The East African World School Debate championships 2025

In its maiden campaign at an international debating event, our school debating team came third. The competition is an annual championship which attracts participation of elite debating teams in and around East Africa. This year’s competition had seventy-eight teams (78) from five (5) African states. These countries were Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

Organised at United States International University, Nairobi, from 8^th May, 2025 to 13^th May, 2025, the competition offered experience that surely every debater would aspire to get. From the well thought out topics to the intellectually engaging discourse in impromptu challenges, to the constructive feedback of the judges, the event served a riveting experience.

The team comprised three students; Ojok Daniel -S.5B, Mukasa Alisat – S.5A and Kimuli Alpha – S.4. It is often said that there is always a first time. In the first time of asking at an international level, the team earned a wealth of experience.

Asked about how the competition benefitted her, Mukasa Alisat said, ‘Personally, my debating skills have gone to a higher level with this exposure.  I’ve greatly improved my ability to listen and take notes during a debate. This is crucial as it allows you to respond in an organized manner to all arguments raised by the opposition. My presentation format and persuasion are also much better as a result of participating in the competition.

‘We’ve also seen the benefits of being resilient. During this competition, we have been having three debates a day. Preparing for one debate session is demanding, but imagine having to prepare for three! We were used to having one debate in a week.  Our resilience and tenacity have greatly improved,’ she added.

 Ojok Daniel on his part noted that the competition taught him how to adjust to tight debate schedules and prepare for impromptu debates without the use of gadgets for research. ‘Having to prepare for a debate without using the internet helps in improving critical thinking. You base on the knowledge that you have as a team about the topic given and prepare a strong argument and winning strategy,’ he said.

‘This competition also showed us that in life one should never lose hope. The first two debates in the preliminaries stage did not go in our favour, but thanks to our teachers we were encouraged not to give up. We had three more debates the following day. We ended up winning all of them with impressive individual scores and qualifying for the knock-out stage. This wouldn’t have been possible if we had lost hope!’ he opined.

Kimuli Alpha intimated that the competition taught him to dream with courage. ‘One of the things I’ve seen is that I must dare to dream and dream courageously. You can truly win at anything if you believe and work hard,’ he said.

We shall forever be grateful to our headmistress who made this trip a reality.  The school administration provided all the funds needed for the trip.  This is not something we take for granted.