Radio West’s Ekinihiro rocks Mbarara

By Abdulkarim Ssengendo and Nicholas Oneal

OVER the weekend, Mbarara town came to a standstill as jubilations to mark 12 years of Radio West took over. The celebrations started with a street carnival on Friday evening.

It constituted a procession of bodaboda riders, Radio West listeners, a convoy of event management cars led by a vechicle mounted with a public address system.

The procession went through Mbarara town and proceeded to all the nearby trading centres. Over 30,000 people gathered at Kakyeka Stadium in Mbarara town for the main event.

Gates to the stadium opened as early as 8:00am on Saturday with a traditional and cultural group’s competition. Thehighlights of the event were performances from local artistes which kicked off at 2:00pm in the afternoon with an exciting opening performance by Sizzaman.

Vision Group Chief Operations Officer Gervase Ndyanabo, thanked the people of Mbarara and the neighbouring towns for their loyalty and support for Vision Group products in western Uganda which included TV West and the weekly newspaper, Orumuri. Flanked by Susan Nsibirwa, Vision Group head of marketing, Ndyanabo promised that the company will continue to serve the region. Fireworks lit up the sky shortly after Ndyanabo’s remarks. The event co-sponsored by communication giant MTN, Nile Breweries, Coca Cola and National Housing and Construction Company ended in the early hours of Sunday.

Kigezi Theatre Artistes from Kabale district won the cultural competition, beating 10 other music and dance groups. The groups were drawn from districts in south-western region. Kigezi theatre artistes walked away with a sh500,000 cash price.

Runners-up Ngoma Cultural Troupe-Ntungamo and Amayanji Youth Group from Mbarara bagged sh300,000 and sh200,000 respectively. Other groups went home with Radio West certificates, T-shirts and phones.

Among the local artistes who performed were, Raba Daba, Ragga Dee, Dr. Hildaman, Aziz Azion, Eddie Kenzo, Sweet Kid, Dj Michael, GNL Zamba, Coco Finger, Omulangira Suna, Sizzaman, Lady Mariam Tindatine and Sister Charity.

Polly Namaye, the South western regional Police spokesperson said: “The situation was normal, security was high, attendance was good, and the crowd was orderly and disciplined. Only two people drunk more than they could handle and ended up admitted at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.”

The event was organised by Vision Group.

Radio West started in 1999 and went on air on April 10 1999. It became part of Vision Group in 2008.