By Meshack Ngangi
The 2024 Kenya Universities Performing Arts Association (KUPAA) drama, radio/film, beauty pageant, and visual arts festivals represented the 6th edition since the inception of the competitions in 2019. These annual festivals are organized at two levels: regional and national, where champions of different regional competitions convene for artistry duel. Inaugurated under the theme “Embracing Performing Arts for Social Behaviour Change,” this year’s festivals presented a finesse of creativity, innovation, and artistry, blending homogeneously into cutting-throat competitive performances.
Organized in eight (8) regions countrywide, including Nyanza, Metropolitan Nairobi, Rift-Valley, Western, Coast, Nort East, Eastern, and Central. Coming from the Nairobi Metropolitan Region, The Co-operative University of Kenya’s Metropolitans Drama Club presented ten (10) diverse-genre items at the regional level, which included praise poetry, narrative, spoken word, street dance, choral verse, legislative play, solo verse, and one-man play.
Out of the ten (10) items performed by the CUK Metropolitans Drama team at the Nairobi Metropolitan regional festivals held at the Multimedia University, seven (7) advanced to the nationals either as winners, first runners-up, or second runners-up. Winning first place at the Nairobi Metropolitan regional level were “Conjestina Achieng” praise poetry genre, “Still Bado Hamuoni” spoken word, and Euphoric Fusion street dance. The first (1st) runners-up items at the regional duel were the “Kibuyu cha Maisha” narrative and “Kovu” one-man play. At the second (2nd) runners-up were the “Mwendo Kasi” choral verse and “Kosa Muhimu” legislative play.
The Nairobi Metropolitan region winning spoken word that secured the coveted first place, “Still Bado Hamuoni” by Oliver Khisa, was an artistically curated piece bearing an embodiment of the vision for a better future, a desire for an informed society, and the drive to sensitize the public on the need to elect leaders who can serve the interests, aspirations, and the dire needs of the electorate. This performance by Oliver, who is our 2nd-year student in the School of Business and Economics (SBE) pursuing a Bachelor of Human Resource Management, underscores the bold spirit of our motto, Empowering Communities, which recognizes that good leadership is the springboard that relaunches socio-economic empowerment.
The praise poetry guru, Lucas Kalonzo, swept the floor to victory at the Nairobi Metro region. Our second-year Diploma in Environmental Science student at the Institute of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (I-TVET) presented the victory-conquering praise poem “Conjestina Achieng,” which exuded the heroic, unbreakable, and triumphant spirit of the Midweight Boxing Champion Conjestina Achieng. The poem glittered at the KUPAA National Festivals held at Egerton University in Njoro, Nakuru County, winning in the praise poems category, which had over ten entries from all eight regions. Additionally, “Conjestina Achieng” was adjudicated as the best-composed praise poem, the best-performed praise poem, the most educative praise poem, and the most creative praise poem. Vanessa Handas, Miss CUK 2024/2025, won Miss Creativity Universities 2024/2025 during the beauty pageantry competitions at the National KUPAA Festivals.
The electrifying and breathtaking street dance “Euphoric Fusion,” scripted and directed by Felix Ogola, alias Mtetezi, was performed by our very own TrendMovers Dance Crew, award-winning a trophy at the 6th KUPAA Nairobi Metropolitan Drama, Radio/Film, Beauty Pageant, and Visual Arts Festival. Another captivating category presented at both regional and national 6th KUPAA Festivals was a one-man play by Ian Bright, our 2nd-year student pursuing a BSc. in Data Science. The play was a creatively and perfectly scripted piece infusing tenets of edu-entertainment and exposing the political rot characterized by gagging and interference with the freedom of expression in campus politics.
The “Mwendo Kasi” choral poetry show depicted holistic learner development, which is at the epicenter of our training and academic instruction. The innovativeness exhibited in the performance amplified how The Co-operative University harnesses students’ creativity, talent, and innate abilities in endeavors to outlive our vision of being a University of excellence in education, research, innovation, and cooperative training. Another item stepping the national stage at Egerton University was the “Kibuyu cha Maisha” narrative by Sharon Murugi na Ruth Henry, our second-year Bachelor of Accounting students, outrightly brought out educative elements against unworthy traditional perspectives bedeviling the society.
