By Ogova Ondego
Published February 8, 2007

Kenya will host a music festival in February and August 2007 to fundraise and sensitise the public on conservation for good health and posterity. However, OGOVA ONDEGO writes, questions are raised over the definition of conservation by the organisers of the event.

Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess musical, Swan Lake & The Nutcracker ballet, choral music, and jazz are some of the genres of music the organisers promise to serve to the public at the fourth annual Kijani Kenya Music Festival that will bring together performers from South Africa, United Kingdom and Kenya.

While some festival events will run in February, others will be held in August with the objective of raising funds for HIV/ AIDS and conservation in Kenya.

“Porgy and Bess”, a story of threatened love between able-bodied Bess and crippled Porgy, will be performed by the Cape Town Opera on February 24 at the Arboretum in Nairobi and Hell’s Gate in Naivasha.

Marcus Desando, who plays ‘Sportin Life’ in the musical, gave a rendition of It Ain’t Necessarily So during the launch in Nairobi on November 24, 2006.

Also to be held at Arboretum will be a Jazz evening led by local artists performing timeless classics and contemporary solos. It will comprise instrumentalists Henry Saha, Otieno Wakake, Aaron Rimbui, Donald Otoyo, Isaac Mugunda, Mathew Shitakha,  Manaseh Uzele, Nimrod Hellon, Grant Chamberlain and Dixon Awour and vocalist Ian Mbugua,  Carole Atemi, June Gachui, Juliet Opondo and Chris Bitok.

Valerie Kimani, Tusker Project Fame winner and three finalists–Linda, Cedric and Alvan Gatitu–will make guest appearances and perform their top songs.

Guidhall Ensemble of the UK will also enact Proms in the Park, a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria.

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Come March 4, a Gospel Choir event led by the London Adventist Chorale (LAC) will be held at Nairobi Pentecostal Church in Lang’ata to mark the 50th Anniversary of the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) in Kenya.

LAC is expected to hold workshops in churches under the leadership of principal conductor Ken Burton, before the festival takes a break.

Kijani Kenya Music Festival will return four months later, in August, with a Ballet Spectacular by the Royal Ballet Company of the UK. Principal dancer Mara Geleazzi and her colleagues will perform The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

“These performances,” says Claire Low, the Kijani festival fundraising manager, “will take place on August 2 and 4 at the Nairobi Arboretum and at Fort Jesus in Mombasa.”

Set up in 2004 with the aim of bringing to Kenya internationally-acclaimed music and cultural events to raise awareness and funds to support conservation and HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Kijani Kenya Trust is a Kenya and UK-based non-profit organisation whose directors are Lis Woods (Chair), Miriam Haynes and Charles Njonjo.

The patron of the Kijani Kenya Music Festival is Kenya’s vice-president, Moody Awori.

Among the groups that have graced Kijani Kenya Music Festival since its inception in 2004 are Conjunto Sabroso Salsa band, the London Adventist Chorale, the Garden Opera Company, Elena Riu, Guarav Mazumdar, Japan’s top pianist Noriko Ogawa and Lucia Alverez Flamenco Group.

Kijani Kenya Trust directors say they have raised Sh13 million and entertained more than 10,000 people over the past three years.

But Kijani Kenya Music Festival is being dogged by controversy over its announcement that they plan to construct an auditorium in the Arboretum that marked its 100 years on January 28, 2007.

Saying that Safaricom Foundation had given them Sh35 million for the project, director Njonjo lamented in November that the chief forester had declined to approve the project though the ministry of lands has approved it.

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Vice-President Awori promised in November 2006 that the trust would get the approval but, speaking to ArtMatters.Info on January 29, 2007, fundraising manager Clair Low confirmed the approval is yet to be granted.

Many people interviewed over the planned construction are against it saying Kijani Kenya Trust appears to negate its own mission of conservation. They say one cannot conserve the environment by turning it into an artificial concrete jungle as Kijani plans to do.

One wonders what would happen if a person of the stature of the Nobel Prize Laureate and conservationist Wangari Maathai who in 1989 managed to prevent the regime of the then President Daniel arap Moi from constructing a skyscraper in Uhuru Park in Nairobi, were to rise up against Kijani Kenya Trust’s  designs on what is described as the “Prettiest place in Nairobi” and as “one of Nairobi’s few remaining green spaces with shaded walkways, picnic lawns and jogging trails”.

