Page 58 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 27 Final
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               not visited Nigeria”. Cabinet    at Kenyatta University.         They were also to perform

               minutes quote Mboya saying.                                      the   songs    to   Kenyatta
               “This I believe gave rise        Also in the team was Nat        at his Gatundu home on
               to considerable criticism        Kofsky, a director East Africa   September 4, 1963. Some

               in Nigeria and we should         conservatoire  of Music,  Mr    other two people had been
               certainly avoid a similar        Peter Kibukosya, a music        commissioned to do two
               occurrence in Kenya.”            teacher at Eregi teachers       separate   anthems.    These
                                                College who had graduated       were Peter Colmore and Mr
               Mboya had sat with his friend,   from Mills College and          Gerishon    Manane. After

               Graham Hyslop, who was           Queens University, Belfast.     all the three presentations,
               Inspector of Music, and they     Another was Dr Washington       Kenyatta turned to the Cabinet
               picked a small team to come      Omondi, a music graduate        to pick one tune. They picked

               up with a national anthem.       from Edinburg University        the Commission’s tune and
               Interestingly, Mr. Hyslop was    and an expert.                  Kenya got a new National
               never told about the white                                       Anthem.
               fears. But in the Cabinet, It    With the tune accepted,
               was no coincidence that the      Kenyatta was not happy          The  final  version  of  the

               tune  picked  for  the  national   with  the  second  verse  and   anthem was recorded in
               anthem originated from a         asked the Commission to         Kiswahili and English on
               Pokomo lullaby.                  revise it and add a stanza on   September 25 and 26, 1963.

                                                devotion and readiness to       The Kiswahili version was
               The     Mboya      committee     defend Kenya. This was due      sung by the Railway Training
               for the national anthem          to the emerging secessionist    School    Choir    conducted
               included Thomas  Kalume,         demands from the Northern       by    Senoga-Zake,      while
               a music teacher at St Pauls      Frontier District. It was       combined choirs of *the

               Theological    College    (he    also suggested that more        Alliance High School, the
               later became an MP) and          drumming be added to make       Alliance Girls’ High School*
               is credited as the man who       it sound African.               and the choir of the All Saints

               floated  the  idea  that  first                                  Cathedral Nairobi, conducted
               stanza of the national anthem    The commission retreated to     by Hyslop, sang the English
               start with “Oh God of all        St Paul’s Theological College   version.
               Creations…”. The other was       where Thomas Kalume was a
               a Ugandan resident in Kenya,     lecturer and it is here where   On the night of December 12,

               Dr George Zenoga Zake,           the final anthem was crafted.   1963, only  this group knew
               first  East  African  to  enroll   Hyslop’s All Saints Cathedral   about the anthem. Everyone
               for the prestigious Licentiate   choir was picked to record      else was in the dark.

               of Royal Schools of Music        the English version while
               (LRSM) in 1956. He later         Railway Training school did
               became a professor of music      the Kiswahili version.



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