Veteran Kenyan actor Ian Mbugua, also popularly known as Judge Ian has commented over the incident that befell the Butere Girl’s students over the past few weeks. He says that it is very unfortunate that young girls were being subjected to such mental torture by what he terms as the government.
Ian says that these girls are woke and they are exposed to so many things that are happening in the country at the moment. From the Gen Z protests, poor governance and even corruption and total disregard to the constitution. And that by blocking them from saying performance ,it is only helping them to experience whatever injustices they have been hearing, and now making them experience it first hand.
Yesterday the Butere bus was teargassed with the learner’s inside, and this might be something that will never leave their minds for a long time. Also the night before, the script writer and director Cleopas Malala had been barred from accessing the village where they were spending in, and this meant that they were not able to do practices.
Then the name of Butere Girls had also been expunged from the regional list, that was supposed to be taken to the national festival. They were only allowed to proceed after a court injunction. They however got to stage but only sang the national anthem, refusing to perform because they had been denied some things they needed. Audience, microphone and there was supposed to be no videographer. They would later dash out claiming they couldn’t perform without their director.
Ian says that art is a reflection of the society and that people should be allowed to express art freely, so long as they don’t use offensive words. in his defense, Ian says that the learners didn’t cross any line and if they did then they would have been barred down at the subcounty or at the county level.
Mbugua further reveals that during his time they were supposed to send their scripts to Nayo house for approval before they would be allowed to perform, or stage. He says that at times it was very difficult because they would never know if they would be allowed to perform or not.
They only had to bank on hope while practicing. That meant their content was also regulated and that whatever was deemed harsh or offensive was struck out. But he says things have changed and now such things shouldn’t be witnessed.
Mbugua is famous for his role in the Tusker Project Fame, a show that aired on Citizen TV and brought some of the raw talents like Amos and Josh, among many. He spoke during an interview with NTV’s Fixing the nation.
By Kenyans