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First Lady Margaret Kenyatta was among hundreds of Kenyans who attended the much-publicised Safaricom Jazz Festival held in Nairobi over the weekend.
The three-day concert had American alto saxophonist David Sanborn as the lead act.
The First Lady attended the VVIP concert held on Friday ahead of the main concert that was staged yesterday. Also in attendance were top leaders and corporate chiefs among them former presidential aspirant Peter Kenneth, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore and Swedish Ambassador to Kenya Johan Borgstam.
All-girl Israeli trio, The Hazelnuts and Safaricom International Jazz Festival headline act, David Sanborn, performed to the jubilant crowd for hours.
Besides the main show, Safaricom hosted several cultural nights throughout the week and also had a schools' show on Saturday, targeting younger music audiences.
As has been tradition, all proceeds from the event will go towards supporting Ghetto Classics, a non-profit programme that teaches music skills to youths from underprivileged backgrounds.
The programme, which supports about 650 children from several low-income neighbourhoods in Nairobi, was created as a refuge from the harsh, poverty-stricken environments synonymous with slums.
The Ghetto Classics youths meet for practice every week, undergoing instruction from volunteer tutors via face-to-face and Skype lessons during which they learn how to read and write music, and play different musical instruments.
Proceeds from the festival, since its launch, reached Sh19 million in 2016. The funds have enabled a number of older Ghetto Classics members join university, while the younger ones and their families benefit from school fees, rent among other things.
