The writer is a criminologist, security expert and communication consultant /HANDOUT
When
the curtains opened for the National Drama Festival week in Nakuru, little did
we know that a stage play scripted by former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala
for Butere Girls High School would attract much state attention.
Historically, stage plays have always offered a variety of topical themes ranging from bad governance, retrogressive cultural practices, religion, corruption and drug abuse.
Straight to the elephant in the room; ‘Echoes of War’ masterpiece by Mr. Malala who has been in the business for the last 15 years is not just an ordinary script play that should just pass with the winds.
We have to call a spade a spade and not a big spoon by first accepting that the play is a Gen-Z theme masterpiece that artistically borders on events that have happened in Kenya; we had the Gen-Zs almost bringing down parliament in their quest to kick out some leaders.
The fact that the school had initially been banned from staging the now controversial play, it opens the lid on what should be an open discussion on the good and bad about the drama that ensued in Nakuru over the play.
We cannot take away the fact that Malala is christened as one of the best school playwrights in the country, whose work will occasionally attract resistance from the current regime.
To be honest about this, most presidents who rule as dictators would have imposed fake charges on him.
His play centres on a modern hierarchy of powerful authorities clashing with artificial intelligence and an angry youth population with religious undertones laced all over it.
A play that brings to the fore the power of technological machinery amidst bad governance, as the young people toil and yearn for realistic and sustained liberties.
This is the message Malala and our girls from Butere Girls are passing out there but within the context of literature, dramatized to neutralize it with comic relief and other artistic additives.
The biggest question here is to differentiate between Malala the writer and Malala the politician. That is if he ever stopped being a politician throughout the process and during the regrettable and unfortunate events that unfolded in Nakuru.
This is a well-thought-out piece of work that must have been staged without unnecessary drama.
Come to think of it, the majority of Kenyans had little whereabouts on the play.
If it had been performed, the play was supposed to depict a petulant young population eager to fight for liberation using digital spaces to shape society.
Yet, still in the Kenyan context, the angered population could make more
disastrous mistakes on the ballot if elections were called today.
The fact to take home is that ‘Echoes of War’ has political echoes of war and real systematic ‘echoes of war’ that have trapped the country in dungeons of poverty.
We
have to accept that literature, music and art in general might at times come in
packages-of bitter and sweet and will often not offer clarity with finality.
We should never hide behind the mirror but have the courage to confront the reality to unlock the clarity in all this work.
The writer is a criminologist, security expert and communication consultant.
