The Cannes Young Lions Kenya competition has entered its most demanding stage, with young creatives spending Saturday, 7 February 2026, racing against the clock to deliver their best work.

From early morning, participants gathered at the EABL Microbrewery in Ruaraka, which has been serving as the base for the competition’s deep-work sessions. The space quickly filled with laptops, notebooks and intense discussions as teams settled in for a long day of brainstorming, refining and execution.

Safaricom is headlining this year’s competition as the title sponsor, placing the telco at the centre of one of the country’s key platforms for emerging creative talent.

Its involvement reflects a broader push to support innovation, digital creativity and homegrown ideas with global potential.

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Safaricom Cannes Young Lions participants

Saturday, February 7: The Creative Sprint

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The day got underway shortly before 9am when teams across the Digital, Design and Film categories received their briefs.

Between 8:50am and 9:30am, brief owners outlined the challenges facing each category. Digital teams were briefed by Safaricom’s Zizwe Awuor, Design teams by Flavia Othim, while Keza Mpyisi from Tusker addressed the Film category.

At 10:00am, the competition officially moved into production mode, with teams beginning work under strict time limits.

A short break followed between 1:00pm and 2:00pm, allowing participants to step away briefly before returning to their workstations.

Safaricom Cannes Young Lions participants at the briefing

From 2:00pm to 6:00pm, teams remained at the microbrewery, using the venue’s creative spaces to develop and polish their ideas during the core deep-work phase.

Competitors exited the venue at 6:00pm, after which teams were allowed to continue working remotely. Many were expected to spend the evening refining concepts and preparing final submissions ahead of Sunday’s deadline.

Sunday, February 8: Decision Day

The final day begins with a hard submission deadline at 10:00am, when all entries must be uploaded to the official Cannes platform.

Judging and presentations will run from 11:00am to 3:30pm, led by the category jury presidents: Max Ngari for Digital, Rizz Wangalachi for Design and Tosh Gitonga for Film, alongside their respective juries.

The weekend will conclude between 4:00pm and 5:30pm with the awards ceremony, where the teams set to represent Kenya at the global Cannes Young Lions competition in France this June will be announced.

Safaricom Cannes Young Lions participants//Brian Simiyu