 Kwa msi pumbuja, miliwa kutuli ya hana kwenisa hiwa kuka, kwa hupokia n timingi kwenita nzunihama, ya kуч commandsu na higiya. Infirma kwa hupoka niti kwenisha hésia wi wa msuili ya hikiya hani kwenisha kutuli ya hikiya hani kwenisha hati kwenisha, kwa hizike na hikaa nipiliya, kwenisha wama jira hika wikiya nnikiwa. Kwa kwenisha hikta kwenisha na hikiya hani kwenisha, kwa hikaya hana kwenisha. but we want to make sure that in as much as you are entertaining people, you are also getting something in return. And that means in the near future we shall be initiating different programs, different activities with other partners that we are having and also the stakeholders that we are having today. Just to make sure that at the end of the day each and every person that puts in their efforts as far as investing in the music business is concerned, they are able to get something in return and we also want to make sure that at the end of the day, sorry for that, thank you and welcome, one thing I was mentioning is that we want to make sure that at the end of the day each and every penny that has been invested in art be it through acting, through singing, through modeling and any other related field they get results in terms of finances. The set objectives are not achievable without your support and that is why we have gathered here so that we may openly share what we are trusting God for and believe that you will hold our hand in whichever capacity as we walk the journey together. A big thank you to the CEOs and executive directors of different awards that are present here that have just come to show solidarity. I just want to mention again that we are not in competition as others may think but we are rather in business of growing talents and that is the only business, that is the only difference as how we engage, the artist is what matters. Just to explain that, at some point different people have thought that different awards are coming up to outdo each other. One thing I want to mention categorically is that Eastern Talanta Awards or ETA as we go national we are not in competition with anyone. We are here to make sure that at the end of the day we are growing talents and we shall keep engaging different stakeholders as far as the awarding ceremonies are concerned just to make sure that we at the end of the day do what we are doing the right way. And as I come to the conclusion ladies and gentlemen ETA Awards KE believes that there are so many untabbed talents at the county level that explain that explains the beauty and diversity in art as far as Kenya is concerned. Who knows maybe the Kenyan sound that we've been looking for is somewhere in Pukot, ALEGO is YOLO or even the Mount Kenya region. The only thing that we need to do as an industry is to give a chance to other machinani creatives. Let us bring them to the limelight and that is what ETA is all about. Just to echo my words ETA Awards is the real bottom up initiative. Our focus is to make sure that the artists and the grassroots are given chance as we believe that there are so many talents out there so many and most of us the media and I'm sorry to say this the media only focuses on the artists in Nairobi but one thing I want to challenge the media that is present here one thing I want to challenge the people who invest in the music industry one thing I want to challenge the people who invest in the entertainment industry at large is this let us go to the grassroots there are so many good singers there are so many good sounds I wish to see us bringing a sound from Samburu I wish to see us bringing a sound from Pukot I wish to see us bringing a sound from Kisumu and any other part of Kenya so that at the end of the day we are not focusing only on the what we are used to as the creative industry but we are also able to bring up different sounds that at the end of the day will help us export art as a business one thing I must tell you it's very easy to export a vernacular kind of content to other countries unlike when you're doing Swahili in English at the end of the day our strength is the diversity we have as a country so we encourage Eta encourages people to do music in their local languages Eta encourages people to do art the way they know how we are not here to say we must sing in Swahili we are not here to say we must sing in English but we are here to say that music only expresses the feeling of a society and what is the best way to express the feeling of a society than in a language that we all understand so if you are a law Eta encourages you to sing in that law language if you are a kamba Eta encourages you to sing in kamba language if you are from the Mount Kenya from the western and rift valley in any other region Eta is here for you Eta words is a people's choice a word that therefore both submissions of nominees and voting is done by the people and the circle around the creatives this is also the difference that comes in as far as Eta is concerned and this is the difference between Eta and other awards Eta doesn't submit nominations Eta produces a link that people your fans as an artist are able to nominate you then from there our team sits down to be able to evaluate the many submissions one thing I want to mention for instance during the Eta awards season one that was held in Kitengela we had 11,000 submissions we only needed 177 so there is a team that sat down in 2021 to choose the 177 out of the 11,000 submissions during last year's edition that we had 12 counties that is from the Mark counties and from the eastern part of Kenya we had over 32,000 submissions we only needed to select 287 people that were going into the awards for that particular year and that is now what our team of specialists do to sit down just to discuss on who is better qualified as far as the submissions are concerned this year Eta is targeting to have 500 nominees from the 47 counties of Kenya we are therefore inviting all the artists to share the information with their fans so that they are able to nominate them and then from there we shall be able to unveil our list of nominees as I finish allow me to share the dates for Eta awards