Early last month, the Kenyan organizers of Nyege Nyege, a renowned arts and music event with Ugandan roots, took to Twitter to disassociate themselves from their Kampala counterparts.
The remark ignited a protracted internet argument between Kenyans and Ugandans on the legitimacy of the festival's name and the validity of the Kenyan celebration.
The head of public relations for the Kenyan Nyege Nyege Festival, Mariita Mairura, informed the media that the competition is still going on and that, despite earlier misunderstandings, the Kenyan team is separate from the Ugandan squad.
“After we made our earlier statement, there was a lot of confusion regarding the event’s name. We wish to state that we are still on and that we reached an agreement with the Ugandan team who gave us their blessings and have allowed us to go ahead with our version, ” he said.
According to Mariita, who also noted the names' similarity, the team chose the name "Nyege Nyege" in the spirit of the East African continent's unification of nations. In contrast to the Ugandan version, Mariita said, the Kenyan version would avoid unwelcome attention, raunchiness, and out-of-control immorality. “Our theme is – music and mental wellness. We want to incorporate art, East African culture and cuisine and fuse it with mental wellness. We’ve also introduced East African fashion and wish to use the event to showcase the better side of each of our countries and show young people that they can have fun without excessive drinking and sexual debauchery, ” he said.
The organizers also took the time to clarify that, despite the fact that the word "Nyege Nyege" may be associated with bad things in some areas of Uganda, they were primarily using the festival's brand name to retain an East African ambiance rather than drawing attendees by capitalizing on the moniker's current popularity.
The festival, which will take place at Naivasha's expansive Savannah Park Grounds from September 1 through 3, will feature electrifying performances by some of the biggest musical groups in the area.
“We have Kenyan superstars as well as big names from Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania,” Mariita said.
Teams from South Sudan and Uganda also briefly showed up, seemingly to lend legitimacy to the occasion and to boost support.
“As the South Sudanese, we’re excited to be part of the Kenyan team behind Nyege Nyege and wish to state that we’re fully behind the people behind it and can’t wait to bring all our people and communities together,” Bhakita Deng said.
