They gathered at the Tusker Microbrewery, surrounded by the smell of fermenting grain and the even stronger scent of corporate desperation. Six “winners” have been handpicked to represent Kenya at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2026. On paper, it looks like a win. In reality, it’s just another episode of the Great Kenyan PR Machine, polishing a few trophies while the rest of the industry chokes on crumbs.

We’re told this is a “strategic investment” in the creative economy. Let’s be real: for the corporate giants involved, it’s a tax-deductible photo op. They get to talk about “empowering the youth” and “global stages” while the actual creatives on the ground are still fighting to get paid 30 days after an invoice, if they’re lucky.

The mainstream media is busy celebrating Victor Mureithi and his colleagues for “dreaming bigger.” But dreaming is free; surviving in Nairobi is expensive. Out of the 42 creatives who entered that 48-hour pressure cooker, 36 were sent home with nothing but a “thank you for participating” and perhaps a few beers. Those 36 are the real face of the industry, talented, exhausted, and ignored by the same brands that claim to be “championing innovation.”

It’s the same pattern we see everywhere. We hype up individual wins to ignore systemic failure. It’s reminiscent of how Toxic Lyrikali’s 2026 hype is already doomed because the local scene prefers ego-driven beefs and State House clout over actual sustainable growth. We send six people to France to “carry our stories,” but we haven’t even built a local market that values those stories enough to pay for them without a corporate sponsor’s permission.

The Cannes Lions Festival is described as a “hub for networking.” For a young Kenyan creative, that’s usually code for standing in a room in the South of France, clutching a glass of expensive wine, and trying to convince European creative directors that your work isn’t just “quaint” or “emerging.” You’re there to be a diversity statistic in a festival that celebrates budgets we can only dream of.

The winners will fly the flag, take the selfies, and return to JKIA. And then what? They’ll come back to an economy where the digital tax is rising, the “creative hubs” are mostly empty shells for NGOs, and the gatekeepers are the same people who sat on the judging panel.

The “Lions” might be in France, but the sharks are right here at home. We don’t need more trips to Cannes; we need an industry that doesn’t require a corporate miracle just to get noticed. Enjoy the trip, guys. Just don’t expect the reality in Nairobi to have changed by the time you land.