Matee Festo

Country	Kenyan

Matee Festo was a definitive figure in Kenya's post-independence musical golden era. He uniquely balanced a dual identity as a high-ranking public servant within the Administration Police (AP) and a legendary frontman of Kamba Benga and Swahili Zilizopendwa music. As the leader of the iconic Utawala AP Band, Festo injected military discipline into a vibrant, raw musical genre, creating socially conscious, rhythmically complex music that captured the heart of East Africa from the late 1970s through the 1990s