KWALE county’s Ngombeni Secondary School student Idd Juma yesterday earned a standing ovation from President Uhuru Kenyatta after presenting a Kiswahili solo verse.
Juma’s piece condemned the ICC for making it hard for Uhuru and Deputy President William Ruto to rule the country through summoning them.
He was escorted to the dias by the Kenya Music Festival chair Peter Wanjohi, who was ordered by Uhuru to pull him from the crowd.
Juma had sat after his performance.
The following performance stopped for a moment as Uhuru whispered to the boy.
Juma’s performance was the fifth on stage after the first performance from Gilgil nursery children, who had a signing game western style, followed by Westgate Shield Primary School, presenting a choral verse.
The third and fourth were Joy Town special schools and Mt Carmel Convent School which had singing games, African style, and oriental dance respectively.
Uhuru was expected to watch about 28 presentations.
The KMF executive secretary Benson Abwao on Thursday said they were preparing the list from the gala performances that were going on at the Aga Khan Academy.
He said the items increased from 24 as earlier communicated to 28 following regional balancing.
“We are currently looking for a team from the Samburu community after it was discovered that no team from the area is in Mombasa. It seems all the teams have left and we have no option now.” he said.
The selection of teams to perform before the President is usually dogged by political overtones as organisers are pushed to have all the regions represented.
“The teams to perform at State House normally come from a merit list. The best-of-the-best list of items comes from the gala session that has the best performing teams during the competition stage, Abwao said.
Uhuru was expected to watch best performance picked from different genres, among them folk songs, African and Western singing games, Zilizopendwa, choral verses and solo performances.
By the time of going to press, performances were going on at State House, Mombasa.
– the-star.co.ke
