Music Festival ends in disarray; competitors demand recount

Competitors from different Kenyan churches in Massachusetts and their supporters wait patiently as the adjudicators , Ben Ateku from Dallas, Texas ( left) and George Rachier from Dracut, MA add up the scores. Moments later, all the results were annulled causing a major heartache to the losing teams. pic by H.Maina/Ajabu

by Harrison Maina and John Gachuki , Ajabu News writers . Blog this article here
updated 08/07/2009

QUINCY, Mass, AUG 1__The second annual New England Kenyan churches music festival held in Quincy last Sunday ended in total confusion when disgruntled competitors challenged the results and demanded a recount. Others blasted the event as a purely tribal and divisive venture.

Overall winners’ cup defending champions, Saint Paul’s Community church from Lawrence were stripped of the cup they had just retained for the second year in a row minutes after they stormed the main stage to celebrate the win.

All Saints Quincy was consequently declared the new overall cup winners followed by Saint Stephens Episcopal church of Lynn, while Saint James African Community church of Attleboro was third.

Dubbed New England Kenyan Churches Music festival, the annual event was established with a goal of uniting the badly divided Kenyan churches in New England by bringing them together once a year to mix and compete freely in worship music.

Though started only last year, the event has become attractive to spectators as it generates fierce competition. Several spectators felt sorry for non participation of their churches for either lack of knowledge or were barred due to failure to meet registration deadline or requirements.

Rev. Joseph Ngotho of Lynn introduced the event by stressing that it was not just a competition but “praising God as we will in heaven”.

The set piece category competition opened the event with teams going at each other with a pre selected Kikuyu language translation of the worship song titled “How Great Thou Art (O Lord My God!)” by Stuart K. Hine.

Ululations, intense clapping, whistling, and screaming were all tactics used by supporters to build morale and buoy their teams to victory.

A soloist from Saint Stephens Kiswahili Service church in Lynn, leads his group during the just concluded music festival

Interestingly, kids keenly watched their parents hit the stage in African traditional attire and decorations totally unfamiliar to them. They were strategically positioned in the front rows to catch a good glimpse of the cultural worship performance.

Hawkeyed participants not willing to concede defeat challenged the accuracy and validity of Saint Paul’s victory.

It was the second time in as many years that competing teams from different churches voiced concern with the final tallies as scored by the adjudicators.

The first annual festival held at the saint Stephens Lynn last year riled some loosing teams that went home complaining of unfair scoring by the then adjudicator.

This year however, hawkeyed participants did some quick math soon after the awards that showed glaring discrepancies.

Led by David Ikanyi of St.Stephen’s church Lowell and Rev. Fredrick Thanji of All saint’s Community church, participants contended that there is no way a team could emerge as the winner out of six teams in the set piece category and the last in the traditional song category and yet emerges overall winners of the contest.

They therefore demanded an immediate recount as stunned adjudicators scrambled to revisit their notes.

Like in any adjudicators’ nightmare, the event’s Mcee, Rev. Paul mwaniki from Saint James African community church in Attleboro, tried to pacify openly disgruntled parishioners as he appealed for calm and promised a fairer outcome.

”The adjudicators missed something and now it’s going to change everything we announced,” said Rev. Paul Mwaniki prompting an uproar from the worshippers.

“Just ignore everything we said before and wait for the new winners,” he added as wide eyed participants and their supporters hanged on with abated breaths as others walked out in a peaceful protest.

Organizers had hired new, apparently qualified and experienced adjudicators, to score this year’s festival that was expected to be more competitive than the first annual event.

Ben Ateku, center, clarifies the new winners to the mcee, Rev. Paul Mwaniki , as George Rachier, the second adjudicator, looks on

They flew in Ben Ateku, from Dallas , TX, who was assisted by George Rachier from Dracut Mass.

According to reliable sources, Ateku is a former provincial director of music in Kenya and a former Massachusetts resident who relocated to Dallas in search of greener pastures while Rachier informed worshippers that he is from Kogelo but lives in Dracut.

Kogelo, a small rural village in Western Kenya shot to instant fame last year during the US presidential elections for being the rural home to President Barack Obama’s late father.

