Musician and cultural maverick Muthoni Drummer Queen has been selected as a TED Fellow, joining a class of 20 change-makers from around the world to deliver a talk on the TED stage this April in Vancouver.

Muthoni was selected for her work in developing the cultural landscape in East Africa through her barrier-breaking, genre bending music, as well as her game-changing music festivals Blankets & Wine and Africa Nouveau.

"I am very excited to be selected as a TED fellow, and to join a global community of thought leaders and doers. After 10 years in music and culture, and based on research and data, it is clear that the creative sector is a legitimate manufacturing industry in Kenya, and indeed Africa. Being on the global TED platform will help me amplify this position, as well as the political undertones to creators, investors, industry players, leadership the general population of Kenya, and Africa at large." said Muthoni

"My work is really about freedom, which is a deeply spiritual and political idea. By exercising my freedom to think and create for myself without too much concern for industry “norms” or “ideals” I intend to inspire my idols, peers and fans to exercise their freedom to pursue their own ideals and create their own norms. We are all fundamentally powerful, creative beings, and I desire for humanity to experience this." she added

“We are thrilled to announce the newest class of TED Fellows, who give voice to some of the most exciting ideas we’ve seen in the program’s 10-year history,” said TED

Fellows director Shoham Arad. “This year's class includes a police captain designing systems to support women in policing, a space environmentalist building technology to monitor space debris, and an artist exploring the ethical implications of emerging technology"

"The Fellows program is committed to using its resources and platform to help scale Fellows' ideas and impact, and we are so excited to have these Fellows become an integral part of our global community.” added Arad

Founded in 2009, the TED Fellows program has 472 Fellows from 96 countries, whose talks have been viewed more than 250 million times overall.

In its ten-year history, the TED Fellows program has created a powerful, far-reaching network made up of scientists, doctors, activists, artists, entrepreneurs, inventors, journalists and beyond.

As a TED Fellow, Muthoni Drummer Queen joins a community that includes Perry Chen, the artist who co-founded Kickstarter, Amanda Nguyen, the activist whose organization RISE helped write the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights, which passed unanimously through US Congress and Essam Daod, the psychiatrist who founded Humanity Crew to provide psychological aid to refugees.

The TED Fellows has also yielded a wide variety of collaborative projects, including PEEK, the social enterprise that recently raised a $1 billion fund to eradicate preventable blindness in the developing world; BRCK, the technology company that builds mobile WiFi routers that can work anywhere, even in the harshest conditions and Fine Acts, the international collective bringing together artists and activists to instigate social change.

Applications for the 2020 TED Fellows class will be open later this year. Interested applicants should visit the TED Fellows program website for information and updates about the fellowship:  http://www.ted.com/participate/ted-fellows-program/apply-to-be-a-ted-fellow.

Top of this morning, Manolo dropped his much anticipated second single titled 'Mwingine'.This release, a certifiable hit song, is a follow up to his 2018 well received debut single 'One by One'  

In this song, Manolo has effortlessly delivered a feel good song while still maintaining his signature rap and melodic skills. The track is Produced by the masterful Magic Mike with the video directed by KG Brian. The Mwingine video will have you forgetting the hassles of this life.

Through 'Mwingine' ,Manolo, who just turned 24 today, reminds the world of the importance of having a higher source of power that gives one the right gears to maneuver though this life.

Legendary musician Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi has died.

He has died on the same date his close friend and jazz great Hugh Masekela passed on a year ago(2018).

It is reported that he passed on today aged 66 at the Intensive Care Unit at the Avenues Clinic in Harare.

Former Mombasa County Executive in charge of Agriculture Anthony Njaramba is the new Managing Director of the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company.

Njaramba takes over from Francis Kombe who is the Chief Officer and has also been acting as the MD.

Njaramba served as the County Tourism CECM from 2013 to 2014 before being transferred to the Agriculture docket where he served until 2017.

He was also the acting Lands CECM between 2015 and 2017.

One of Kenya’s top entertainment publicist and TV presenter AGNES NONSIZI has been nominated in this year's Zuri Awards under the media category. 

Nonsizi has had a successful year (2018) running music PR campaigns for a host of Kenyan artistes and events including King Kaka’s Eastlando Royalty, The Nairobi Film Festival, The Tinga Tinga Musical, Atemi’s song Romantic just to mention a few.

The highlight of her year was being invited to attend and participate in the top African Music Award Ceremony – the 2018 Afrima Awards that took place in Accra, Ghana.

Her nomination was announced last Friday 19th January 2019 via Go Gaga Experiential’s twitter account. Click here to view the tweethttps://twitter.com/gogaga_ke/status/1086601412396662784

Zuri Awards is a Kenyan award that seeks to recognize and celebrate remarkable women who have left or are still leaving a mark in the society. This is the third year Zuri Awards are running after Go Gaga Experiential conceived the idea to honor unsung Kenyan heroines.

Read more about the award here http://zuriawards.gogagaexp.com/about-zuri-award/  

Zuri Awards celebrate outstanding women in line with the International Women’s Day theme. Nonsizi earned a spot on the nominees list for her exemplary work under her PR firm Terazo New Media and her continued efforts to set the standard for innovation and creativity in the African entertainment industry.

There will be a series of awareness activities that will be carried out culminating to the 4th edition of the Zuri Awards Gala Dinner on the 7th March 2019.

