My name is Teddy Muya, and I am currently serving as a Legal Intern at the Council of Governance (CoG). My first interaction with the People Dialogue Festival (PDF) was in 2021 at the Museum of Kenya, as a first-year law student at the University of Nairobi. Though the interaction was brief then, the festival was served as my first benefactor of a physical copy of the Constitution: A lawyer’s tool of trade. Since then, my journey with the People’s Dialogue Festival has been transformative. Across three separate editions, the festival has been a trilogy of experiences that have shaped my identity as both a citizen and a law student.
The hallmark of my interaction with PDF came in 2024 held at the University of Nairobi. As I wandered through the Political Village, a vibrant side-event of the festival, I stumbled upon a talk that would positively impact my academic trajectory. The discussion was focused on the constituency delimitation process and the impending constitutional crisis as a result of the lapse of the constitutional timelines to conduct the process. As the panelists spoke, a spark ignited. Indeed, there existed a constitutional silence required to remedy a violation of the constitutional timelines of the delimitation process. The dialogue provided the research question for what would be my undergraduate dissertation. (The dissertation is still under review and therefore yet to be published).
The People’s Dialogue Festival is more than an event; it is a continuous conversation. It successfully equipped me first with the foundational symbol of my rights, and then with the inquiry to examine and protect the systems that uphold them. It proved that dialogue is not just talk. It is the birthplace of the ideas that will shape our democratic future. My story is a testament to its unique ability to inspire both the heart and the mind.