Efforts to establish the qualifications and experience of the second adjudicator did nor bear fruits as none of the organizers were sure.

As the adjudicators flipped through pages of their notes to reconcile their scores, Rev. Paul Mwaniki asked the overall cup defending Champions to return the trophy they had just received and nervously celebrated on the stage.
There was a several minutes hesitation before a very embarrassed member of Saint Paul’s church reluctantly dropped the trophy back on the adjudicators table like a hot potato.

Adjudicators had to borrow a calculator from the public as they frantically tried to add up the score; leaving members wondering how they had originally come up with the disputed figures.

After several minutes of consultations, a new round of winners was announced where All Saint’s Quincy emerged the overall winner.

All Saint’s Quincy also scooped the traditional song category, again followed by Lynn, while the dethroned champions, Saint Paul’s Lynn won the set piece song category, followed by hosts, All Saint’s Quincy. The new comers, Saint Stephen’s Lowell came third.

Ladies from All Saints Community church, Quincy, pose with one of the two main trophies their team scooped during the disputed music festival

The newly recalculated score helped some teams move a notch higher to the bewilderment of others.

This however did not bring solace to Saint Johns Worcester who were the expected favorites in the traditional song category but ended up tying the rear end in all three categories, clearly humbling the team into oblivion.

It was not a laughing matter as other teams still doubted the new results and claimed that the adjudicators did not know what they were doing.

“It was a nice event but I was very disappointed by the adjudicators,” said George Karanja from St. Paul’s Attleboro.

Trying to explain the fiasco to the participants, the main adjudicator, Ben Ateku said that they had miscalculated the results and apologized for the error.

The hiatus clearly caught the organizers by surprise including a visiting pastor from the ICC Church in Baltimore Maryland, Rev. John Karanja, Bishop Jeremiah Kibobi from Kenya and a first time attendee, and Rev. Samuel Kimohu of St. Stephens’s church in Lowell, Mass.

Rev. Njuguna Ngotho of Saint Stephens Episcopal church in Lynn , Rev. Peter Gachathi of St. Paul’s Lawrence who were part of the key organizing committee all sat speechless as some of the new winners announced declined to come for their certificates .

Visiting pastor, Rev. John Karanja, from the ICC church in Baltimore, MD, hands over a certificate to a representative from Saint John's Anglican church in Worcester

The Mcee Rev. Mwaniki hastly closed the meeting when it became clear that participants were no longer interested in going for the newly announced trophies. Rev. Kimohu then said the final prayer.

This unfortunate development threw the future of the event into life support as many participants decried the ineptitude of the organizers and the tribal feeling that the event projected.

“Why did they give a Kikuyu language set piece song for competition while in New England we have many churches that have many different other tribes represented?” asked a perplexed Sam Mwaura from Burlington.

“This locks out other Kenyans and cannot therefore be said to represent all Kenyan churches in New England. They should be more inclusive”, Mwaura added.

“How could the adjudicators who were not Kikuyus figure out what the Kikuyu soloists were saying in order to score the harmonization with the back up singers?” asked another Kenyan who did not want to be named.

“You can not cook a big meal and invite only your friends while still insisting it is for everybody,” said another Kenyan who asked for her name be excluded after receiving intimidating phone calls from some quaters who were not happy with the said comments. “They need to include other tribes and have English or Swahili set piece songs with traditional songs being open", the Kenyan added .

Reliable sources told ajabuAfrica.com that some participants have declared that they will not show up for next year’s competition.

Others downplayed the fiasco by stating that all the teams would not really have scooped the priced trophy. “There had to be winners and losers but clearly, worshippers need not to be taken through this again by ineptitude of adjudications after having played their part”

The main pioneer of the event, Rev. Mwaniki told AjabuAfrica.com that the organizing committee has already planned a meeting to review the problems that bedeviled the event and hopefully put some measures that will make future events better in nature.

Until then parishioners will remain divided in their opinions as they follow disunited church leaders with ideological differences which only helps at keeping the elusive unity at bay.


Harrison Maina, and John Gachuki of Gachuki Tax services, a professional tax consulting company, contributed to this article.

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More event photos coming soon!

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