Why some schools may fail to go to Meru for music fete
By Douglas Dindi and George Orido, August 4, 2025Several primary and secondary schools from the Western region could fail to travel to Meru for the schools and colleges’ national music concert due to lack of funds.
The festival kicks off today.
Western region Director of Education Julius Obiero handed a shocker to head teachers of primary and secondary schools that qualified for the national competition, asking them to finance their trip.
This is despite the education office receiving millions of shillings in indirect and direct contributions, from student capitation and parents, to cater for co-curricular activities.
Now, the school heads are questioning how the cash was spent.
Provided transport
“This amounts to discrimination of music as a discipline within the co-curricular activity. The RDE office provided transport for all other sports teams heading for national competitions, why not this one,” an affected principal lamented.
“The RDE’s office receives Ksh120 for co-curricular activities from every secondary school student in Western, remitted through head teachers, in addition to the indirect deduction from government capitation. Is he saying music is not a co-curricular activity?” another principal posed.
The People Daily has also reliably established that every primary and Junior secondary school learner in the region is charged Ksh100 annually for curricular activities.
Head teachers collect the funds and remit them to the education office.
On Thursday, July 31, 2025, Western region music committee secretary Lazarus Fundia’s post on the principals of secondary schools’ WhatsApp wall that schools organise their travel to Meru as the office was financially handicapped, caught them by surprise.
This stirred a flurry of fund collection where schools expected to travel have asked parents to contribute to the trip.
Reached for comment, Fundia said music activity is run by the ministry, adding he is only a messenger.
“I’m not qualified to speak about that. Issues of money and travel facilitation are handled by RDE, who is my boss,” Fundia said.
The fortnight-long music competition is being hosted at Kaaga Girls and Meru Technical.
Meanwhile, the Kenya Music and Cultural Festival will climax in the city of Champions of Eldoret, in November.
According to National Chairman Patrick Ngere, this year’s festival will see more teams performing with high-stakes trophies in the offing.
This festival goes beyond music and poetry, venturing into culinary arts, fashion, as well as visual arts.
“As a festival, we promise artistes a greater event and well-coordinated programme to allow for the very best expression of talent,” said Mr Ngere after the planning workshop at Mount Kenya University’s main campus in Thika.
Creative economy
According to Mr Ngere, the festival is keen to realise one of the government’s pillars in the Bottom Up Transformation Agenda, especially the creative economy.
During the preparatory workshop on the Syllabus, Prof Rose Ongati of Maseno University noted that the festival is a custodian of tradition and cultural expressions not just for today but for posterity.
The Director of Culture, Dr Langat, has urged teams from all corners of the country to enrol and actively participate at the county and regional levels so as to strengthen the quality of items being selected for the national stage.
This year will be the 98th fete, making it the oldest cultural festival in Kenya’s history.
The festival is being led by a new Executive Committee led by Mr Ngere, with Mr Callistus Juma as the Secretary General and Lilian Madigo as the National Treasurer.