By Lauryn Ojore

Nothing wrapped up the semester better than victory in the recently hosted 8th Mashujaa Tournament. The Mashujaa Opens is a tournament organized by the Strathmore University Debate Society every month on campus. The 8th leg of the Mashujaa Opens took place between July 23-24. The Spoken Arts & Debate Society strives to push its members to engage in mind boggling issues that are of current relevance. This enables the members to interactively have conversations of how they relate to certain topics as well as critique how the views of the world can be shifted to make the world a better place.

The Spoken Arts & Debate Society (SADS) debate team participated in the championship and as our reputation precedes us, we made a statement at the tournament. With Jeremiah Kashaka (SADS Vice Chair) representing us as the Chief Adjudicator, here is the breakdown of our performance and successes:

• Sam Kagia and Chantelle Mukabi emerged the best speakers in the whole tournament and bagged the best speaker trophy;
• Victor Mwendwa emerged the best adjudicator in the tournament with acknowledgement as the most ethical and professional judge;
• Fresher Diana and Louis Gitu represented SADS to the semi-finals in the Open Category of the tournament.

As the semester comes to an end, SADS journey does not stop during the semester break. Through virtual engagements via Zoom and Discord, members of SADS will actively compete in not only continental but global online tournaments in order to grow our debate skills. Being a part of a family that grows its members intellectually emotionally and psychologically is what it means to a part of the Spoken Arts and Debate Society.

With the nurturing and steering leadership of the USIU-Africa fraternity through our club patron Dr. Quin Juma, SADS is on the roadmap to not only achieve accolade and recognition but also greatness not only in Kenya but also globally. This can only be done through extensive exposure to different environments, cultures, and people.

The coming semesters are not short of activities planned to further strengthen our prowess. Just to mention but a few of the upcoming tournaments:

1. Participating in the Pan African Universities Debate Championship in Kenya from December 8-15 at Strathmore University;
2. Participating in Pretoria Parley IV in Pretoria, South Africa in September;
3. Participating in the East Africa Universities Debate Championship in Arusha, Tanzania in September;
4. Representing in the African Nations League Tournament virtually;
5. Participating in World Universities Debate Championship in Madrid, Spain in December 2022.