Government allocates Sh100 million for new national dress design

The government will allocate Sh100 million for the designing of a Kenyan national dress, despite a previous effort which was deemed unsuccessful.

Culture, Arts, and Heritage Principal Secretary Ummi Bashir confirmed the new budget and acknowledged that the initial attempt to design a national dress had failed.

A national dress is an attire recognised by the citizens of a country that encapsulates national diversity, identity, and civilization, enhancing national pride, and cohesion, and embedding the values and ethos of a nation.

Speaking during Utamaduni Day celebrations in Nairobi in 2023, Ummi announced that the national dress would be unveiled by October 2024.

“Kenya does not have a national dress, do we? That is something we are working on, and we promise that by next Utamaduni Day, we will consult and vow to at least have a Kenyan national dress by then,” she said on October 10, 2023.

Her statement was supported by the Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, who assured Kenyans that they will get a national dress. “I assure you that we will work day and night to ensure that next time we shall have a national dress," he said then.

During a recent session before the National Assembly’s Sports and Culture Committee, Ummi informed the committee members that they were awaiting funds to initiate the project. The committee, chaired by Webuye West MP Dan Wanyama, emphasised that they would not attempt the process again after this latest effort.

The previous attempt to design a national dress cost taxpayers Sh50 million, but it failed to gain traction due to a lack of public engagement.

Director of Culture in the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage Kiprop Lagat, explained that the Sh100 million would cover public participation, design, national validation, and marketing of the national dress.

Lagat hinted at the possibility of having multiple national dresses due to the country's diversity.

"It’s not necessarily true that we could have just one national dress, but we could have a variety that would be representative of the diversity that we have in this country," he said.

Ummi attributed the failure of the 2004 attempt, spearheaded by then Culture Minister Najib Balala, to its top-down approach, saying, “It was a boardroom decision without engaging the end users and stakeholders. For a change, we are now involving counties and different designers to come up with the best design.”

Lagat reiterated that this time, the process would be different, with plans to involve more than one designer and conduct national validation before unveiling the attire to the public.

“Some designs could be so unique to some parts of the country, and some counties could decide to adopt it and use it as their official dress,” he said.