For two weeks, Bungoma became a meeting place for voices, movement and ideas.
From the opening performances at Kibabii University to the State Concert at State Lodge, the 98th Kenya National Music Festival brought together learners from across the country in a celebration of music, dance, spoken word and artistic expression. Behind the competition, however, was a broader story: young people using performance to engage with the issues, values and experiences that shape the country around them.
This year’s festival was held under the theme “Enhancing the Creative Economy through Knowledge, Skills and Artistic Production for Sustainable Development.” Within that national conversation, the Kenya Wildlife Service sponsored a choral verse class under the theme “Promoting Co-existence in Shared Space.”
The theme spoke directly to one of the defining realities of conservation in Kenya.
As human settlements expand and communities, wildlife and development increasingly occupy the same landscapes, conservation cannot be understood only through the protection of parks and reserves. It also depends on how people and wildlife share land, water and other natural resources.
That was the idea placed before young performers.
Through music and performance, learners were invited to interpret coexistence in their own voices and from their own understanding of the world around them. In doing so, a subject often discussed through policy, science and conservation programmes found expression on stage.
It was a natural fit for a festival whose strength lies in its ability to turn national themes into stories that young people can perform, discuss and carry beyond the competition.
For KWS, the sponsorship provided an opportunity to take the conversation on conservation into a space already shaped by learning and creativity. The aim was not simply to associate wildlife conservation with the festival, but to encourage a wider understanding of the relationship between people and nature.
That relationship is becoming increasingly important.
Across Kenya, communities and wildlife are sharing landscapes in ways that demand greater awareness, responsibility and cooperation. Human-wildlife conflict, pressure on natural resources and changing land-use patterns continue to test the balance between development and conservation. Building coexistence therefore requires more than intervention after conflict has occurred. It also calls for sustained public awareness and for conservation values to take root early.
The music festival offered one such platform.
Here, conservation was not presented as a lesson detached from everyday life. It became a subject for interpretation. Learners could engage with it through words, melody and performance, bringing their own experiences and perspectives into the conversation.
The result was a reminder that conservation education does not belong only in classrooms, parks or conservation forums. Culture, too, has a role to play.
Music has always been one of the ways communities preserve memory, communicate values and make sense of the world around them. At a national festival that brings together young people from different regions and backgrounds, that power takes on an added dimension. A theme introduced on stage can become a conversation among learners, teachers, families and communities long after the applause has faded.
As the festival reached its conclusion, Western Region emerged as the Best Region, receiving a trophy sponsored by KWS. The recognition marked the end of an intense period of competition, preparation and performance for the participating schools.
Yet the significance of KWS’s involvement extended beyond the presentation of an award.
It lay in the conservation message that had been woven into the festival through the sponsored category and in the opportunity to engage thousands of young people through a language they understand and a platform they already value.
The 98th Kenya National Music Festival has now drawn to a close, leaving behind the performances, friendships and memories that accompany every national gathering of this scale.
For KWS, its participation was also a reminder that the future of conservation will be shaped not only in protected areas, laboratories and boardrooms, but in the attitudes that society builds over time.
Sometimes those attitudes are formed in classrooms. Sometimes in communities.
And sometimes, they begin with a group of young voices standing on a stage, turning the challenge of sharing space into a song.