Controversial school play sparks chaos at Kenya drama competition
Kenya's national high-school drama competition has been overshadowed by drama of its own after police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that had gathered to watch a controversial play.
The play, Echoes of War, highlights the role of digital spaces in governance and the power of youth in shaping societal change - with close parallels to Kenya's current political situation.
It was initially disqualified from the drama festival under unclear circumstances, but a High Court ruling later overturned the decision and ordered it to be included.
Tensions flared in the western town of Nakuru on Thursday morning when students stormed out of the venue, demanding the release of the play's author.
Cleophas Malala, the scriptwriter and a former senator who penned the production for students from Butere Girls School, was blocked by police from meeting the students for final rehearsals on Wednesday evening.
Malala was later released without charge and praised the students for boycotting the play.
"The young girls of Butere Girls' have exercised an act of heroic restoration. I'm determined to ensure that Echoes of War is displayed before a Kenyan audience," Malala said immediately after his release.
The students briefly sang the national anthem before dramatically leaving the hall, which was sealed off by anti-riot police, armed with batons and tear gas canisters.
"There's no audience. Who are we performing for?" one of the girls told journalists.
They also complained about police harassment.
Following news of Malala's arrest, large crowds had gathered outside the venue curious to watch the play.
But anti-riot police had been deployed overnight in case of trouble and they fired tear gas to disperse the would-be audience.
Education Minister Julius Ogamba questioned the involvement of Malala in the competition, saying the politician was neither a teacher nor a play director.
The row has sparked public uproar, with rights group Amnesty International saying it was "pointing to a worrying pattern of state-sponsored repression of free expression, press freedom, and the right to associate".
Prominent opposition figure Kalonzo Musyoka condemned the police for firing tear gas near students, praising the "brave" girls for declining to perform.
In a statement, the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) demanded that the students be allowed to stage their play like all the other competitors.
The play highlights a widening gap between two generations - the old and the young - demanding change through innovation and technology.
It reflects some of Kenya's most pressing problems, some of which sparked youth-led deadly protests last year.
New faces of protest - Kenya's Gen Z anti-tax revolutionaries
Kenyan president's humbling shows power of African youth
Batons, tear gas, live fire - Kenyans face police brutality
How Kenya's evangelical president has fallen out with churches
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Africa Daily
Focus on Africa
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
The global impact of Trump vs. Musk
With help from Anthony Adragna and Aaron Mak Could Elon Musk's online slapfight with President Donald Trump put a dent in his global telecom ambitions? Musk's satellite broadband company Starlink has reaped massive gains since he became 'first buddy' to Trump. Numerous countries have cut red tape to approve Starlink this year, some reportedly under pressure from Trump's State Department. In some cases, countries appeared to be giving Starlink a green light in order to ingratiate themselves with the White House. Vietnam approved the service in February. In early May, the Democratic Republic of Congo granted Starlink a license. Later that month, South Africa eased laws that required telecom companies to provide 30 percent equity to groups that were historically marginalized — which could allow Starlink to start service without meeting the requirement. Now, Musk's feud with Trump raises the question of how Starlink will fare in future negotiations. Will countries feel the need to let it in? Will Trump go to bat for the company? 'When trade officials or when governments sit down for negotiations, you think about what horses you have to trade,' said a former Starlink executive, granted anonymity to speak freely. 'I don't even know if Starlink is a horse anymore.' Since Trump took office, a number of countries have granted licenses to Starlink, including India on Friday. The State Department reportedly pressed some of those countries, like Gambia and Cameroon, to approve the service. (As of late March, Starlink said it had coverage in 130 countries or territories.) Caleb Henry, director of research at the consulting firm Quilty Space, said U.S. diplomacy had helped Starlink get traction in hard-to-reach places. 'Starlink has already received market access in the easiest countries and the mid-tier countries,' he said. 'What's left is the hard countries. That's where the State Department gets involved.' Henry and other telecommunications veterans who spoke to DFD said this wasn't necessarily unusual: The State Department often lobbies for U.S. companies, and in that sense, Starlink was enjoying the same support that Boeing or the satellite companies Iridium and Globalstar have received in the past. Blair Levin, a telecoms expert who served in senior roles at the Federal Communications Commission under Democratic administrations, said he has seen an unconventional element in the State Department's discussions over Starlink: They're tying in the White House's tariff policy as well. Consider the case of Lesotho. According to The Washington Post, the landlocked African country was hunting for a way out of 50 percent tariffs announced by Trump. Then in April this year it granted Starlink a license. According to the Post, the State Department noted that development in an internal memo: 'As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.' The State Department did not confirm or deny the report, but said, 'Any patriotic American should want to see an American company's success on the global stage, especially over compromised Chinese competitors.' The embassy of Lesotho did not respond immediately to questions about the report. Said Levin: 'Embassies often represent the interests of U.S.-based companies. That's not unusual. But to tie tariff negotiations to certain companies, that's very unusual.' Satellite policy expert Ruth Pritchard-Kelly concurred. 'I can't say I've ever seen a country begging the U.S. not to do something catastrophic, saying 'look, we've even licensed your best friend's satellite service, please don't impose tariffs on us,'' she said. So what now? If Musk remains on the outs with Trump, he could become a global liability for the company, Pritchard-Kelly said: 'If Lesotho is actually worried about the U.S. imposing tariffs on them, then aligning themselves with this tech, which is currently run by someone who is persona non grata to Trump, could be a problem.' So far, the Musk-Trump feud has largely played out online, and Trump has not followed up on his threats to cancel the government's SpaceX contracts. But Trump has other buttons he could push to make Musk's life hard, said Pritchard-Kelly. One is withdrawing Starlink's license to operate in space. 'It's never happened, but I think if Trump really wanted to rattle Musk he would say, 'I'm going to pull your license,'' she said. The former Starlink executive said the State Department — and the government more broadly — could also pose subtle obstacles to the company, such as by slow-rolling approvals or giving less weight to Starlink's comments on federal policy. 'There are other disadvantages that could come to Starlink or other Musk companies just because they're no longer considered a favored son,' the person said. In the longer term, Musk's falling out with Trump is likely to spur other countries to keep investing in their own systems, according to satellite analyst Tim Farrar. On Friday, top lawmakers in the European Parliament wrote to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, asking her to set aside €60B for space – including the EU's IRIS2 satellite communications network. 'You're going to have people who want to see IRIS2 going forward taking advantage of the risk of Musk threatening he could just decommission things at random,' Farrar said. But it will be 'years, if ever' before rival internet services have the muscle to match Starlink's 7,000-plus satellites, he said, even as Chinese companies and Amazon's Project Kuiper race to launch their own constellations. 'The State Department has to promote U.S. satellite interests over Chinese satellite interests,' Farrar added. 'For the time being, Starlink's the only game in town.' Vance Talks AI and Data In an hour-and-a-half-long appearance on comedian Theo Von's podcast over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance got into some heady tech topics. Von, whose 4 million YouTube subscribers have made him a fixture of online bro culture, tends to be skeptical of both Big Tech and Big Government. So it might be natural that Vance took an anti-establishment line on AI laws and data collection. On AI: Vance talked about the Republicans' proposal for a 10-year moratorium preventing states from regulating AI — an idea that, to many people's surprise, surfaced in the House reconciliation bill and made it to the Senate. He was skeptical of its chances on procedural grounds ('To be honest with you, I don't think that's going to make it in the final bill'), and then channeled his inner law student by laying out the populist case for both sides of the moratorium debate. Explaining why he might be in favor, Vance suggested the moratorium could stop liberal bias from infecting AI systems: 'You basically have a federal regulation that prevents, like, California from having a super progressive set of regulations on artificial intelligence.' On the other side, Vance cited the ELVIS Act, which Tennessee's Republican legislature passed in March prohibiting the unauthorized use of AI to replicate singers' voices. Vance said it was reasonable to want to protect the likes of Taylor Swift and Robert Plant from having AI coopt their voices to generate new songs — an explanation that both Swifties and Led Heads might find convincing. On data collection, Vance advocated for more regulations, calling out iPads for tracking users' reading behaviors. He also made an intriguing reference to a national security briefing he reviewed, after quickly checking with a staffer to ensure that the info wasn't classified. 