10 Apr Press Statement: Kongamano La Mapinduzi KLM Statement on Butere Girls Play and The Continued Silencing Of The Genz Movement.
She was just a girl.
A girl from a distant rural village where her first stage was the dusty back of her grandmother’s house. Her audience? Chickens, cousins, and a few curious neighbors. But her dream was vast. Her recited words were always powerful. Her acting talent was undeniable.
This year, she had finally made it to the national stage, the revered Kenya National Drama and Film Festival. A place where generations of Kenyan youth have told Kenya’s stories, critiqued Kenya’s politics, imagined new futures, and carved their place in the world of arts.
But this year, her dream was assassinated, not by chance, not by misfortune, but by a genocidal regime afraid of the truth.
Ruto’s regime banned the performance of a powerful, timely, and peaceful play, rehearsed for months and performed by the brilliant students of Butere Girls High School – a play critical of the government’s handling of the 2024 Gen Z protests. A play that dared to tell the truth. A play that exposed a dictator. A play that might have launched this young girl to South Africa’s film scene, to Cannes, to Hollywood, and to the world.
Instead, a dictator silenced her. Just as he has silenced hundreds of other young people through intimidation, enforced disappearances, torture, and cold-blooded murder—all for daring to dream of a better Kenya.
In a display of defiance, the girls of Butere Girls sang the national anthem instead. And when the final note echoed, the audience chanted boldly: “Ruto Must Go!”. They honored the stage, and they honored the Constitution. They did what artists have always done throughout Kenya’s history of resistance to oppression and domination—they resisted.
A Long, Proud Legacy—Now Under Siege
The Kenya National Schools Drama Festival has, for decades, been a sacred space for young Kenyans to explore political thought, societal issues, and cultural expression. It is through this very festival that our nation has birthed playwrights, filmmakers, journalists, and civic leaders.
In a nation where historically, political speech is punished and dissent is demonized, art has always been our language of resistance. That is exactly why despots like the butcher of Sugoi fear it.
Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have targeted artists first. Because they know that a people who can imagine a better world will one day rise to build it.
From Mussolini to Hitler, from apartheid South Africa to the darkest dictatorships of Latin America – poets, playwrights, and painters were jailed, banned, exiled, or killed. Because art speaks truth when politics lies. It builds unity of purpose when tyranny divides.
A Call to Action: Boycott the Festival in Solidarity
Kongamano La Mapinduzi (KLM) stands unequivocally with Butere Girls High School and all the young Kenyans whose voices are being stifled by this criminal regime.
We call on:
- All schools scheduled to perform at the competition to withdraw their performances.
- All teachers, adjudicators, and organizers to stand with truth and in solidarity, reject a festival now tainted by state censorship.
Let this moment be the tipping point in the Kenyan art scene.
You can’t kill us and lead us. Period. RUTO MUST GO.
Signed,
Kongamano La Mapinduzi
Central Committee
10th April 2025