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.
School drama rules have been revised to impose a sweeping ban on political messaging as this year’s national competition opens.
The brief clause that was introduced into the 2026 Kenya National Drama and Film Festival performance guidelines has changed the content of the plays, dances, verses and other artistic pieces to be presented at the event that begins today at Kagumo Teachers Training College in Nyeri County.
The revised guidelines prohibit items considered to have “political propaganda, partisan campaigning, or ridicule of public officials”.
The new rule appears to have been introduced after last year’s spectacle, where a play, “Echoes of War”, by Butere Girls sparked controversy that sucked in the management of the school, the courts, the Executive and the public. The play was written by Cleophas Malala, the deputy party leader of the Democracy for the Citizens Party.
At the time, President William Ruto hinted at stricter control of the content of items performed at the festival.
“There is more to celebrate as a country than negativity. As president, I will not allow this beautiful country to go down the drain because of leaders who want to satisfy their selfish agenda. I ask politicians to leave learners alone and take their politics elsewhere. We’re ready for them in the political arena,” the president said during the winners’ State concert at State House, Nakuru.
“As leaders, parents and teachers, we will not allow the minds of our children to be corrupted by anyone. We must protect our children from paedophiles, drug peddlers and predators who want to corrupt them with negative ethnicity and negative politics. We will deal with such people decisively,” he added.
A crowd escort a school bus ferrying Butere Girls’ students from Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru on April 10, 2025. The learners refused to perform the ‘Echoes of War’ play in the ongoing National Drama and Film Festivals.
The new rule seems to have knocked out of the festival last year’s winner of the play category, Moi High School, Mbiruri from Embu County. A source aware of the controversy told the Nation it was because the school was deemed to have gone against the guidelines since its play satirically made reference to Singapore.
The source said: “The play was not allowed because it’s all about the Singapore issue.”
Singapore has been used repeatedly by President Ruto in his rhetoric that he wants to catapult Kenya to First World status using the example of the Asian country. However, the opposition has often mocked the idea, terming it a pipe dream due to the various problems Kenya is facing.
The satirical play, The Gap, revolves around Mathenge, a struggling motivational speaker who is trying to make ends meet. He has a wife, Nancy, from whom he had separated a long time ago, although they had a son, David, who is now a teenager. Nancy, over the years, became successful and is travelling to Singapore for vacation. She decides to take the son to live with his father (Mathenge). However, the differences in their ages and not having bonded earlier brings a lot of conflict between the two.
The play was ranked fourth in the Eastern Regional festivals. While some fourth and even fifth-placed plays in some regions were allowed to go to the nationals after appealing, the Mbiruri play was not given any respite.
The source said that the effect of the no-politics directive is that playwrights and directors have been walking on eggshells, scrambling to remove anything that could be deemed political.
“I have to deviate from politics and deal with other topics that I’m not very comfortable with. I am more comfortable with political writing,” the person said.
By the time of going to press, the chair of the national festival, Prof CJ Odhiambo, had only responded to our enquiry regarding the new clause with a simple “Not true” message.
The Nation spoke with other people who have been involved in preparing learners for this year’s festivals. It also interrogated this year’s drama rulebook, which one of the directors told us was created and expanded “to cut Cleophas Malala to size”.
The Butere Girls play “Echoes of War” which touched on police brutality and youth protests. Mr Malala has in the past been involved in scripting and directing plays that drew controversy.
A cheering crowd escorts a school bus carrying Butere Girls from Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru during the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival on April 10, 2025.
“Most of the censorship happened in the rulebook, which is published every year,” said one seasoned director, who was categorical that this year’s targeted items had political themes.
Veteran playwright and director Joe Murungu told the Nation that he escaped a ban last year when the Butere Girls play faced trouble with the Ministry of Education.
Banned the wrong play
“I had a similar play, and then someone wrote that they banned the wrong play; that they should have banned mine,” he said. “So, this year, I was very cautious. I just wrote a simple social message; nothing else.”
Mr Murungu said rules have been changing over the years, touching on issues like the place of teachers and non-school staff in training students.
“Malala just escalated the whole issue,” he said.
Some observers have noted that the culling of political themes has made this year’s festivals bland.
“Their reasoning was that there are a lot of stories without political messaging; that there are a lot of socio-economic stories that you can talk about without being politically direct,” said one director whose items have reached the East Africa level. The director said that plays that had political messaging barely went beyond the earliest stages of the competition.
“It is the [Education] ministry that appoints the adjudicators, and the adjudicators represent the government,” the source said.
This year’s rulebook also has a provision revisiting one of the sticky matters around “Echoes of War”—the allegation that the script was altered along the way.
“Once an item has been adjudicated and approved for presentation at the next level of the festival, no substantive alterations shall be made to the script or its content,” the rulebook states. “Only minor adjustments for clarity, language refinement, or time compliance may be permitted, provided such changes do not affect the original theme, storyline, structure, or intent of the piece as adjudicated.”
“The presentation of a new, unadjudicated, or substantially revised script at any subsequent level of the festival shall constitute a serious breach of these rules and shall attract automatic disqualification,” the rule book further states, adding that even after winning, if it is discovered that a script was altered, the award can be withdrawn.
A cheering crowd escorts a school bus carrying Butere Girls from Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru on April 10, 2025. The girls declined to perform their play, 'Echoes of War', instead opting to sing the national anthem during the ongoing National Drama and Film Festival.
The regulations also indicate that all disputes ought to be solved through internal mechanisms. They also touch on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), indicating that playwrights are allowed to use it to a maximum of 20 percent of the total creative output.
“Institutions shall ensure that any AI-assisted content is properly disclosed and does not replace the learner’s own creative input,” the rule book states.
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Additional reporting by Anthony Njagi.
