Lack of exposure holds back Kenya’s film industry

By Sahil Gada

Kenya: Fortune favours the bold. This was the scenario when Lupita Nyong’o gracefully accepted the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Patsey (a young female slave) in the critically acclaimed 12 Years a Slave. 

The Kenyan-Mexican actress was born in Mexico City, Mexico to Dorothy and Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o who was a Kenyan politician. Lupita started her acting career at the tender age of 14.

The first character she portrayed was of Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at a famous repertory playhouse in Nairobi called The Phoenix Players.

Deserved recognition

Lupia was an upcoming talent who later moved to the United States for further studies. She came down to Kenya occasionally.

During her holidays in the country, she assisted on the sets of The Constant Gardener, acted in a Kenyan television series Shuga, and also produced, wrote and directed a documentary about Kenya’s endangered albino population.

This talent then migrated to Hollywood where she attained the much-deserved recognition, something she was not successful at doing in the Kenyan film industry. This was a gain for Hollywood.

Policy

Lupita is amongst thousands of talented individuals who are leaving Kenya to gain success and recognition elsewhere in their respective fields of artistry, especially film.

The reasons are quite straightforward. The local film industry lacks exposure, returns and profitable strategic business relationships amongst the Government, public and the private sectors. This is according to the latest report by the Kenya Film Commission.

This report reveals that despite the industry having the ability to generate over Sh40 billion and create over 250,000 jobs, it will not flourish unless some major issues are solved.

According to the report, one of the main issues is the lack of a Kenya national film policy. Several drafts have been worked on over the past 15 years, but nothing has transpired.

The film industry has tremendous potential to boost other key sectors generating the nation’s wealth. The progress for the inception of the policy has faced yet another roadblock, the conformity of the 2010 Constitution.

The current national film and television industry structure is not optimal to cater for the present-day needs of the industry.

The report mentions that bodies like the Kenya Film Commission (KFC), Kenya Film Classification Board, Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, Kenya Film Censorship Board and Department of Film Services (DFS) does not have the potential to handle the industry needs.

Decision makers

Some solutions that have been proposed are the creation of a policy drafting team, and restructuring and recruitment of new decision makers from the public, with high involvement from the Government.

What the report lacks is an in-depth analysis on the reasons for why these organisations are unable to function under the present circumstances. This begs the question: If the current problems haven’t been studied by paying enough attention to detail, how effective are the solutions?

The 17-page report brings to attention some genuine problems and solutions.

However, in a country where talent is being covered by a blanket of the advertising industry monopoly and hierarchical governmental management conflicts, it is impossible to sustain true endowment.

The Kenyan talent market provided Lupita with a springboard for her skills to grow, but she left for bigger and better opportunities.

The reason is appropriate — due to the bureaucratic industry and its lack of incentives towards pure artistry and aptitude. In such circumstances, nourishing talent of the Kenyan market for the Kenyan market is not possible.

Our film industry is at a brink of boosting to great heights in a very short time.

This will only be possible when the hierarchical conflicts in management and governmental systems are resolved and incentives are provided to deserving and blossoming talent.

The writer is a journalism student at the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi.