Nairobi National Museum

The Nairobi National Museum houses some basic musical instruments from parts of Kenya, but lacks cataloging and detailed information that could stimulate any interest in young minds. The museum features one 7-inch tape of contemporary Ethiopian music, called ‘Zemenai muzika’, neo-ethnic tigre-Erithrean music, and traditional Ethiopian music recorded in summer in 1972. There are notes by Ashenafi Kebede of the Ethiopian Music Association. The collection includes a map of Ethiopia, translations of some of the songs (30 minutes), some Ethiopian script, and also a list of Ethiopian letters and their pronunciations in English.

The situation is not any better at the Nairobi National Museum where the bulk of material preserved, with a few exceptions, are records of official government events with scant attention paid to the country’s cultural heritage.

Nairobi National Museum is a state corporation established by an Act of Parliament, the Museums and Heritage Act 2006. NMK is a multi-disciplinary institution whose role is to collect, preserve, study, document and present Kenya’s past and present cultural and natural heritage.