Meet The Writer Of Uhuru’s Acceptance Speech.

Twitter was set ablaze yesterday, when it emerged that the writer of President Uhuru’s acceptance speech is a twenty two year old. *Jaw drops to the floor*

Yes, I said it, 22 yr old Julie Wang’ombe is the wordsmith that weaved that tapestry of words into existence. At 22, this accomplished poet and spoken word artist has done what many only dream of, pen the maiden speech that a nation’s leader breaks the ice with. Read the speech here.

Of course haters will hate, as was the case, but hey, what did you do at twenty two? That my friends is the pertinent question. Some people are born with greatness, other have it thrust upon them, for others, they keep doing it well, until the rest of humanity bears witness to the greatess they possess. I’m done waxing lyrical.

Her bio reads “Having discovered Spoken Word Poetry at 18 during Slam Africa events that took place in Westlands (2009) she embarked on a mission to create her own poetry realizing for the first time that poetry was extremely flexible and did not have to rigidly conform to a certain format.
In 2009 she left Nairobi, having graduated from Hillcrest Secondary School, to attend Duke University. While there, she encountered several other performing artists including Joshua Benne, a visiting poet, who continued to inspire her.

She focused on other activities while in her first year but never let go of the desire to write and perform poetry. It was in Duke influenced by the discourse on development she encountered within the classroom and the stereotypes of Africa(ns) she encountered without- that she wrote the poem “Call Me Africa”: a poem aimed at balancing out the “single story” of Africa, Celebrating Africa and inspiring other African students. This poem which saw her perform at the TED International Talent Search; Africa Governance Leadership and Management Convention and Acumen Fund’s Innovate conference..”