The evolution of music in Kenya is a rich and vibrant story that spans several decades. Indeed, traditional Kenyan music is deeply rooted in the diverse indigenous cultures of the country. Each ...

I used to treat Kenyan music the way youtreat that one WhatsApp group that only sends “good morning” messages withglittering roses. Muted, mildly embarrassed and occasionally checked out ofguilt. For ...

Choral music – patriotic choral music in particular – is a significant genre in Kenya’s political history. Patriotic music is defined by how it engages citizen to praise and express sentiments of ...

A section of Kenyan musicians say they are not getting enough support from their fans, in terms of streaming and buying music. Some fans opine, however, that a lot of Kenyan musicians don’t churn out ...

Since independence, Kenyan musicians have developed unique ways of performing and writing music. It was in the mid-20th century that the genres of Benga, Bango, and Taarab were created by local ...

On a Tuesday night in May, I braved Nairobi’s grinding traffic to make my way downtown to a venue called the Igiza Lounge. Perched on the second-floor balcony of the stone-clad Kenya National Theater, ...

On 31 May, 2018, a group of relatively young Kenyan boys dropped a peculiar-sounding song on YouTube, and with it, a new genre of music was birthed. The song was titled ‘Lamba Lolo,’ and those boys – ...

In 1950, Hugh Tracey, a British-born ethnomusicologist, travelled to Kapkatet, Kenya, to record the native songs of the Kipsigis, a pastoral tribe based in the western highlands of the Rift Valley.