Terrorism takes centre stage in Day Four of drama festival

Alwiya Abdalla and Aisha Mohammed in the play ‘Bank 13’ by Waa Girls High School during the Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival at Kagumo Teachers College in Nyeri yesterday. [PHOTO: GEORGE ORIDO/STANDARD]

By GEORGE ORIDO

Nyeri, Kenya: As schools and colleges continued celebrating their creativity in drama, various themes came into play, including the terror attacks that have hit the country.

Waa Girls High School from Mombasa had the audience glued to their seats with an action-packed play Bank 13 depicting the dire straits the country has been in especially with respect to Westgate terror attack witnessed last year.

Set in a fictitious country in Africa, the play written by M’Baruk Mwalimu and Dennis Fondo looks at the incompetence and pure corruption that has let people of bad intentions to rein terror on this nation at will.

In Bank 13, some serious terrorist attacks are stage-managed by authorities to cover up for wrongdoing and receive bribes protecting terrorists.

The use by the police spokesperson after a siege at Bank 13, rivals sheer deceit, manipulation and a security apparatus wallowing in the miasma of falsehoods. In the end, freedom is restricted and innocent people become victims during arbitrary raids on ‘suspected terrorists.’

Moi University made a strong entry into the festival on its day Four with a play Let There Be written and directed by Dr Fred Mbogo and Dr Evans Mugarizi. The play takes the audience through the trials and triumphs of Man and zeroes in on the core of his very existence. It is a mirror on human freedom and the hurting that comes with loss of it.

When from Highway High School, Daniel Owira of the Otonglo Time fame hit the stage, there was so much expectations and the imposing auditorium at Kagumo Teachers Training College was full to the brim.

The thorny issue of teenage pregnancy as a result of abuse by teachers seemed to have been a common thread as Kamothai Girls’ Technical High School attacked the subject in a colourful rendition of the verse Comedy of Errors.’

Other presentations of the day included Kakamega High School with a French play La Reapparation, Likoni Secondary School with a modern dance Freedom Fighters, Riara Girls with Roots of Dishonour, Sacho High with a French solo Maman Cherie and Eldoret Polytechnic with a solo Holy Ways of Dirges.