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School plays not a threat to national security
Anti-riot police escort Butere Girls school bus which was ferrying students along 58 road in Nakuru after they declined to perform their play at Melvine Jones academy on April 10, 2025.
Is Kenya already a police state? Many thought it could not happen again after section 2A of the Kenyan constitution, which made it a dejure one-party state, was removed to make Kenya a multi-party democracy.
Incidents in the current governance process have taken the country back to where the Kanu regime had taken it for 24 years. The gains made since 1991, culminating in the ecstatic election of a truly representative government in 2002, where the NARC coalition under Mwai Kibaki came to power with a landslide and the unparalleled freedoms that Kenya enjoyed in terms of freedom of expression and assembly, are now threatened by a government that has become intolerant and autocratic.
It has slowly become a one-man show with a retinue of cheerleaders who help the system suffocate its citizens. George Orwell's book 1984 has come to life in Kenya, where the shadow of Big Brother looms large over all Kenyans. The recent utterances of the men in uniform, who are supposed to remain apolitical at all times, are a cause for concern.
The Defence Forces chief recently reminded Kenyans of the constitutional provision for the removal of the president. That is fine. But the tone and timing were calculated to be a veiled threat. The IG was much bolder, addressing a political rally. What did he tell Wananchi? "We are doing our job," he was quoted as saying.
So much has happened in the two and a half years that the Kenya Kwanza government has been in power. Though not everything has been negative and there have been some positive things, it is the threat to the freedoms of Kenyans to express themselves freely and point out flaws in the governance process that has been found wanting.
Those around the king have become so subservient that they applaud the evil that has been inflicted on the people who gave them the mandate to rule.
Politics has reared its ugly head in almost every sphere of life. Like in George Orwell's 1984, big brother is everywhere. It has even become scary to discuss politics in homes.
When the state machinery interferes in the most innocuous matters like schools drama festivals, as it used to do in the Baba na Mama era, then things are falling apart.
In Nigeria, writing and literature grew by leaps and bounds when the country was under permanent military rule. Great writers flourished and emerged when the generals were in power. The writings were quite critical of the way they handled things in Nigeria. But they never went for the jugular veins of the literati.
In Kenya, the government wants to control the freedom of choice of literature in schools. What about the storming of the school drama festivals in Nakuru by men in uniform? Yes, it is true that the government has to maintain law and order. But school drama is not a threat to national security.
David M. Kigo, Nairobi
