KENYA-THEATRE: Politics and Performance

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

L. Muthoni Wanyeki

NAIROBI, Apr 16 1996 (IPS) - Drama is the tool a group of concerned Kenyans have selected to plant the democratic seed in people’s hearts here.

“We can remove one regime after another, but if the rules of the game remain the same, there is no change,” explains Kang’ara wa Njambi, author of the satirical plays, ‘Paukwa’ (‘story’ in Kiswahili) and ‘Five Centuries’.

“The rules have to be re-examined and changed to be fair to everyone,” says wa Njambi. The plays, he says, bring some burning issues to the footlight, after which “the action has to move from the stage”.

The plays, which premiered last month, are scheduled to tour the coastal, central, Rife Valley and Western provinces. The tour is part of a civic education campaign sponsored by Kenya Tuitakayo (The Kenya We Want), an opposition group otherwise known as the Citizens’ Coalition for Constitutional Change.

The Coalition aims to provoke constitutional debate in the runup to the 1997 general elections. As part of this effort, the theatre performances are followed by discussions between actors and the audience, encouraged by a “facilitator”.

“We need to talk about the reasons why we need to talk about the constitution, the problems we face as a nation,” says wa Njambi. “The idea was not to give solutions, but to bring about some discussion on how to tackle our problems.”

“We hope the plays will get the message across to a specific target group: rural communities,” he adds. “The other materials we have for civic education, brochures, pamphlets, and so on, even the ones in Kiswahili and local languages, we’ve found too technical. They haven’t inspired many people to connect constitutional issues with their daily lives.

“Workshops and seminars may be good in some instances, but they don’t reach ordinary folk.”

Erastus Wamugo, the Coalition’s project co-ordinator, says the plays’ Mar. 4 premiere was encouraging. “The audience response … was very good, very encouraging. Although people laughed throughout the performance, the laughter eased the tension and there was a great discussion afterwards.”

This success is a tribute to the plays’ humourous and skilfull approach to topical issues such as police brutality.

“Amri ni sheria, na sheria ni amri (‘Order is law and law is order’),” runs a police officer’s explanation in Paukwa in a scene depicting brutal suppression of peaceful protest.

Performed in Kiswahili, Paukwa addresses land rights, a burning issue in a country where politicians and public administrators have been wont to grab land for themselves. (MORE)

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