Meet President-Elect Uhuru Kenyatta's 22-Year-Old Speechwriter

Juliet Wang'ombe

President-elect Uhuru’s acceptance speech yesterday soon after being declared the winner of the presidential election has received praise from many Kenyans, who have described it as inspiring and unifying.

The speech, delivered by Uhuru in 19 minutes 42 seconds, was written by Julie Wangeci Wang’ombe, a spoken-word artist who is only 22 years old. Julie discovered spoken word poetry at the age of 18 at the Slam Africa events in Westlands, Nairobi in 2009. She soon after moved to the United States to attend college at Duke University. She perfected her act at Duke after meeting several experienced spoken word artists, the likes of Joshua Benne.

Julie (pictured at the right praying for President-Elect Uhuru yesterday after his acceptance speech), like many other African students at American colleges, experienced several stereotypes about Africans. The stereotypes, coupled with the mentorship from the artists she met at Duke, led her to writing the poem called “A Reintroduction to Africa”, which most people know her by. She has performed the poem at several events globally, including at the TED International Talent Search; Africa Governance Leadership and Management Convention and Acumen Fund’s Innovate conference.

Watch the video below as  Julie performs “A Reintroduction to Africa” at the TED International Talent Search in 2012.

WATCH THE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY PRESIDENT-ELECT UHURU KENYATTA HERE.