'Let's say you're reading a story from some random newspaper and you hover on a particular paragraph, your iPad is collecting that information on you … that is the stuff that really freaks me out,' he said. The particular data collection technique that Vance was referencing is unclear — the Vice President's office did not respond to DFD's inquiry by deadline. Apple also did not respond to DFD's question about the brief and how iPads track user activity. Vance was responding to Von's question about the administration's contracts with Palantir to help implement a March executive order for more data sharing between agencies. Vance – whose mentors include Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel – described the order as connecting pre-existing databases, rather than enabling additional data collection. 'We've got to live in reality and the government's already got this information,' he said. 'We just need to make sure they don't misuse it.' UK'S BIG AI BET With much of the tech world descending on the U.K. for London Tech Week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is doubling down on his plans to work 'in partnership' with businesses to harness the power of artificial intelligence for social good, POLITICO's Joseph Bambridge and Tom Bristow report. That commitment comes as the U.K. government prepares for a spending review this week that will set out its fiscal plans for the rest of this parliament. A government AI action plan released in January previously vowed to 'mainline' the technology throughout public services. Starmer said there is a responsibility to 'harness this unprecedented opportunity and to use it to improve the lives of working people.' 'Britain is once again, after years of chaos, a stable partner for investors that believes the future should be shaped by our democratic values, and that in this volatile world, is unequivocally, unashamedly, defiantly even, open for business,' the prime minister said Monday. Tech luminaries like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis mingled with Starmer at his country residence over the weekend. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
AP PHOTOS: Trump's new travel ban takes effect, and some protest
President Donald Trump's ban on travel to the United States took effect Monday. Demonstrators outside Los Angeles International Airport held signs protesting the ban affecting citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries. At Miami International Airport, passengers moved steadily through an area for international arrivals. Tensions are escalating over the Trump administration's campaign of immigration enforcement. The new ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don't hold a valid visa. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Politicians accused of Liberia parliament arson bailed
Liberia's former speaker and three other members of the House of Representatives have been released from prison after paying a bond of £325,000 ($440,000). Jonathan Fonati Koffa, Abu Kamara, Dixon Seboe and Jacob Debee were charged over their alleged role in the burning of the Capitol building last December. All four men face several charges, including arson, criminal mischief, attempted murder and other alleged offences. The huge blaze broke out at the parliament building a day after plans to remove Koffa as speaker sparked protests in the capital, Monrovia. Police value the damage at $8.6m. On Friday, Liberian police said there were "credible links" to suggest Koffa was "strategically involved" in the incident. Koffa has previously denied any connection to the fire. Lawmakers Kamara, Seboe and Debee - who are all members of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) party - were detained alongside Koffa on Friday in connection with the case. They spent a night in detention at the national police headquarters, before being transferred to the Monrovia Central Prison on Saturday, where they were held for two nights. Representative Priscilla Cooper has also been charged, but was not detained due to ill-health. The court has placed a travel ban on the accused pending the conclusion of the case. The blaze on 18 December last year destroyed the entire joint chambers of the West African nation's legislature. No one was inside the building at the time. The day before had seen tense protests over the plans to remove Koffa, with demonstrators including an aide to former President George Weah arrested. Several individuals, including Koffa and Representative Frank Saah Foko, were brought in for questioning by police. Foko, a prominent figure in the House of Representatives, allegedly uploaded a video to Facebook in which he said: "If they want us to burn the chambers, we will burn it." Liberia's House of Representatives has been beset by a long-running power struggle. Koffa had been locked in a stand-off with his political opponents, with dozens of lawmakers voting for his impeachment last October over accusations of poor governance, corruption and conflicts of interest. Although the bid to impeach him fell short of the two-thirds majority required, the group of 47 lawmakers who had voted for the move unilaterally appointed their own speaker. Last month, Koffa resigned as speaker after months of political deadlock. Plane carrying Liberian president involved in landing scare Life begins at 40? Africa's legendary veteran footballers Liberian star JZyNO: Kendrick Lamar is a prophet to me Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa