'Echoes of War' play: An open letter to leaders: Don't make children associate truth with danger

Since childhood, I have been irresistibly drawn to the transformative power of the arts. Long before I understood the weight of constitutional rights or the complexity of national policy, I knew deep in my spirit that art is light.

Drama, poetry, storytelling, song, and spoken word have always offered a mirror to society and a window to healing.

Whether through the verses I’ve penned, the monologues I’ve delivered, or the scripts I’ve written, I have always believed in the sacred role of the creative voice. Not as entertainment alone, but as truth.

As resistance. As healing. As hope. 

It Is from this place, with my heart torn and my conviction unshaken, that I write this open letter.

What happened to Butere Girls High School and their powerful stage performance “Echoes of War” is not just an injustice, it is a national embarrassment.

A moral and legal betrayal. The kind of betrayal that creeps silently into systems and strangles expression, stifles truth, and teaches our young people that honesty is dangerous.

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, is not a suggestion. It is the supreme law.

Article 33 grants every person, including students, the right to freedom of expression, including artistic creativity. Article 10 calls for all public officers to uphold national values and principles of governance, among them, participation, integrity, and transparency.

Article 55 obligates the state to ensure youth have opportunities for political, social, and cultural engagement. Yet these very rights were crushed underfoot when students, acting within the parameters of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival framework, were punished for daring to speak the truth on stage.

Echoes of War was not a rebellion. It was not an act of defiance. It was a bold reflection of lived experiences, shaped by history, truth, and national pain.

It was Kenya’s children standing up to say, “We see what is happening. We know our history. We do not want to repeat it.”

That, in every sane and democratic society, is called civic education. That is called patriotism. But in the twisted reality that now confronts us, these students were instead met with censorship, threats, and exclusion.

If public officers, politicians, or government agencies were indeed behind the suppression of this artistic piece, as several reports from credible media platforms suggest, then we are facing something far worse than mere censorship.

We are looking at the weaponization of fear against children. Against learning. Against expression.

How did we get here? How did the same society that applauds drama during national celebrations turn around to punish truth because it was “too real”?

Why do we celebrate creative expression only when it flatters power, but crush it when it calls power to account? How can we continue to claim that we are nurturing holistic learners under CBC, yet teach them to cower, to self-censor, to hide truth in their own stories?

What happened to Butere Girls is unacceptable.

It goes against the Constitution, against the purpose of education, against the ethics of leadership, and against the soul of a nation that claims to champion youth.

And let it be known, we will not be silent when students are being taught that to tell the truth is to invite punishment.

Because if the youth are silenced today, the country will bleed tomorrow.

This is a call to action, not coated in politeness or diplomacy, but grounded in moral urgency and legal clarity.

There must be an independent investigation into the silencing of Echoes of War, and the students, teachers, and school must receive an apology.

Not as a token, but as a restoration of dignity. Co-curricular activities must be shielded from political interference.

KICD and the Ministry of Education must issue concrete assurances that drama festivals are not political battlegrounds, but learning platforms.

The Teachers Service Commission must enforce its own circulars and keep unauthorized persons, especially politicians, out of education spaces.

It is not about who is right or who is wrong but if for any reason politicians gifted with whatever talent would have to use school going children to settle political scores, it is wrong!

The arts are not a threat. Students are not enemies of the state. If anything, the only war that Echoes of War waged was on ignorance, forgetfulness, and silence.

However, the problem seems to be more on the Director Cleophas Malala and not the play. It is high time we set the rule’s right, if politicians are the problem, let’s have neutral scripters to avoid torturing our students mentally through acts like what has been around Echoes of War.

Because Kenya needs healing, and healing will only come when we allow our children and everyone to speak freely.