Bloggers, film makers and actors have challenged the Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) to change their attitude towards them as a pre-requisite to building trust in the ongoing review of the Film and Stage Plays Act.
At a forum hosted by the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) in partnership with Nation Media Group (NMG), they tasked KFCB’s Corporate Communications Manager Nelly Muluka to look at stakeholders are critical voices to the review process and not to patronize them. They took issue with KFCB CEO Ezekiel Mutua who called some of them drunkards and also reneged on an agreement to trash the review document and start afresh.
Wanuri Kahiu, an award winning film maker underlined respect as critical to building trust between stakeholders and the classification Board in order to find an amicable path. She said that the way the Board was addressing the stakeholders would not lead to a law that benefits either side which would be an exercise in futility.
Dr. Njoki Ngumi, Head of outreach and partnerships at The Nest challenged Nelly Muluka to table the names of stakeholders who she argued had written the memorandum to the Board seeking to have the current law reviewed. Nelly had argued that the process was not initiated by the Board but by stakeholders but when pinned to give the names, she did not.
Clifford Machoka, the Head of Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, NMG affirmed that the Bill affects almost every Kenyan going by its definition of distribution of content. He said that its provisions will make the Board a moral police, something that is unconstitutional and retrogressive.
The new law seeks to install KFCB as the new Kenyan moral police. Something we don’t need, he asserted.
He added that if the Bill becomes law, people will have to get a licence to take random videos on the road. One will also need police presence too, something that kills innovation and creativity.
Some Kenyans online took to social media during the forum to share their views
I wonder why we have ‘freedom of expression’ as a right if the government has to rule on what to do and not do with my fon
#StopTheFilmBill— IJAZA (@ijazafaith) November 8, 2016
I reject this bill in the strongest terms possible, and will continue to do so.#stopTheFilmBill#theGacharaDeclaration#stopTheLYING
— Abigail Arunga (@AbigailArunga) November 8, 2016
I reject this bill in the strongest terms possible, and will continue to do so.#stopTheFilmBill#theGacharaDeclaration#stopTheLYING
— Abigail Arunga (@AbigailArunga) November 8, 2016
One of the root causes of this might be the fact that people don’t think being an artist is a job.#stopTheFilmBill#stopTheLYING
— Abigail Arunga (@AbigailArunga) November 8, 2016
The problem with the country, and Africa in general, is that we have idiots running things and making decisions. #StopTheFilmBill
— Saukkke (@Saukkke) November 8, 2016
Nelly however assured the participants that their views will be incorporated alongside others when amending sections of the Bill they find offensive.