K'naan waving the flag: The Cocacola connection

This November Friday the 13th. The Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki welcomed the world cup on its virgin tour in Kenya. The occasion saw
highly rated media houses and dignitaries beam with joy at stroking and poking the 6kg 18 karat golden title, for the South African 2010 World cup.

The World cup arrrived in kenya on a star-crossed day. A day when some believe, ill tidings befall them. Kenyans could hold such beliefs after losing to Nigeria on the 14th in a world cup qualifier. The match was played at Kasarani. Kasarani is a figure of speech in Kenya and it's largest sports complex. Cocacola was running an event at the Nyayo Cocacola Stadium. Sorry the Nyayo National Stadium. Whats the name of the stadium? There was no cover charge on entry. Though attendance for such a high profile trophy appeared dismal. Maybe all roads were leading to Kasarani. Regardless the crowd had a good energy from songs played by their favorite artists. A red colored fete it , saw the blueprint of all Kenyan events profile. Namely, Nameless, Jua cali, Jimmy Gate . High energy? yes!

The rich green football pitch that usually supports 23 men running haphazardly seeking for a chance to score. Had to adjust to a capacity of atleast 1500 people. The seating around the stadium was sparsely filled, the football pitch, was thronged by music and football fans alike spotting red Cocacola tee shirts and flags. A jovial sunny Saturday.

C&F matters was on site for one artist, K'naan Warsabi. On contacting Knaan's manager Sol Guy on email. He briefed CF&S of their arrival on the 13th in the evening. He added it would be highly unlikely to have a one on one interview with Mr. Warsabi. This is because of the tight schedule. Why? Because K'naan travels with the World Cup and goes wherever it goes. So on the 14th at the Coca Cola event at Nyayo stadium. I had to paparatzzi to get info from K'naan.


K'naan stepped on stage at 1530hrs. And errhm, OKay am trying to be polite but he was not introduced properly, done! I strongly feel MCs need thorough drilling on introducing international artists. I mean locally we can quickly sweep it under the rag but don't call K'naan 'The person who composed the song for the world cup" then you choke. K'naan worked hard to bring a crowd that slightly wasn't at par with him. What i mean to say is, they were just from dancing 'Salary oh oh' ! Quite a turn around to Knaan's heed to gunmen 'Soobax' and the blood gushing chant 'TIA'. The audience tightened their laces to keep up with the somali track K'naan perfomed. After a brief reminder on what his perfomance was about K'naan groomed the audience to 'Waving of the flag'. An easy chorus to pick and voilla the whole stadium lit up. Colored in COcacola's traditonal red, all the hands were up in the sky, waving miniature flags. I feel like singing, in retrospect. It goes a lil' something like this;

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a Waving Flag
And then it goes back, and then it goes back
And then it goes back

This is the moment that K'naan brought to Kenya with the world cup. The whole stadium was at his command! And then it goes back...And then it goes back... to Sudan and Lastly South Africa!