Rampant corruption dominates drama fete

Abuse of office and sleaze dominated the last day of the Westlands Sub-County edition of the annual Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival held at Nairobi School.

The hosts, Nairobi School presented a play Purge that depicted a Senator (Julius Levy) as hell-bent to kick out a new school principal (Daniel Macharia) who refused to buckle under pressure to steal school funds.

In his scheme, the heartless Senator tries to use his younger brother and a cook (Duncan Lufuta) to poison the principal.

But the plan goes awry after the food meant for the principal is accidentally taken by the senator’s son (Wilson Kahiga), the head boy of the school.

The senator’s evil scheme was exposed after the son was rushed to hospital. The play was directed by Rose Okello.

Ebeny Mbaire form Parklands Arya Girls High School presented a solo verse depicting the consequences of reckless driving and corruption among police on the road.

“Excruciating pain on this hospital bed, too deep,” goes part of the verse in a letter from the persona to the School bus driver.

The school also entertained with a choral verse, Kioo Darasani, in a playful rendition of challenges faced by adolescent students who have to balance class work and taking care of their looks.

Other schools that presented yesterday are State House Girls and St Georges Girls among others.

“I am happy to observe that this years’ performances were far much better than last years’ and we hope most of the items will proceed up to nationals,” said the chief guest and Sub-County Quality Assurance Officer Esther Kimani at the close of the festival.

The adjudicators Tsijne Buhere from Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, Lucy Ayoyi from Kumura School and Andrew Shikanda from St Patrick’s Primary School outlined areas of improvement for the next stage.

They noted that this year’s theme Enhancing National Integration through Theatre and Film was well tackled by the teams.

“But care must be taken to have subthemes that the audience can identify with, with ease because mostly it is of children,” said Mr Buhere.

He also decried melodramatic acting where the students occasionally shout unnecessarily and over-express in gestures.