TIMELINES CLINCHES WORLD SILVER, MAKES IT BACK-TO-BACK FOR KENYA

  

Timelines becomes the second Kenyan to clinch the Silver medal at the Global world Poetry Event. He follows the footsteps of Dominion, Who missed out on the top spot by 0.1 point at the 2025 feat held in Mexico. This years, competition was controversial as the people’s favorite Timelines lost thus putting on spot the judging process at the global event.

Kenyan spoken word artist Timelines (Dennis Mwangi) - 67th Poetry Slam Africa King and the Garang Nyacharo Memorial Award Winner- clinched silver at the 5th World Poetry Slam Championships in Durban, South Africa, on October 9, 2026 — making it back-to-back world silvers for Kenya. Timelines becomes the second Kenyan to win silver at the global event following Dominion (Moses Kiptoo) who missed the top spot by just 0.1 points at the 2025 edition in Mexico. 

Timelines, photos courtesy of Creative Spills FB page

This year's competition was controversial. Audience favourite Timelines lost despite a spirited performance, sparking dissatisfaction with the judging. Gold went to Switzerland's Valerio Moser and bronze to Canada's Maya Namatovu — top 3 now officially confirmed by Poetry Africa.

Kenyan fans online questioned the scoring, pointing to Judge 2 from Italy, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah, whose 20 points for Switzerland tipped the scales against Timelines. Other judges included Xabiso Vili from South Africa and Nanda from Gabon. 

Dominion 0.1 loss and Timelines controversial loss puts Kenya among the countries with strong poetry platforms in the world. This streak can be credited to a strong over a decade poetry showcase in Kenya backed by Creative Spills among other poetry organisations in the country. So far, Kenya has a rich poetry Slam Culture that has so far produced 67 Slam Kings and queens most of whom have gone ahead and built a name in the creative scene in the Country. 

Despite the controversy, Kenyans celebrated maintaining the global second-position streak. 

The run can be credited to over a decade of poetry showcases backed by Creative Spills and other organisations. So far Kenya has produced 67 Slam Kings and Queens, many of whom have built names in the creative scene. 

The East African Country has taken over five poets to various global poetry events: Kikete F.M at the Africa Cup of Slam Poetry Nd’jamena, Chad 2018, Qui Qarre, Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS 2017) in Dallas, US, Slim Shaka, Dominion and now Timelines. 

Timelines who hails from Nakuru, entered the national scene in the 2024/25 preliminaries without much success. He broke through in 2025/26, tying at the top with Nigerian poet Vivian Ofre, forcing a run-off that he won at the festival in Nairobi earlier this year. His heavy voice, loud confidence and machine-gun punchlines made the world bow to his creative genius.