Below are photos taken at Kakamega Reunion at the Jungle Club Leicester. Around 25o friends and neighbours from a wonderful town in Kenya met up at this 1st reunion. Some had not met in almost 40 years but people had not forgotten  the very special bond and spirit people of Kakamega have for each other.

Last night after the event finished the Whatspps group was buzzing with comments, below are just a few :

“Thank you everyone!
We shared a few tears for those dear ones whose presence was deeply missed today …sadly, they can only live on in our hearts now.

We also shared many laughs today too! I lost count of how many times we heard “Oh my God, is that…?” or “Tamme kon cho?”

It was an honour to learn about and feel respect for our ancestors today. They survived the turbulent journey from India in sail boats and steamer boats to arrive in Kenya & develop Kakamega.

It’s because of their courage, skills and hard work that we, the 3rd and 4th generations of Kakamegians, are able to spread the Kakamega spirit and ‘sanskars’ wherever we may now live across the world.

I’m very proud of our ancestor’s sacrifices & the legacy that they’ve gifted us; proud of today’s reunion organisers especially Mangal ji and very proud of all of us for making today very special.
Jai Mangal
Jai Kakamega
Jai Hind

Sujata Barot, grand daughter of Haribhai D Barot.”

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“We were able to CREATE a duplicate Kakamega in Leicester
Thank you all for participating
The is talk of town all over wherever KakamegaWalla are. Nothing is impossible we will do even bigger one soon”

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“Hello Pravin, Gumanbhai,Bhagatbhai,Saujani brothers and not forgetting my brothers.What can i say?.Thankyou so much for your hard work.”

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“I would like to thank each n everyone, who made the effort of coming to Leicester n making our first Kakamega reunion so fantastic.My special thanks to Pravin,Bhagatsinh’s Mansukh Modi n Savjani’s brothers.This reunion would not have been possible,if I didn’t have the support of these people.I want to request everyone who has taken any photos or videos of this reunion,to post it so v can try n make an album.”

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“Thank you everyone for organising reunion meet all the lovely people from kakamega will be with me for ever god bless you all bikhu adatia”

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These are some of the photographs I managed to capture

Events photographer London for QE boys Charity Dinner & Dance.

Last Friday, ten 6th form boys from QE Boys School in Barnet, North London, UK organised a charity event to raise money for the Sri Sathya Sai English Medium School, Kerala, India. As one of of these boys is my nephew he asked if I could be the Professional Events Photographer at their charity dinner / dance. I promised that if I was free from my other photography business I would set-up studio lighting for the formal events photography and also capture the general dinner dance event.

Here as just a few images from the evening and I really enjoyed my time being their London event photographer as they had put so much effort organising with the help of some of their teachers and parents. They also worked very hard on the night to make sure the event was successful at raising funds for the school in India.

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Lions Club of Kingsbury with the help of Asian Foundation For Help organised a very successful Mukesh & Rafi Mehfil night at Harrow Leisure Centre, London last Friday. All procceds from the charity evening were for Kakamega Primary School, Kenya. This is a primary school which provides free primary education to children, and as the number of students has increased a great deal, the school requires more classrooms to be built.

A great deal of effort was put in by the committee of Lions Club of Kingsbury and other helpers both in Kakamega and here in London to organise and promote this fund raising event. Some 275 tickets (venue limitation) were sold but demand for tickets was so huge that there was a long waiting list of people who wanted to attend.

Some former residence of Kakamaga had a chance to meet up after a long time and reminance the good old days, most of them now living in London so they didn’t have to travel too far to Harrow Leisure Centre but great credit has to be given to a former Kakamega resident and his wife who travelled all the way from Manchester, that’s how much commitment for this project.

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