Attempts to stop play are a threat to artistic expression
Anti-riot police officers at Melvin Jones Academy where Butere Girls were to stage their play.
The chaotic events witnessed during the ongoing National Schools and Colleges Drama and Film Festival in Nakuru were without a doubt shameful to our country. It was a blatant threat to freedom of artistic expression.
The attempts by the police to stop the staging of the play Echoes of War by Butere Girls High School students and the intimidation and harassment of the playwright Cleophas Malala is a chilling indication that our country could be sliding back into the dark days of repression and curtailment of freedom of expression.
A period when scores of Kenyans were arbitrarily arrested and tortured for expressing their dissenting views.
Indeed, this unfortunate turn of events is reminiscent of the days when creatives such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo of the famed “I will Marry When I want” had run-ins with the President Daniel Moi government for their creative work that mirrored the ills and excesses of the regime.
One wonders why the play all of a sudden attracted immense attention from security apparatus yet it had been given a clean bill of by adjudicators from the preliminary stages of the festival. The High Court had also pronounced itself on the matter by lifting the ban that had been imposed on the staging of the play.
And in a perplexing show impunity, the government deployed a contigent of police officers to the venue of the event in a bid to curtail the media and public from watching the play.
The government is clearly not comfortable with the message of the play, which paints a picture of the sorry state of affairs in the country.
Much as the playwright is a politician and could be part of the reasons the government is against it, it is wrong to punish the students. It was sad to watch the innocent students perform the national anthem on stage in tears following harassment and intimidation by the police.
What was more disturbing was the act of tear gassing the students.
Ironically, by showing deliberate effort to curtail the performance of the play, the government has inadvertently created enormous public interest in it. Indeed the play, which is set in a fictitious kingdom ruled by a sultan who is uncomfortable with the youth who protest against his leadership, aptly mirrors the situation in the country.
It is quite worrying that in this day and age, we are witnessing attempts to muzzle artistic expression, which is enshrined in Article 33 of the Constitution. Attempting to silence students from expressing themselves through art is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and those involved should be brought to book.
The role of drama is to portray the issues the society is riddled with in a bid to create awareness and trigger social change.
Educational institutions are also tasked with bringing out the artistic talents in learners. This is what Competency-Based Curriculum is all about.
The actions by the security apparatus must be condemned in the strongest terms. The government must resist the urge to take the country to the dark epoch of repression and curtailment of freedoms.
The writer is a teacher. vnandiemo@gmail.com.