Teachers showcase talent at Thogoto

By George Orido

The annual Thogoto Teachers College Drama Festivals featured plays, verses, dances and narratives with one message – young people must take charge of their health and face the society with integrity and positive thinking.

In one of the plays, the church is depicted at crossroads and involved in activities contrary to its own teachings.

In this scandalous story, a man who has decided to open a Church as a shortcut to quick riches goes as afar as seeking the intervention of the underworld to help with attracting the flock.

In return, he pays the witchdoctor half of the tithe and at instance he attempts to rape a young female member of his congregation.

An alarm is raised and the rogue pastor faces justice and his escapades in the underworld unfold before the congregation in utter disbelief.

In a day full of action, the cultural dances were a spectacle to watch providing maximum entertainment and education to the audience.

The trainee teachers impressed with their message where a young handsome male teacher loses is guard and gets into intimate with female students.

Sexual infections

Not only does he make unwitting and competing girls fight it off with each other, one of the girls becomes pregnant while the other loses interest in her studies after spending most of the time trying to treat a recurring sexually transmitted infection.

The former is expelled from school as the said teacher tries to compromise the parents with small bribes, while the latter is later diagnosed for HIV infection. This was telling because in real life there has been a rise in teacher-pupil sexual affairs in the country with a number of parents being compromised to encourage the culture of silence.

Life skills for young people were also explored during the festivals through rap presentations.

"... lazima ujihadhari na anasa za dunia, kutuia ndio kuangukia," went one of the verses presented by Ernest Musyoka.

This category unique for this festival, drew wild cheers from the youthful audience who had packed the 800-capacity auditorium.

"We thought of introducing this category because the students will engage in a lot of rapping during their own rehearsals," explained Charity Muraguri the drama patron in the college and a veteran in dance training.

There was an impressive display of individual talents as well. Jacinta Wachanga and Phanria Otieno won the Best Performing Artistes after appearing in almost all their class’s entries and did well.

Best act

"They made us see the true spirit of a committed artiste because they not only appeared so many times the duo excelled in every minute of their appearance on stage," observed Munene wa Mumbi and Anne Matemo who were adjudicating.

Carolyne Kiplang’at won the Most Promising Artiste with he exemplary commitment to dance, acting and verse presentation.

Emmanuel Osore and Jacinta Wachanga were the Best Male and Female Soloists respectively.

While Eric Ocholla and Doris Nyambura were declared the Best Actor and Actress respectively.

Overall, Cass D won the best class getting a cash award of Sh5,000 that was contributed by PostBank through their Marketing representative.

The Best Dance also left with a cash token of Sh3,500 while a top positions received Sh500 each.

The Assistant Minister for heritage and Culture Hon Wilfred Ombui, joined in offering accolades to the students in their creative endeavour.

The College Senior Principal Mrs Maryclaire Indire said the institution recognizes the need for a holistic growth of the teachers and that’s why the day was crucial in their calendar.