Without a doubt Churchill – Daniel Ndambuki – is the godfather of Kenyan comedy industry and stretches his influences across Africa and the world at large. After a long break due to COVID 19 pandemic, Chacho Kidz Nation Festival was back at Uhuru Gardens for this round’s edition on 12th August 2023. It was evident that many parents were eagerly waiting for the return of the event as they flocked in at Uhuru Gardens with their children as early as 7 a.m.
Chacho Kidz Nation Festival is aimed at promoting learning, talent, entertainment and community engagement amongst children and parents. According to Churchill, the festival is not just an event but its a life time experience of fun and learning as it offers themed villages where children can engage with the real world in terms of technology and knowledge. The event also instills a sense of social responsibility in children as one of the long term aim is to transform these children by exposing them to different elements of the world.
In this year’s edition, different sponsors were on cite noticeably Safaricom, Pembe, Bristol Park Hospital, Terrian Chess Academy, CBN Kenya (Christian broadcasting network), Wimssy Yoghurt, Nt Heish Limited, Kapa Oil, Delmonte, Omins Restaurant, Kenchic, Little Cab, Kenya National Library, Good Testimony Group of School, Nala Instant Noodles, Well Kid, Manji, Green Africa, KWS, KEFRI just to mention a few. Each sponsor had a tent and well trained professionals to give the children who attended the festival and the parents too a fell of their goods and services. There were smiles all round a clear indication that whenever you visited a tent, definitely you were treated like a king or a queen.
Safaricom as one of the sponsors of the event came in very prepared with their iconic smart village. Under the village kids experienced different products from Safaricom ranging from education, savings, technology to entertainment. Education and technology experience was led by Eneza Education Initiative, CFSK Propelling Kenya in the Digital Age, Wee Center – Managing e-waste for a safe environment and Smart Brains Kenya. For entertainment Baze Radio led the way by giving children and parents an exclusive experience of being on radio and what happens in and around radio. Baze Video also gave the parents and children an experience of video content creation experience whereas Afri-gamer were on site to make sure whoever visited their booth was well taken care of in the world of games and gaming.
One of the highlights of Chacho Kidz Nation Festival was, is and will always be the presence of entertainment’s biggest stars who entertains and inspires the children. On this edition of the festival, the roaster was incredible, Dunco, Churchill himself, Weka Tick Entertainment, Eric Omondi, MCA Tricky, Bahati, FBI dancers, Burundi dancers, just to mention a few all grazed the stage and produced memorable performances. One of the biggest memory of the event was when the first daughter – Charlene Ruto – warmed the hearts of many by her appearance at the event. The president of Kenya’s daughter has been known for her outgoing and interactive nature and it was evident because as soon as she stepped on the stage, she went on to high fiving kids and danced to the melody of the playing song. Many were happy to see her as the crowd went loud in cheers for her.
As Churchill brings back the Chacho Kidz Nation Festival, Kenyan children and parents are eagerly anticipating for the next edition after the success of the 12th August 2023.