Kimbugwe Aud

My name is Dennis Chimbugwe Diuko and I am a member of the Hurriyat Choir. The choir was started by Thibaleka Beti and we joined in 1995. We initially sang in different groups at Bokema College and eventually formed the Herod's Choir. We faced challenges at the beginning, but with the help of our trainer Fred Echiri, we grew and expanded. Today, we have around 33 members and our trainer is Jeroen Tebandeke. We have traveled to Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda and have participated in concerts and events. We have our own recording studio and video gadgets. We believe that God has been with us and we are grateful to our supporters and patrons. We are like a family and we are proud to celebrate 28 years of service. We hope to continue growing and we appreciate prayers for our young members and the future of the choir. My name is Dennis Chimbugwe Diuko, a member of the Hurriyat Choir. I joined this choir in 1995, almost at its inception. I remember, at that time, I was fresh from college, and we started this choir as Odis and Ojis from Bokema, which was then called Bokema Advent College, which is now Bokema Senior Secondary School. And I joined when the process had already started. I remember I was at Adventist Centre Church, that was my church, and Ruth Kisitu is the one who invited me to join. This group was started by, it was an idea that was formed by a lady by the names of Thibaleka Beti. She desired to serve the Lord by starting and supporting a new singing group. So she collected singers that she knew, that were close to her, and normally Daniel Kisitu, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka Beti, Thibaleka That was the period when Bugema did not have an O-Level. The maximum level was O-Level. So each class had their own singing group. And I remember Daniel Chewanula and a few others had their singing group called Maryland. There was another one for those who were in S3 when I joined S1. So that's T.J. Huntington and T. Fred. They used to have another one called Filter. So when we came in S1, me, Naziga Jonathan, and Michael Senagilia, we formed the Herod's Choir of Bugema. So when the three of us joined this group, which had been invited initially by Beti Thibaleka, we came with that name of Herod's. So because we were formed, we said now how are we going to call ourselves? So we baptized ourselves into Herod's Choir. And actually most of the songs in Volume 1 are the songs we used to sing in our respective groups at Bugema. So when I joined, we joined together and started singing, the group started growing, growing eventually. And it came to a time when we needed to have a trainer. That's when we co-opted Mr. Fred Echiri, who is living in Tanzania right now. He came on board. Other members joined, Huntington, Douglas, and a few others. So the group started expanding and Fred Echiri started training us. But all along, our training was always at Beti Thibaleka's home. And there are, I remember our rehearsals used to be, our rehearsals used to be on, used to be after Sabbath evening, Saturday evening. Eventually we started doing rehearsals in town at May, the late May, when there was work in place. But our focal point was at Beti Thibaleka. And she was our sponsor actually. Initially we used to sing together with her. So that is how we started the choir. Today, the choir has grown to include people. Initially it was an all-Burkina Faso affair. When we had just started, remember, we were just an amorphous group. We had not even got a name. We had not got a trainer. We had a lot of challenges. When none of us, or we are all singers, none of us was good at training. That was a very big challenge. And until Mr. Fred Echiri came on board, that is when things started moving in the right direction. And secondly, most of us were still very young. Others were in their early twenties. Some of us were in the mid-twenties. We were very young. The only senior person we had was Aunty Beti Thibaleka. And many of us were not even yet employed. And you know choir business needs a lot of resources. You need to have transport to take you around. You need to have uniforms. I remember our first uniform was bought by Beti Thibaleka. She is the one who used to give us transport to go around until it came to such a time that we all got employed and started using our own resources. But those are mainly the challenges we had at the beginning. But I can say that God was with us. We did not have a lot of challenges that would bring us to a point where we would say that we cannot continue, no. So with time, the choir started growing. Today, as I speak, we have a membership of around thirty-three people. And our trainer is Jeroen Tebandeke. Jeroen Tebandeke, by the way, he came as a very young man when he joined us. Very young man, very shy. He was around nineteen years. Little did we know that God was bringing a Jeroen to us. Today, he is the one handling the choir. He has been there training the choir for quite some long time. And we really cherish the effort he has put in. And everything that we are doing is basically because of these two people. First Fred Chilia and then Jeroen today. We can talk about the prisons, what the choir has achieved. Okay. Yes. Basically, the current situation right now. All right. The opiates that we are going through. Okay. Tanzania, Kenya. Rwanda. Rwanda. Okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Just to tell you a little background about our leadership. The first chairman of this group was Jeroen Mobiru. And technically, he is not with us. He rested. We believe we shall find him in heaven. And today, the choir has grown. Little did we know that things would change to this level now. At present, we have, as I said before, a membership of around 43 people. We have traveled far and wide. Actually, we have traversed the whole of East Africa. We have been to Tanzania. We have been to Rwanda. Every single year we have been to Kenya. Every year we go to Kenya. We have