A section of Kenyan musicians have come out to reject a move by the Kenya Copyright's Board (KECOBO) to award the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) a joint license to collect royalties on their behalf.

Addressing the media in Nairobi, the artists said they have sorted answers from Sports, Art and Culture Cabinet Secretary  Rashid Mohammed Echesa on how the KECOBO CEO managed to 'unconstitutionally' issue the license letter on a Sunday yet we they had sought to solve the problems in royalty collection and were in the process of awaiting the Echesa's guidance.

The artists led by Nonini and  Rufftone noted “The CS informed us that Kecobo CEO went against his directive not to issue any communication on licenses or the licenses before outstanding conditions that denied MCSK a license were resolved and all stakeholders are on one page with a lasting solution to the problems that have existed in the whole business of royalty collection,” .

Here is the full statement from the artists.

PRESS STATEMENT

RE: Kenyan Musicians reject letter from KECOBO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MR SIGEI decision to award collective management organizations (CMO) Licenses to MCSK PRISK AND KAMP to collect royalties on their behalf. #kecoboIMPUNITY

We musicians would like to strongly reject the actions of one Mr Edward Sigei the CEO of KECOBO’s decision to award MCSK, KAMP & PRISK a joint license to collect royalties from users on our behalf. We have sought answers from Sports Arts and Culture Cabinet Secretary Rashid Mohammed Echesa on how the KECOBO CEO managed to unconstitutionally issue the license letter on a Sunday yet we had sought to solve the problems in royalty collection and we were in the process of awaiting the CS guidance.

The CS informed us that KECOBO CEO went against his directive not to issue any communication on licenses or the licenses before outstanding conditions that denied MCSK a license in 2017 were resolved and all stakeholders are on one page with a lasting solution to the problems that have existed in the whole business of royalty collection. Its good to take note that, Mcsk was deregistered in 2017 because they collected money and did not pay artists.

In 2017 and 2018 they continued to collect illegally and not paying artists, further the court found them guilty and ordered kecobo to take action. Instead if kecobo taking action, they have gone ahead to license the same organization which has not paid any artist in years. Immediately after the board deferred the decision to issue a license, the board term ended on 31st October 2018. Kecobo does not have a new board which would have considered the issuing of a license.

It would appear that Mr. Sigei is acting on his own since kecobo has no board members. This is against the law.

Also The board of kecobo made a decision to defer the issuing of a license for authors, composers and publishers in what now appears to be a calculated move to benefit some directors. Mr. Katana and David Mureithi who were part of the kecobo board that deferred the decision are now directors of mcsk.

In our view this is a conflict of interest and abuse of office. We can also establish that the KECOBO board does not have enough quorum to execute the mandate of issuing licenses to CMO so how did CEO Edward Sigei attain powers to issue licenses as KECOBO letter from Sunday 20th Jan 2019 dictates. DATE: 23rd Jan 2019 Kenyan Musicians We are wondering what the emergency is to issue these licenses to collect billions came from till a state office delivered an official statement on a Sunday, yet we have been seeking to solve the corruption and theft of Musicians money for years.

We also wonder why KECOBO asked for a public participation on 24th Jan 2019 dated 14th Jan 2019 then on Sunday 20th Jan 2019 they make a statement issuing license to CMOs KAMP PRISK & MCSK allowing them to collect billions when they have not shown us where the money they illegally collected for the past years was used! How can we come to participate in a process to address licenses that are already issued?

We have uploaded this statement and corroborating letters on social media with #KecoboIMPUNITY

Regards

MIAKE

CREATIVE SOCIETY OF KENYA

Ahead of the Feb 2019 premiere of Coke Studio Africa, the Pan African music collaborative show has selected a cross-section of leading African music producers who continue to set trends and pioneer new sounds and emerging genres on the African music scene to join the upcoming season of “Coke Studio Africa 2019”.

Kenyan producers: Majic Mike and Viola Karuri have been tapped to join the Super 8 producers tasked with engineering music fusions and collaborations from all the African stars on the show. 22-year-old music producer, Mutoria, will also make a cameo on the new season.

Well respected producer and singer, Majic Mike has crafted some of the biggest songs in Kenya notably ‘’Ayaya’’ featuring Kris Erroh and ‘’Bum Aye’’ featuring Kambua. Marking his debut, he will produce collaborations between Rudeboy (Nigeria) and Khaligraph Jones (Kenya).

Viola Karuri shot to fame following the release of her Swahili adaptation of the 2017 mega-hit ‘’Despacito’ ‘by Louis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee.

The emerging producer-singerthronged into the Kenyan music scene with her self produced 12 – track album ‘’Everything’’ in 2008. Debuting on the upcoming season, expect to see her production prowess as she lends her finesse producing for Boity (South Africa), Nazizi (Kenya) and Lioness (Namibia) on a special episode involving some of Africa’s trailblazing femcees.

Other producers joining the upcoming season include two of Nigeria’s acclaimed music producers: GospelOnDaBeatz and Krizbeatz, Tanzania’s biggest music producer Lizer and one of Uganda’s most sought-after music producers, Daddy Andre. Renowned Ethiopian music producer, songwriter and DJ Rophnan and the high-flying young Zimbabwean music producer Young DLC will also feature on the upcoming season.

Mombasa's finest Kelchi Africana is back with another hit.

The song is titled 'Pore'.

Watch its video below.