By Kiundu Waweru

The First Grader, a film that immortalises Kimani Maruge, the octogenarian who in 2003 shocked the world when he enrolled in school, made a triumphant premier at the Junction, Nairobi recently.

Most of the film was shot in Kenya, and the lead role (Maruge) played by the veteran Kenyan actor Oliver Litondo, who has appeared in many international films such as Sheena Queen of the Jungle, The Bongo and the Lion of Africa, Bush Trackers, among others

Jane Obinchu, the head teacher who enrolled Maruge to school at great personal risk, was played by Naomi Harris, better known for her role in the films Pirates of the Caribbean and Dead Man’s Chest.

Harris, who has Jamaican roots, has trouble imitating the Kenyan accent (and ends up sounding like a South African) although she and Litondo form a formidable team that deliver a compelling story.

Maruge (Oliver Litondo) in class with other school children. This was filmed on location at Oleserian Primary School in Kiserian.

Film director Justin Chadwick says the film is Kenyan: "I was a guest in this film," he told The Standard during the premier last week. "I only came with a small crew of nine, including some South African actors."

The First Grader was filmed on location in Kiserian, at Oleserian Primary School, where Chadwick says most children had never seen a TV set or a camera. The crew spent some time at the school, just getting used to the pupils. Chadwick says that the children slowly warmed up to them, with some calling him "Teacher Justin."

Great cinematography

Then gradually they introduced cameras to the milieu and the children were fine with them. "I adapted the characters within the film to the characters I saw in front of me," he explains.

What follows is great cinematography. Chadwick chooses a shy girl with disability for a lead role, as she becomes Maruge’s friend in class. To Maruge, the girl represents his own children who were plucked from his life prematurely by the British colonial masters, a sub-theme explored in the film.

The film starts with a radio commentator (played by Dan Ndambuki a.k.a Churchill), announcing that the Government had introduced universal primary education, which happened in 2003 when the National Rainbow Coalition took over.

Maruge listens from his bachelor’s hut and, clutching a letter addressed to him by the president, goes to school to learn how to read to be able to decipher the letter’s contents.

The letter compensates him for his role in the freedom struggle, although in real

Director Justin Chadwick in action. Photos: Kiundu Waweru/Courtesy/Standard

life, Maruge’s prime motivation for studying was to be able to read the Bible. The decision to replace the Bible with the letter is no doubt to give it a broader, non-partisan appeal.

In school, headmistress, Jane Obinchu, is overwhelmed by the large number of pupils seeking enrolment, and has to squeeze five pupils to a desk.

Then Maruge happens on the scene and Obinchu’s deputy, Teacher Alfred (Alfred Munyua) acts as the first hindrance to the 84-year-old’s quest for education.

Obinchu exerts her authority and admits Maruge despite the school inspector, Mr Kipruto (Vusi Kunene from South Africa) being against it.

Maruge sits in the front row and the children are at first mesmerised at his presence, but adapt slowly.

On his part, Maruge is plagued by memories from the 1950s, when his family is killed by the British, after which he retreats to the forest to join the Mau Mau, a movement he does not renounce even when captured.

The younger Maruge is played by budding Kenyan actor Lwanda Jawar, who also stars in Bob Nyanja’s The Rugged Priest, which chronicles the life of Father John Kaiser, the Mill Hill priest who died in controversial circumstances in Naivasha, Kenya.

There are many obstacles that stand in the way of Maruge’s educational dream, from his peers who ridicule him, to teachers who think he is going to be a distraction to others pupils’ learning.

As happened in the real life scenario, local and international press get wind of the story and descend on the dusty school where Maruge says proudly: "The power is in the pen."

Maruge is forced to attend an adult education centre with a bunch of hooligans and, desperate, Obinchu seeks audience with top education officials in Nairobi to make a case for Maruge’s admission to her school.

Her pleas fall on deaf ears but determined, she retains Maruge as a teaching assistant.

She receives threatening phone calls and it does not help matters that her marriage is on the rocks. Once, the school gets attacked.

Resolutely, Obinchu teaches Maruge after school hours and before long, she is transferred to another school in Turkana, some 500km away, as punishment for her intransigence.

Emotions run high during Obinchu’s send-off, but pupils reject the new head to replace her.