According to Friends of Nairobi Arboretum, FONA, this park near State House came into being in 1907 when the then assistant conservator of forests, Battiscombe, was allocated 65 acres of “a dry, stony, grass-covered slope with a few scattered flat-topped thorn trees.” It was here that fast-growing soft-wood exotic tree seeds “from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Mexico” were experimented on. However it was not till 1947 that Gardner, chief conservator of forests (1928-1947), turned this trial ground into an arboretum that stands in Nairobi today. It boasts an estimated 350 species of trees and 100 bird species.

Coming at a time when the international community has held two international conferences on climate change in Nairobi in November 2006 and February 2007 to curb global warming, perhaps more attention will be paid to the few remaining green places like the Arboretum. And the aptly named Kijani Music Festival may just do the trick, or won’t it?

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Below are excerpts from a verbatim interview with Kijani Kenya Trust’s fundraising manager, Clair Low:

Why is your trust called ‘Kijani’ (‘green’ in Kiswahili)?
Because it is meant to highlight the health and conservation aspects of the projects we support.

Why has the festival been split–February-March, and August–instead of
running as one complete festival as before?
We have previously packed too much entertainment into a short period, and spreading it means we give the public more opportunity to attend all activities; it also helps our sponsors to stagger their kind favours.

By serving opera, ballet and jazz that have no mass appeal in Kenya,
would you describe the Kijani Kenya Music Festival as exclusive high art?
Kijani’s aims are to bring professional and interesting arts to Kenya to appeal to all ages. Since its inception in 2004, the festival has raised Sh13 million for charitable projects and entertained over 10,000 people.  The London Adventist Chorale event is collaboration between choirs all over the country performing and learning new songs by the London Adventist Chorale.

How accessible is the festival in terms of location, time, and ticket
price?
Tickets range from Sh200 to Sh5,000; tickets are on sale at many locations all over Nairobi, Mombasa and Nanyuki and go on sale from February 5.  Tickets are also on sale on line at kijanikenyatrust.org

Some members of the public have raised concern since your announcement on November 22, 2006 that Kijani planned to build a permanent auditorium in Nairobi Arboretum. Is this concern well informed? How do you conserve the environment by turning one of the few green parks in Nairobi into concrete jungle?
We will be building a unique and multi-functional venue within Nairobi’s most beautiful spots, which so far isn’t used to its full potential. By so doing, we want to bring more people, who previously haven’t visited the site to enjoy its surroundings.  Fees generated from hire of the venue will go back into the conservation of the Arboretum.  The event site will cater for outdoor music festivals, school performances, weddings, memorials, gatherings, press meetings.  Safaricom Foundation have  pledged KSh33 million towards the construction of an amphitheatre at the Arboretum. It is our hope that once the amphitheatre is constructed, the funds collected from it will assist in the preservation of the Arboretum and expose cultural diversity to the people of Nairobi

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Is Kijani Trust using ‘conservation’ and ‘HIV/AIDS’ merely as buzz words to appeal to donors for funds?
Kijani has always supported meaningful and honest charities within these fields.

Why can’t Kijani Trust use available creative space–Kenya National
Theatre, Alliance Francaise, Goethe-Institut, The GoDown Arts
Centre–instead of seeking to develop its own?
All of the above venues offer indoor theatre space; we hope to create a space for multi-uses and encourage Kenyans back into the arboretum.

How does Kijani Trust select its beneficiaries?
Kijani’s board enlist advice from its committees all over the country to help identify
projects which are long-term, honest  and meaningful.

Does Kijani Kenya plan to host any easily-accessible, inclusive, popular
music–Afro-fusion, Benga, Urbanative-festival any time soon?
Kijani are aware of many other theatre and music groups who offer the above entertainment in Nairobi; we are filling a gap that isn’t as well covered.

A line is often drawn between critical and escapist art. In which category do we place Kijani Kenya Music Festival?
The story of Porgy & Bess is a very real life story and we are sure will appeal to a wide audience.

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Which black Kenyans sit on the board of Kijani Trust?
Hon Charles Njonjo is a director of Kijani Kenya and VP Moody Awori is the patron of the music festival.

Will there be any collaboration between local and international artists?
Kijani has a wide education programme:  we are bringing together 500 choristors to collaborate with the London Adventist Chorale for their concert at the Pentecostal Church. We are also planning to organise a visit for the principal dancer of the Royal Ballet to work with a ballet school in Mombasa whilst on their tour of Kenya.