Mwafaka goofs that threatened to spoil the party

The Mwafaka awards saw Willy Paul crowned Male Artiste of the Year while Gloria Muliro emerged the finest female artiste, amidst cheers and jubilations from the audience.

But even as the event came to a grand finale, the eventual winners made the event feel like a re-run of last year’s Groove Awards where the duo was still crowned crème-de-la-crème. While this outcome may be a reflection of the actual situation in the local gospel world, one is bound to wonder whether or not the gospel industry has grown since last year, and if so are the changes reflected on the awards, more so, is the difference between these two awards Groove and Mwafaka the same?

A quick look at the Mwafaka held last Sunday reveals that most celebrities nominated are almost the same lot that got nominated for the Groove awards that happened a few months back, with some winners being the same in both awards and in similar categories. Having started out with hype four years ago, the Mwafaka has tried to grow in leaps and bounds and come off the Groove Awards shadow, but is it ready for the shift in roles?

BANNERS AND POSTER SAGA With banners and posters all over town passing word about the awards, the local gospel fans and high school leavers who are now on holiday were elated to finally get the chance to attend and watch their favourite artistes perform live. Some local blogs spread word round and even offered platforms for fans to buy tickets but come the awards day, some youths were still hovering around the venue trying to get tickets.

And despite the many banners spreading the word in town, word is that the Mwafaka awards management forfeited their contract and failed to pay up for these banners designed by On Time Garage.

NAME AND SHAMING TUSSLES

Unable to find an amicable way to solve this alleged payment issue, the On Time garage CEO Daniel Heho called media houses to name and shame Dydiero, the Mwafaka CEO for breaching his part of the contract. “I’d like to bring to your attention the breach of contract by Dydiero who hasn’t paid for branding services offered to him by my company,” Daniel reported.

Promptly we sought for word from Dydiero who dismissed the claims saying: “Daniel was in no position to go around bad-mouthing me. As a matter of fact, the deal should have remained as private as it was made,” he said.

BRANDING GOOF

True to Dydiero’s word, Daniel was a partner in the Mwafaka committee but he chose to pull out in the last minute after their disagreement. Consequently his company’s branding was among the sponsors logo on the red carpet banner despite having warned Mwafaka from using it.

SITTING ARRANGEMENT MIX UP

Away from partnership politics and the Mwafaka’s sitting arrangement was a little messed up with no clear distinction between the VIP space and the common audience sitting arrangement. Despite guest’s cards reading VIP, some top guests were forced to wait embarrassingly for sitting space to be made because even the audience had made its way to the reserved seats. Perhaps better security should have been ensured then top gospel artistes and other invited guest didn’t have to hassle for sitting space.

SOUND AND PERFORMANCES

And while the MC Dr Ofweneke did a great job at keeping the masses entertained, the sound during the performances was a tad too overwhelming and not quite live up to par with the audience expectations.

SOCIAL PAGES UNTOLD BEEF

Even as the countdown to Mwafaka Awards 2014 drew, it emerged that the Mwafaka social media pages were not at par with the developments. While most events normally employ a well-structured social media team to hype the event, the Mwafaka page was rather blank and attempts to log on to the page feed brought this discontenting message up: “@mwafakaawardz’s Tweets are protected! Only confirmed followers have access to @mwafakaawardz’s Tweets and complete profile.”

Begging the question, why would Mwafaka protect their tweets and not even mention the awards and winners as they were being awarded? Anyone who missed the event could have followed the proceeding online but there was nothing substantial on those online pages.