There is room still to grow drama festival

The season is once again here. The national drama festival began in Nakuru on April 7 and ends on Wednesday. Schools, technical institutions and universities have spent time and money to ensure their teams reach the finals of the annual Kenya National Drama Festival.

The 56-year-old event has undergone some metamorphosis, ranging from stylistic devices to the quality of items, artistes, adjudicators and the organising committee.

However, there are a few grey areas.  Since the early 1990s, a major complaint from the adjudicators has been on the need to have students and their teachers produce their items. Playwrights, choreographers and directors are usually hired from outside school.

The saga that beset Butere Girls High School in Kakamega County in 2013 over their play, "Shackles of Doom" is still fresh. The matter was later resolved in court.

The play had been written and directed by Cleophas Malala, who was not a teacher at this school.

A principal of a secondary school told this writer that the “consultants” fleece schools, being paid as much as Sh150,000.

In 1979, the same Butere Girls School was locked out of the nationals with their play, "The Living Dead", then written and directed by one of the teachers, who today is a senior lecturer at Kenyatta University.

Dr Kisa Amateshe had displayed the shortcomings of leaders. Then, freedom was limited. The school was later allowed to perform it.

Scholars of theatre say it is a powerful tool through which useful messages can be relayed to the public. Theatre is a mirror of our society. This year, some themes around UhuRuto, Al-Shabaab, Kapedo have featured.

A veteran thespian since his days at Eregi Teachers Training College, Patrick Khaemba, who is the executive secretary to the committee, will be performing his last act.

The Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, has reorganised the running of co-curricular activities putting the festival under a Deputy Director of Education.

Though winners get only trophies, in the late 1990s, a fund to aid best performing students was mooted.

A fundraising was held at the Kenya Science Teachers College in Nairobi. It is not known what became of the initiative. Such a fund would have taken care of students who excelled in drama during their time, but are today languishing in poverty.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has been quick to appreciate talent as has been witnessed on several occasions key among them his intervention in the lives of Daniel Owira, who performed Otonglo Time in 2013 and six-year-old Emily Nyambura who recited "Mvua Hii", last year.

There lives have never been the same since they met the President.

But how about the teachers who nurture the talents? They also ought to be rewarded in one way or another. The Jubilee manifesto has promises such as putting up film academies. Let us hope that this will be realised by 2017. Nigerian film star Patience Ozokwor, popularly known as Mama G, who was in Kenya recently, said her government had supported film by putting up film villages, thus reducing the cost of production.

If these grey areas are adequately addressed, the festival can only get stronger.