The Great Debaters Contest Nairobi Region Report Abstract

The Great Debaters Contest Season 7 Nairobi region edition took place in Starehe Boys Centre with over 25 schools taking part. The motions encompassed various critical matters affecting our society for example Terrorism, Strikes, Immigration, cyberbullying, Education, Environmental degradation and the overdependence of Africa on the first world countries for Aid.
The debates took place between the 11^TH and 12^TH of February 2017.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Nairobi region debates kicked off on the 11^thof February 2017 with four debates lined up. Apart from the regular participants who have been constantly appearing for the debates we had new debating entrants, the likes of Baba Dogo Secondary and St. Lucie Kiriri Girls Secondary. The debates started at 10:00am in the morning. There was time for a lunch break at 1:00pm with the debates coming to an end at 3:00pm in the afternoon.
On Sunday the 12^th of February 2017, we had eight debates in the books with the first pair taking to stage exactly at 10:00am in the morning. The new debating entrants of the day were Mwiki High School, Kiserian Junior Seminary and Dandora Girls High. There was time for a lunch break at 1:00pm with the debates coming to an end at 5:00pm in the evening. Kenya High School and Lenana School sent their apologies for not being able to make it to the debates. This meant some other schools had to debate twice.

OPINIONS/VIEWS

STUDENTS
Jonathan Chola – Aquinas High School
The Great Debater Contest encourages students to improve their language skills and gives students the platform to express their opinions.
Faith Mwithimbu
The Great Debaters Contest gives us the platform to converse and challenge each other. It also helps teach us new experiences.
GDC Connect
The Great Debaters Contest is a good platform for students to engage with each other on trending topics ranging from social, political and economic matters and in the long run it helps nurture future leaders of tomorrow – Rodney Wesonga
Host
The Great Debaters Contest Season 7 is no longer about individual debaters but it’s about the team. It focusses on the team and how the whole debating process is a team effort – Nyambok Austin

Teacher
Samuel Kimani – Aquinas High
The Great Debaters Contest helps students to be solution-oriented, that is be more of the solution rather than the problem.
Celestine Okuta – Starehe Boys Centre
The quality of debates has improved over the years which can be attributed to effective research skills.
When it comes to debating skills, it doesn’t matter the school one comes from it’s about individual brilliance and teamwork.