Butere girls students protest at Melvin Jones in Nakuru during the 63rd edition of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival on April 10,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]
The National Drama and Film Festivals would ordinarily pass as a thrilling season for art lovers and a moment for young people to demonstrate their raw and pure talent. In many such festivals, some actors have not only found their breakthrough into stardom, but also have had their careers and livelihoods redefined.
However, this year, it seems we have a found an unintended new version of heroes courtesy of government functionaries meddling in the Butere Girls High School drama piece titled ‘Echoes of War’. From the face of it, many things do not make sense as to why senior people in government would choose to meddle with such a play late into the festivals.
If anyone wanted to silence this perceived radical form of expression and demonstration of the evils of our current public leadership, why wait until the play has gone through the lower layers of the competitions to the national level? Is it not common sense that by the time it is at the national level thousands of fans of the festivals have already watched and recorded it through different digital platforms?
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By Patrick Muinde