The Spelling Bee Championship, Our African Journey!

2016

Kenya was part of the organisations that founded The African Spelling Bee in 2016 together with Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The very first African Spelling Bee was held in the same year in Johannesburg, South Africa, bringing together 27 National Champions from each of the countries to participate.

Kenya tied in position two with Ethiopia in a very contested championship that saw South Africa clinch position one.

2017

After missing out on hosting the second African Spelling Bee Championship owing to the then general elections, Kenya took three of its best spellers to South Africa where they competed with over 30 African Champions and emerged number 3 overall.

2018

The Third African Spelling Bee Championship was held in Kenya on November 2018 at the Kaskazi Beach Hotel in Kwale County.

Spellers from 10 African Countries pit their spelling skills against each other to get the best spellers in Africa. Team Kenya emerged position 2 overall with Team Nigeria taking the lead and Team Rwanda emerging the 2nd Runner up.

The African Spelling Bee was started with a vision of celebrating the African Child, inspiring them to be literate and creating a platform for them to connect and build their confidence.

Why Spelling?

Learners need to interact with multiple ideas to acquire vocabulary to use in communicating their thoughts, feelings, attitude and values accurately. They will not only be able to spell correctly, but also give quality responses to issues in a manner that demonstrates critical reflection and self-efficacy.

Young people need to be able to read and write to a reasonable standard, and that usually involves having pretty decent spelling skills.

Bad spelling gives others a bad impression about you. No matter what you say, if the spelling is poor, the reader will notice this before anything else.

When learners struggle with their spelling, they write less because it takes them longer to express themselves on paper. They are not able to express themselves fully and this in turn affects the quality of their writing as well as their self-esteem.

The Spelling Bee TV Show!

This July, more than 140 learners from across the country are expected to battle it out in the biggest Spelling Bee TV show in the country! This will be the second season of the Show that will air from July through to November on KTN Home channel across the country. The first season of the Spelling Bee Show happened in April 2018 where a total of fifty learners from 25 primary schools across the country pitched their spelling skills and Sharon Namisi of Tender Care Junior Academy in Nairobi emerged the Champion after spelling the word ‘tumultuous’ (Meaning: making an uproar or loud, confused noise) correctly!

The Spelling Bee TV Show is a means to sensitize Kenyans on what the Spelling Bee phenomenon is all about and gives viewers a feel of what happens in the actual competition.

Every learner registered for the 2019 Kenya National Spelling Bee Championship stands a chance of representing their school at this year’s Spelling Bee Show.

The show is meant to enlighten the public on teaching our children that reading extensively from an early age is a good trait.

Golden Rewards!

This year’s National Champion will walk away with Half a Million Shillings (Ksh. 500,000) and a 26 seater School Bus for their school! Laptops and other great prizes for both learners and their teachers are also up for grabs! County Championship Prizes; direct tickets to participate in the Spelling Bee TV show, gift hampers, certificates and trophies.

All Spellers will receive certificates at all competition levels! To register, visit https://kenyaspellingbee.com/