SPEECH BY THE KABARAK NIVERSITY CHANCELLOR, HIS EXCELENCY DANIEL TOROITICH ARAP MOI, THE SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA DURING THE OPENING OF THE SECOND KABARAK UNIVERSITY AND KAMAE CONFERENCE AND FESTIVAL ON 25TH OCTOBER, 2013

Abstract

The leadership of Kenya Association of Musical Arts Education Participants in the Kabarak University Music Festival Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon Throughout my life, I have always loved Christian music from early child hood. I began engaging in music activities, teaching Sunday school and later my fellow adult colleagues. I have also participated in music 2 festival including the famous KIMA music festival in western Kenya. As you are aware, God our creator loves music just like the Bible says, music will continue in heaven when all other things cease in this world. I urge mankind to learn to praise God through music. The Bible records that angels praise and worship God in music. 3 When Christ was born the angels sang praises to the son of God. It is therefore our duty to praise God always. To do that, proper identification and exploitation of talent must take place. This should be followed by adequate training of people in voice and instruments. History of music indicates that humans have used various instruments and voice to to make music. However it is regrettable that in some occasions people take music performance simply as a pass time activity. When that happens, the result is poor performance of music. Those 4 who do serious singing have made great impact on the life of others. Just like the early Christians did, sacred music have been used to preach the word of God. I urge Kenyans to take music seriously. Those involved in playing different instruments and singing should dedicate there productive time on this noble cause. This will result in increasing a culture of performance in Africa. It will help us to conserve our culture, while at the same time 5 enable us to borrow useful practices from the western world, which furthers our interest in music performance. Kenyans should not abandon their culture in favor of western culture. Our music is rich, our melodies are very good. I am happy to note that there is a move to create a theory of African music school upon which musical composition and arrangement shall be established. Both South Africa and West African music scholars have made great strides in this research. This too needs to be emulated by East Africa which is the cradle of mankind. I 6 am happy to note that several Kenyans are holding leading positions in major music bodies like the international society of music education. As the patron of Kenya association of musical arts education, I would like to urge the government to invest more resources in music education and research. Talents must be exploited during the early years of a child’s development. 7 I would like to further urge the government to reconsider her policy of excluding music from the block of examinable subjects. This is because many teachers do not concentrate on non-examinable subjects at the KCPE level. Because of that many students tend not to choose music at the secondary school level. This situation further affects choice of music related careers at the university level. I am informed that gains made in music development in past years have been lost due to curriculum changes 8 which do not favor music. Revision of curriculum should consider the central place occupied by music in our education, political, social, cultural and economical lives of Kenyans. The participants who have attended the first music conference here at Kabarak University have made Kenya proud. The associates have produced standard journal of music and will produce the second journal in the next few months. I urge Kenyans to join Kenya association of musical arts education so that we can together educate 9 Kenyans and enhance standards of musical performance in the country. This being an annual event, it is important that we continue with the culture of performance and music education activities and not wait until next year. I take this opportunity to thank all music scholars, researchers, and choir directors and all singers for coming to Kabarak to participate in this activity. Kabarak 10 University is considering to establish a school of music studies in the near future. Therefore with these remarks, ladies and gentlemen I declare the second Conference for Kenya Association of Musical Art Education and Festival Officially open. Thank you and God bless you