Mr Oliver Minishi and students of Fesbeth Academy, Kakamega, display their trophies on April 14, 2025. The school presented the second best play during the 63rd Kenya National Drama and Film Festival at Lohana Hall.
At the just concluded 63rd Kenya National Schools and Colleges Drama and Film Festival in Nakuru City, veteran thespian Oliver Minishi was in peerless company.
While some scriptwriters were showcasing their art for the first time at the festival, there were four scripts authored by Mr Minishi at the national festival and performed by different schools.
Oliver Minishi of Fesbeth Academy Kakamega at the 63rd Kenya National Drama and Film Festival at Nakuru Lions.
For 36 years (since 1989), the retired physics teacher has had an item performed at the national festival finals, save for 2020 when the festival was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even then, he would have made it but a lockdown of movement and school closure was put in place just after the regional festivals in March and would go on until the end of the year.
Oliver Minishi with Fesbeth Academy students and teacher at the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival in Nakuru.
Over the years, he has scripted over 50 plays that have been performed at national drama festivals; 17 of the plays have won the National Drama Festivals while several others have been in the runner-up positions.
The four scripts authored by Mr Minishi at the finals this year were Depredation (Fesbeth High School), The Catastrophe (Alliance Girls High School), The Final Deception (Fesbeth Junior School) and The Tempest (Mount Kenya University).
Mr Minishi is an icon in metaphoric scripting and directing. Most of his plays carry heavy socio-political messages but he has a way of dressing the hard truths in velvet to look harmless. Depredation, by The Fesbeth Academy, for instance, addressed the thorny issue of elections in Africa where campaigning for elective seats is a matter of life-and-death affair.
Best Actor Vincent Jomo and Best Actress Yvone Emily from Fesbeth Academy's play during the 63rd Kenya National Drama and Film Festival at Lohana Hall in Nakuru, on April 14, 2025.
It is about how greed for power can make people do anything to clinch power. It has a school setting where learners are electing their leaders. Although this is just an election by students, it is charged with the scheming, mudslinging and skulduggery associated with elections for higher political offices. The performance wasn’t without its own share of drama.
Emily Yvonne was the unlikely winner of the top award. Up to the time of the performance, she was acting as the mother to Laura (the main character in the play) but the designated Laura lost her voice. Minishi switched Emily from her role to play Laura. The cast had to do a lot of backstage prompting as the play progressed. Whenever she would go off-stage, she would quickly study the script before coming on stage. Finally, she pulled a great performance to be declared best actress of the festival.
However, the play was not among those selected to be performed before President William Ruto during the State Gala Performance at State House Nakuru on Wednesday last week.
Depredation was the second-best play in the secondary schools category. It also produced the best actor (Vincent Jomo) and best actress (Yvonne Emily) at the festival. It was adjudged the second-best play in English. It also got awards for; creative play and best costume and decor (2nd runner-up).
Mount Kenya University celebrates after its play The Tempest came second during the 63rd Kenya National Drama and Film Festival held at Menengai High School on April 14, 2025. The play was written by Oliver Minishi.
The Tempest also took position two in the universities category. The final deception was also number two in the junior school category.
The play by Alliance Girls High School was adapted and directed by Brammuel Asige Silingi alongside Emis Njabani Lawrence Mwai. The Catastrophe is about the customs and beliefs of the people of a community called Talai. Weigh Gladys, a young girl has a child who the community believes is the sole cause of the many calamities ravaging the land. Gladys had got pregnant against the doctrines of the land and her child faces death.
Silingi also adapted and directed The Tempest staged by MKU.
Owing to its achievement at the festival, Fesbeth Academy (where Mr Minishi is director) will be among Kenyan schools to perform during the East Africa Dance, Drama and Music Festival scheduled for August 2025 in Tanzania.
The Fesbeth Junior School team scooped the Most Promising Actress award. Their play was also awarded the best play (Equity Theme) and took home Sh100,000 from Equity Bank Group which is one of the main sponsors of the festival. They also produced a winning solo verse in French.
Other plays Mr Minishi scripted and which went ahead to win at the national festivals include A Step in Mind (Butere Girls High School), Metamorphosis (later adapted into a film, Metamo) The Storm, The Cross, Reverberation (all with Kakamega School), Nail in the Flash (Nanyuki High School) and Mosaic (Fesbeth Academy).
Alliance Girls High School presents the play The Catastrophe during the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival at Menengai High School. The play was scripted by Oliver Minishi and adopted and directed by Asige Silingi Bramwel.
The physics teacher got inspired to write plays way back in 1979 while in Form III at Musingu High School when he wrote his first play, The Curse which was performed at Kenya National Theatre which was then the venue for the schools drama festival. He says that he was inspired to script by playwrights like Athol Fugard, Austin Bukenya, Francis Imbuga, and Barnabas Kasigwa.
“I'm trained in artistic matters like drama, music and elocutions I pursued and attained a master’s degree in Theatre Arts and Film, graduating in 2019. The thesis of my master’s degree was “Construction of the Theme of Drugs and Substance Abuse in the Play Genre at the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festivals (2013 – 2015)”, he said.
He has written and directed plays while at Butere Girls before moving to Bungoma High School where he scripted and directed The Ladder, which also won at the national finals. Mr Minishi then moved to Kakamega School.
When Mr Minishi was transferred to Koyonzo Secondary School, he continued his passion for drama and scripted Mr Kipenzi. He went back to Kakamega School as a principal.
Students from Fesbeth High School in Kakamega County perform their play entitled Depredation during the third day of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival at Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru County on April 9, 2025.
Mr Minishi currently teaches theatre arts at Kenyatta University. He runs the Fesbeth Schools where performing arts is one of the pathways that the school offers. Away from drama, Mr Minishi is also an author.
“I have achieved a lot in publishing Physics books from 1988 to 2022. I have authored and revised the following physics textbooks with the Kenya Literature Bureau; Secondary Physics Book 1 to 4, Secondary Physics, A Practical Approach, Sterling Performances (Revision Guide for Secondary Schools),” he told Nation at Melvin Jones Academy in Nakuru City on the sidelines of the national drama finals.
“I also facilitate and train physics teachers in the teaching of physics since I’m a trained national physics examiner,” Mr Minishi said.
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