schools from the seven counties in the province i.e. Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia, and Kakamega adding that although most schools are represented some schools especially from Teso are not well represented in the festivals.

‘‘We have over 800 students from different schools in the province and all the counties in the region are here although some schools from Busia County are not very well represented in the music festivals but we are coming up with policies to make sure that there is equal representation of all schools in these festivities,’’ he said.

He noted that some of the challenges they face as a committee are lack of funds, not enough cooperation from teachers and parents but added that they have put some measures in place to facilitate the smooth running of such events.

Students from various schools also expresses their expectations saying that they had practiced enough and they were therefore hopeful that they will be able to represent the province at the national level.

Caleb Mayeku a form four student at friends school Kamusinga expressed high hopes of getting to the national level. He said that their band had practiced well and they were expecting to reach nationals as they had done last year.

“We have the French set piece, the technical set piece, the band, Zilizopendwa among other items and we are hopeful that we will reach the national since our band reached nationals last year therefore this year we have higher hopes since we had enough practice,” he said.

Cardinal Otunga girls expressed their delight in hosting the show this year and expressed their expectations of reaching the national level with their items.

On security matters in the school the center organizer Mr. Ibrahim Murunga who is also a teacher at Cardinal Otunga girls said that they have beefed up security following the many threats the country has been facing.

“We talked to the DC who sent us police officers, Administration police and we also have our security men who have been patrolling the grounds day and night,” adding that they gave the security officer orders not to allow in strange people but to make sure that all visitor are well scrutinized before being allowed in.

Mr. Murunga expressed his thanks to the organizing committee for selecting their school to host the event saying that everything was running smoothly and the students are very well behaved.