Story

Every year in all universities around the country, there are all manner of parties as the finalists celebrate the completions of their studies and gear up for the nest phase in life. The completion of 8-4-4 definitely feels nice for everyone. At Maseno University, the CU always has the ultimate Christian party for the fourth years. It’s a party that takes enough months to prepare but it always goes beyond the concerts and dinners. The Elders committee is usually constituted at the end of 3rd year and usually has a president and his team who are mandated with organizing all the activities of the elders’ teams whose first job is to get a unique name to identify them. There usually is a sub-committee that helps in the finer details of the events to be undertaken by elders. Over the years the event has grown in leaps and bounds to make great achievements. The main reason most of these groups have done well is because of unity among the elders class at that particular period and also the individual talents among the members of the class. Most of the events usually follow a particular pattern. You plan a concert; you spend a considerable amount of time raising money for the same. The concert is held on a Friday, do a charity event (mostly a visit to a children’s home) then have an African Sunday to complete the party.

On the 16/03/2012, the current elder’s class held their event. I will bring you more about it but let’s first take a walk down memory lane and pick out some outstanding events and achievements by previous groups.

Class of 2003: ROYALS
This was one group made up of crazy people. I still remember the elders’ main dance “the song victory- Yolanda Adams”. They looked to be the smallest group so far because I noticed the same guys doing the so many things on stage. I remember the Jaz dance of the night was some serious Hip Hop with acrobatics from a chic called Lilian and of course the usual suspects then. The president at the time was Titus Uswii (I hope I got that name right). Holygan boys did the first Hip hop dance and rap during a church service. The song “After the music Stops” by Lecrae and others. Their praise & worship team was really good especially during the African Sunday service. Highlight of the Event: The crazy dance on Sunday. It looked like these guys met; decide on the song, and then everyone showed up with their own costume. Because apart from the song, everything else was different, some came with walking sticks, cowboy hats and all manner of stuff. But I agree it was fun to watch.

Class of 2004: EAGLES AFLAME
Eagles Aflame had the best logo ever. Their tshirts were really awesome and they seemed to have a sense of togetherness. The President then was David Mwaura whose speech lasted a whole 2 minutes or less and at the end he shouted “let’s get ready to party” or something like that. Their elder’s weekend happened at a time when there were so many talented people in campus. I remember they did an amazing worship dance to a song by “the Katinas”.

They also had an amazing praise and worship session on both the Friday and Sunday events. The Holygan dance teams also had an amazing Hip Hop routine from the boys. Here is a sample of the action:

Holygan Dance

Highlight of the Event: I think this goes without saying, Holygan dance “Never Alone By Barlow Girl”. That was the first time I saw a dance that had so much passion. For the first time, a dance team picked a relatively unknown song and by the time the dance was over, almost everyone knew it. Like somebody commented, they danced like it was the last time they were doing. Check out the recording of this dance to judge for yourself.

Holygan "Never Alone" Dance

Class of 2005: TRANSFORMAS
This is perhaps the team that had the most gifted individuals among the groups before and maybe after it. The likes of Jason Ochola – still pursuing music even today, Carlisto - who won the rap contest while in second year, Holygan- who were arguably the best dance team with their acrobatic hip hop dance, James & James- the two guys who did some awesome poems and many others. The president was John Mwangi ( see his interview with kifalme: John Mwangi: The ABOM President ) and he did a good job of bringing together all the groups. They did their charity visit to Kibos maximum prison, donated books and also did some serious dances then. I still remember the song “Kivevelo by Mbuvi” which made prisoners forget the ills of prison to shake a leg. The same group also held a fundraising that raised almost Ksh 200,000 for the Christian Union projects. This was also the first group to get sponsorship for their concert. Hope fm sponsored the event and brought enough artists for the night. They had Mbuvi, Mercy wairegi, Niko and Hope fm Presenters Antony Ndiema who was also a MC and Andrew Alovi, who is also a Maseno University Alumni. They also had enough talented dancers to do the choreography so you can bet things were really good. This was also the first group to do each course with IT so they used it to their advantage, launching a website and continuing with meeting even long after school. Much as they had the talent, their praise and worship team wasn’t up to scratch. But the concert was perhaps one of the best ever held in Maseno. Its was also the longest concert that went to almost 2am with performances throughout the entire time.

Highlight of the Event: this event had many highlights, but the one that stood out was the dance to the song “Randa Randa - Daddy Owen”. Holygan Hip Hop team also did a great dance with painted faces and also the Crunk dance by the elders team was also great, Dancing to the song “Give me that – Ambassador”, unfortunately I can’t find any video online for this event. Somebody needs to produce them ASAP

Class of 2006: INXUSA
A group with one of the craziest presidents ever, following in the footprints of their predecessors, they did most of their stuff early and also went on a charity visit to Kibos prison. Their weekend event was one of the shortest I ever attended with an even smaller guest list than their previous groups. One of the things they really got right was their praise and worship. I remember the rock song “One way-Hillsong” was really well and the dances were on point. The guest performers for the night were Rosy Ohon, Carlisto, Jason Ochola and the Holygan Boys dance team who had cleared the previous year.

Highlight of the event: The performance of the song “One way-Hillsong” by the praise and worship team and the entire praise and worship session..ooh and the President’s speech. The holygan boys also did a great job with their hip hop dance, check out the performance:

Holygan Boyz Dance

Class of 2007: WATEULE
Between these guys and the Transformas is where the best of elders happened. But while the Transformas couldn’t quite get the praise and worship well, these guys just killed it. While the Transformas had really outstanding individual talents, Wateule had a whole crew of talented people. From instrumentalist, Mcs, actors, singers and all, this was one a complete group. They also had some outside support during their event and managed to be the first group to bring a live band Adawnage to their event. They also had the first spoken word artist “Number8” at the event in addition to the energetic Mbuvi and the gifted Mercy wairegi. Their event run really well and the Mcs for the night “Kevin & Dennis Mathews” were just the best. From praise and worship to dance and most other things they did, they were on point. The other groups in campus also had some nice presentations but the worship dance “It all belong to you- Damita Haddon” was a master piece. The praise and worship team did very well on the song “Mighty to save- Hillsong” and “Ombi-Mavuno worship team”.

Wateule Team

Highlights of the event: this had to be Adawnage they came prepared and delivered. Even very late in the night, the crowd still insisted they had to do the song Safari. Of course Number 8 did really well. Mbuvi was full of energy even though the lights were flickering during his performance. But the worship dance stood still takes the crown. Class of 2008: LIGHTHOUSE The lighthouse group held the most recent event. They are the people currently in 4th year. They were perhaps the first group to have an event run on time- yeah this is a rare occurrence. Lighthouse also had pretty talented individuals especially the instrumentalists. They also did their praise and worship well and the song “I give myself away- William McDowell” was really well done.

The event started with the presidents speech followed by the Elders choir. The dances were interesting to say the least though generally I have to say have seen better performances at that level. The song “you are my father” was well done, complete with props. The Jaz dancers seem to have grown with time, their dance to the song “I surrender- Beckah shae” was really good, perhaps the best dance of the night. Dr. Oyaro did a great job, yep, even the pastor of the night agreed. Carlisto was on point, backed by a live band and some serious energy. Next up was Bupeh who moved the crowd with his testimony before doing the song “Without you” which I believe is one of the most raw and passionate hip hop songs around. Most of the artist for the night gave a good account of themselves.

Highlights of the event: this goes to the pastor of the night, Pastor Rhymes was just the man of the night. I don’t remember the last time a sermon was the highlight of an event but on this one, it was. Still hoping to get a clip of the sermon. He started by performing two songs before the sermon. my best line was “Jesus gave us the authority to cast out demons, but we have to be wary of fellow men. The best part of the sermon was his relevant application of the bible in our day to day lives that made listening to him such a delight. Very few people can keep a crowd engaged throughout a sermon but this guy managed to do so quite easily. All in all, this was a great event and there seemed to be a lot of growth in the current group.

I know I haven’t captured most of the happenings around this event because some of them happened as far as 2006 but atleast we can go back memory lane and try to add more of the stuff that happened. We would also like to welcome people from other universities to share related stories. This was a start but for all people involved in between the years. Kindly share your experience and also tag as many people that you were with during the time. If possible, start by saying the group you represent e.g transformas, inxusa etc. Be blessed

Article by David Munyao, a Maseno University Alumni with an Acturial Science degree to his name and works with TrustMark Insurance