One of the choirs who sang at the Bomas of Kenya on August 15—Safari Voices International—praised God for resolving the pandemonium that had threatened to prevent the release of the presidential results.
The choir seized the spotlight throughout the event while ornamented with the Kenyan flag and dressed all in black.
As the nation waited for IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati to announce the presidential results, they were forced to switch up their performance as anarchy broke out, with participants from both sides of the political spectrum spreading havoc.
While performing with other bands, Safari Voices continued to sing patriotic hymns and songs to keep the crowd quiet until order was restored.
The band, led by director and lead singer Kenneth Indiazi, explains to Citizen Digital what got them through the chaotic situation and how they came to be playing in the first place.
Indiazi emphasizes in the opening that they are both a choral group and a band. He continues by stating that he is the boss of a 2008-founded organization of 22 people.
“We come from different backgrounds, we have teachers, civil servants, company directors ranging from young to old members,” he says amid a subtle smile.
Indiazi goes into further depth about that particular day as the nation anticipated the declaration of President Kenyatta’s successor.
The announcement was intended to be made at 3 p.m., but due to the unprecedented turmoil, it happened around 6 p.m. He asserts that they were paid by the IEBC to play at the auditorium and that they were scheduled to do so from 10 a.m. until Mr. Chebukati stood at the lectern to make the announcement.
Indiazi asserts that despite the disturbance, they were forced to sing and that the music served as “medicine” to lower tensions.
“On that day we were supposed to work from 10 until the time the chairman of IEBC comes to announce the results. But because we were there serving our nation we could not stop singing. Singing there was like medicine for the tempers that were going around there,” he said.
“We had to continue singing because we saw whatever was taking place there, the tempers had gone up, and its only music that can bring those tempers down and so we had to sing and we thank God because he used us to bring the emotions down.”
He continued by saying that their main objective was to maintain using patriotic music to preach the message of peace.
“And through our song which was speaking about peace, we kept on reminding those fighting that we need peace and not the throwing of chairs that was there. Elections come and go but Kenya will remain,” he added.
Indiazi claimed that if it hadn’t been for them, things would have gone much worse, in response to those who chastised them for their actions, claiming that they made the wait more agonizing.
“I assure you Kenyans appreciated what we did. If we were not there things would have been different,” he said confidently.
As a result of their admirable poise, Indiazi claims they have received numerous phone calls, some congratulating them on their outstanding work and others booking them to perform at at events.
“We are actually overwhelmed with phone calls, fist of all thanking us for what we did and secondly we have already been booked for functions. It gave us a marketing platform,” he said.
“Guys have also been calling us from Canada, America just thanking us and we perform in Weddings, funerals, gigs and anybody can invite us.”
