:: UNICEF unveils new peace song
30 Jun 2008

The month June 2008 has been really cold and this was its last day. I headed to the Palacina on Dennis Pritt Road to enjoy Kenya’s newest musical entry in the peace category. The Palacina if you have never been there before is not actually a restaurant name. The place is actually called the moonflower a Chinese restaurant and the Palacina are rather large apartments or something of the like. The venue has been dubbed Palacina because it is the more memorable name. And the huge sign with Palacina at the junction to exit off Dennis Pritt Road seems to be the main brand.

I checked in with Grace and Fatuma and we started having a look around. There were petals lining the floor of the venue, large blue UNICEF signs and people milling around the place. I headed straight to the bar (being me) and checked out what was on offer. There were several juices on offer there and what interested me the most was the guava. I asked the bar man what on earth this guava was as I recalled yoghurt from Brookside of the same flavour and thumbed my nose at it during AIESEC dinner the other day. I was sceptical seeing as the name Guava reminds me of that island with all the bird droppings. It turns out that guava is a name I am rather familiar with. Guava ni mapera tu. Ha! Yaani here I was just wondering what on earth this strange fruit is and it turns out to be the humble mapera. I immediately ordered a glass and headed into the crowd to mingle. I ran into a former schoolmate of mine. He works at Cinematic that Bob Nyanja company. He introduced me to some of his colleagues. We are talking about the nascent film industry and their role in it. Eventually Bob Nyanja shows up and I say hi. Also ran into Pau the Innovert himself with a lass from True love called Rehema Kahunga, Karunga, Karungana… OK let’s just say a lass from True Love with long Rwandese sounding surname called Rehema. And off course there were a few other people in there like our friends from the Daily Metro Wangechi and Anto. And off course Tim Kamuzu Banda straight in from Norway. Also noticed a few of the guys I see on the TV with all the music; Mr. Lenny, Clemo, Ousmane, Nazizi, Pam Waithaka, Sharama, Jua Cali and more. They were many of these guys in the house. And as we are talking about musicians there was that lovely Moipei quartet that sings so beautifully.

The ceremony was started by a rather interesting emcee (Emma?) who asked one person after the other to come on stage and do their presentation. The first was Nazizi and a dude with a guitar and they sung a couple of chilled mellow tunes. It was quickly followed by a lass called Sarah Mitaru. Before she sang her song she had to first give us a lecture on how the song came about before she sung it. She should just have sung the song without that lecture why lie as it was pretty self explanatory why lie. It was a song about losing one’s mama. Sob. Then came speeches from Dr. Olivia Yambi a UNICEF Kenya rep, Roselyne Mutemi and Calif Records mdosi Clemo. The programme promised speeches by Jua Cali and a few other musicians. So when Jua came on stage how do you think he started? Any guesses? Here we go… “Niaje wasee…” whoever failed this question should throw a Britney Spears at themselves on Facebook. There was a surprise performance by those Moipei girls and we were just blown away by their skill. And then after that Dr. Yambi came back and sang. “Koko kolola, mama kolola kolola…” She was singing just after those angelic singers so lets just say that it did not work but we all dutifully sang along and clapped when she was done. I was telling Clemo to sign the Moipei quartet and the dula tells me he already has a single with them and I nearly have a heart attack. I asked on of the girls if it was true and they say no. Silly me.

We did get to listen to the track. It has a nice right to it and I will probably take some time to warm to it. Don’t blame me already. I still have to get used to this new “smash hit” from Usher “Love in this club” so please bear with me.

>> Related Links
:: Jua Cali on wikipedia and myspace

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