Kenya’s Pro-Censorship Culture Will Damage Lives

On February 13, Ian Njenga, a high school Fine art student at Bahati Boys in Nakuru town, located 157 kilometers North West of Nairobi, in the Rift Valley region was expelled from school over what the school’s administration termed as demonic drawings.

Njenga’s expulsion comes in the backdrop of a trashed proposal by the Kenya Film and Classification Board through a draft Films, Stage Plays and Publications Act last year that gave the board discretionary powers to determine art and creative works as objectionable contrary to what the Board permits for public consumption.

The Board has also received strong criticism for its overzealous censorship that has been stretched from films regulation to censorship of podcasts, social media, and commercials.

While the attempt to introduce draconian regulations for creative sector might have backfired, the pro-censorship mindset has already been installed in many people’s minds.

Njenga’s case is a stark example of the chilling effect of a pro-censorship mentality stemming from such bad laws.

One of Njenga’s drawings of a lady’s silhouette in a suspended position with wings attached to it plus intricate graffiti fonts below it must have perhaps caused his ‘investigators’ much consternation.

It is an eccentric work of art that should not warrant a suspension but rather foresighted artistic nurturing by his teacher.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 explicitly guarantees the freedom of artistic creativity in Article 33(1) (c) and also explicates the impermissible forms of expression as those that entail propaganda for war, incitement to violence, hate speech, or advocacy for hatred.

Additionally, Article 24 of the Kenyan constitution also outlines that   rights might only be limited ‘by law, and then only to the extent that the limitation is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society’.

To claim that innocent works of art by an art prodigy are ‘demonic’ is to indignify this young man contrary to Article 28 of the constitution which states that everyone’s dignity should be ‘respected and protected.

This fear of the uncommon emanates from the same phobia disorder that birthed homophobia, xenophobia, tribalism, and racism – repellent tones of social organization.

Notably, all of these repellent attitudes are not institutionalized in any way through outright laws.

In cases where there were laws or attempts to introduce them, they were successfully trashed by those who adopted a human rights approach to human relations, and how those relations should not be regulated by the state.

Phobia narratives appeal easily to people’s emotions rather than their rationality.

When such dismissive and divisive positions are deposited into people’s minds, they unsettle and corrode their appreciation of inalienable human rights like that of expression.

Resultantly, while there might not be any legal contestations around how to regulate film, art, and literature, some Kenyans, especially those in positions of authority, are predisposed to a binary appreciation of what pertains to the domain of morality and what does not.

It only took Njenga hurtles eccentric art work to be expelled from school despite not having a single disciplinary case in the four years he has been in high school.

The headteacher, backed by the school’s board, is adamant in not readmitting Njenga to the school.

In fact, he was recorded as saying that in place of snakes and scorpions, which Njenga also drew, he could have drawn inspiration from cows or even done portraits of other students.

Inspiration, and art, do not work like that.

This pro-censorship mentality curbs self-actualization and inhibits people’s imaginations – features of a self-defeating democracy.

The corrosion so far of a human rights based appreciation of what pertains to morality can be undone in several ways.

First, we should encourage reading of human rights literature in schools for both students and teachers.

Such literature promotes basic values of human rights through realistic and fictional depictions of life.

Second, plans by the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Loans Board to give more money to students pursuing sciences as opposed to those pursuing arts and humanities should be dropped.

There should be proportionate funding for all courses.

Overfunding science learning at the chagrin of the arts and humanities produces a mechanical citizenry incapable of philosophizing outside the predetermined political arrangements.

Third, we should demand for integrity from our religious institutions. Our mega churches and mosques have failed to deliver mega integrity.

While it is in society’s interest that learners adopt an upright direction in life as they grow older, we should not subject students to our failed moralist strictures.

Moreover, in these times of ideological clashes, religious institutions should strive to order society towards integrity as opposed to contestations of what is more moral than the other.    

As in Ian Njenga’s case who might fail to be readmitted or be admitted to another school and sit for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams without state and activists’ intervention, the prevailing pro-censorship culture will affect and damage many people’s lives.

As in Ian Njenga’s case who even upon readmission might be termed as being a member of a cult, the prevailing pro-censorship culture will affect and damage many people’s lives.

It must be tamed early enough.

This article was published in the April 2017 edition of THE PLATFORM maagazine (theplatform.co.ke)