During public holidays attended by the Head of State including Mashujaa Day, Jamhuri Day, and Madaraka Day among others, an announcer is heard entertaining the crowd by describing the events of the day.
For retired military officer Patrick Mwangi, it was a childhood dream to join the army and subsequently be a commentator at national events.
He entertained the late presidents Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki and the retired Head of State Uhuru Kenyatta.
In an interview with KBC on Tuesday, October 25, Mwangi recalled how he represented his school in a speech competition across the Kasarani area.
"I always wanted to be in the airforce, in fact, someone took me to the prisons but I ran away," Mwangi stated.
His star shone when he joined the Moi airbase as a technician in 1981. He was selected as the Athletics announcer and he also volunteered for events.
In 2001, Mwangi recounted a comment from a Major General who introduced live commentary of the airshow. He was unanimously selected to handle the task.
During the Jamhuri day celebrations in 2021, he did the live commentary of the airshow but was limited to only the airshow.
"The director told me, I see you are uniform and I trust you but this is a live commentary with no written document therefore I will not allow you to continue with the commentary," Mwangi recounted.
He however did not take the setback negatively. In 2002, he wrote to the Ministry of Culture and Social Services to be included in the next event.
After his impressive performance, he was selected to conduct the running commentary for the whole event.
One of the challenges he highlighted was how bad weather affected aircraft performances, which were limited to a few stunts during the airshow.
The 61-year-old also took several Kenyans under his wing to train them on commentary.
Mwangi retired in November 2021 after 40 years in the military.
