Sakaja to launch Easter festival choir event amidst payment row

Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja has announced a choir festival through the Nairobi City Council powered by the Nairobi City Festival (NCF). The event is dubbed a 'Battle of the Choirs Easter Festival.'  Making the announcement on his social media, Sakaja made a call for participants willing to take place in the event. During the launch of his manifesto, Sakaja shared in the Sports and Talents docket, he would provide the youth with opportunities to improve their livelihoods. He said that he believed that revamping sports, creative arts, and talents would be able to provide an environment that nurtured, grew, and monetized youth’s talents. The first edition event run from December 12-17, 2022, which saw a couple of celebrities perform among them Arrow Bwoy, Jua Cali, King Kaka, H_eart The Band, host Shaffie Weru, and over 50 other Nairobi-based artists. Over 35 disc jockeys from Nairobi were also hired to perform on three main stages set up for the festival. However, early this month, Arrow Bwoy publicly reminded to pay the artists contracted to perform at his recently launched Nairobi Festival. According to the Raha hitmaker, his attempts to get his money proved futile as the company hired to contract him claimed they had not received payments from the Nairobi County government. "Dear our Governor Sakaja Johnson, mambo imechemka huku nje (things have reached a boiling point out here). Since we performed at the Nairobi Festival in December, we have not been paid. Personally, I was contracted by Homeboyz Agency. My team has tried a couple of times reaching out to Homeboyz about the payment, the response is that they have not also been paid by the county," he said. The late payment of monies to the artists joined the list of other debts the Nairobi County government continues to grapple with. Upon his ascension to the gubernatorial seat, Governor Sakaja inherited Sh 99.06 billion in pending bills from his predecessors, former governor Ann Kananu and the Nairobi Metropolitan Service. Also read: South African rapper Costa Titch dies after collapsing on stage EXCLUSIVE: Caroline Mutoko reveals admiration for Bahati, Kabi wa Jesus Football administrator Twaha Mbarak lauds new KPA boss William Ruto appointment