a lot of friends in Kenya. We have participated in big, big concerts in Kenya. I remember the most famous one is called, it is almost an annual event, but mainly it happens towards the elections. Because the elections some time back were characterized by violence. So, the organized concert with a stream, they called it, A Thousand Voices for Peace. And we are always invited to participate in that concert. We thank God that at the moment, we are almost reliant in terms of recording our music. We have a recording studio which records other choirs as well. We also have video gadgets. We make our own videos. And I believe God has been on our side from here. I am very sure even when I am not there and others who are as senior as I am, the choir will progress because we have young people who are taking all the responsibility. And some of us are failing out a little bit. But the choir has continuity because we have members of all ages. I believe God will still sustain this choir. We are going to celebrate 28 years of service. That is not a mean achievement. Many choirs don't last for a very long time. It is not because of our own efforts, but we believe God has been on our side. We have not had so many troubles that can cause a split. And the more we continue, the more we gel together. And I believe God is happy with what we are doing. Please continue praying for us. Continue praying for the young men and young ladies who are taking God's work ahead. And probably we may have more people joining us. Herod's Choir is more of a family. Whatever happens to one person happens to another. We are so much together that we are a family. And I can't forget to thank the people who have been with us through thick and thin. Number one, Aunt Betty Sibaleka. That lady, I don't know. When she started this idea of forming a singing group, I don't think she ever thought that it would come to this. Secondly, Mr. Moses Serugwu. He was our patron for a very long time and we used to do our hassles from his own house. He would buy food, cook for us, very nice food. He supported us financially. We owe a lot to him. May God bless him abundantly. We can't forget Mr. Kaabunga. Mr. Kaabunga was once our leader. He helped us financially and everything. We can't forget Aaron Semo Gelede. She is in the U.S. now. If she can watch this, I want you to know that we are very appreciative for whatever you have done for this group throughout the times. Engineer Serungkuma. Oh, I can't forget our trainer. Our first trainer, Mr. Freddie Chiria, is the foundation of the music we are singing today. We can never forget him. And many, many others. Presently, we have our patrons. We want to thank them for whatever they are doing. I hope and think that we are not disappointed. Could you also talk about the idea? I heard that you are one of the main reasons why you started your own idol. You can also find a way of doing things among the people, actually among the associates. Herod's Choir, as I said, is a family. By the way, it does not only include singers. There are people who are members of Herod's Choir. Actually, it's a ministry. We are members who are not singers. Actually, previously, we used to have our chairman, our leader, who were not singers, like Aaron Somogere, like Mr. Kabunga. They were not singers, but they were our leaders previously. There is another person I cannot forget to mention, Mr. Achia, in Nairobi. He is the one who opened the door for us to visit Nairobi every single year. Actually, I can say that he is the one who exposed us to the Kenyan audience. I hope this message gets to him. Is this the reason why you started your own idol? Actually, Herod's Choir, the songs we sing are in different languages. We sing Kinyarwanda, we sing Uganda, we sing Kiswahili, we sing English. And the reason why we sing those regional languages, like Swahili, is we wanted to capture the entire region and incorporate people who don't understand Uganda or English. So, these targets, because Kiswahili has been adopted as the regional language, that's why we sing. We have so many Swahili songs even in our videos. By the way, we have recorded over 10 albums, and those include even videos. We have videos, we have audios, but we sing all languages. And our music, as far as I know, through social media and other media, has gone beyond our borders, even beyond Africa. People all over the world now know about us. This is not just because we want to brag around and show that we are great, but the Bible says that the gospel shall be preached to the entire globe. That's why we have tried to make sure that the songs we sing go to a wider audience in the whole world. And I think and believe that we have touched souls. So, Daniel, also, about what you plan on doing in the future, where do you see the choir in the future? Yes. As I said, Herod has come from very far. From five people to 43 presently. And I have no doubt that this choir will even develop higher. We have a future because we have members of all ages, the seniors like me, the middle-aged and the young ones. And in the future, I can see us visiting other continents because so far we have been visiting the East African region, but our future plan is to visit other parts of Africa and other continents, Europe, America and elsewhere. In the future we also, there is one challenge we have, which I believe God will help us to do. We have a plan to have our own home. Buy land and put up structures where we can always meet, where we can even host guests. That is our dream. And I believe because this work is not ours, God will help us to achieve it. Do you have any closing remarks? I want to invite all our friends, whoever is watching this, to come and attend our concert, which is going to be December 10th at 3pm, Theatre La Bonita. I will be there and so will the others. Come and praise God together with us as we thank him for the ministry that he has helped us to run for the past 28 years. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.