By Isaac Dan Bw’Onyancha
Karima Girls’ High School drama crew did not disappoint when they occupied the stage at the ongoing Kenya National Drama and Film Festival (KNDFF) in Nakuru on Saturday.
Their play, “Wall of Jericho” captured the attention of everyone in the hall and in the end, there was deafening applause.
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It was not difficult to compare and contrast the play with Butere Girls’ School’s, “Echoes of War”, which collapsed at the venue of the national event this week after the arrest of its author, Cleo Malala and the many events that followed in quick succession.
Malala oscillates between art and politics, and this may have thinned line between the two disciplines as he came up with the script.
The Karima script was done by Joseph Murungu.
There is a fundamental difference the two plays.
While Butere delivered a direct, unfiltered confrontation to the state, Karima veiled its message under the clever guise of a fable — and in doing so, struck even deeper.
In Karima’s piece, kittens symbolized Gen Z — young, vulnerable, and bewildered in a world gripped by fear and disappearing freedoms.
The butcher, a silent symbol of state-sponsored violence, needed no introduction. Kenyans understood.
They felt it — not because they were told, but because they’ve lived it.
No names. No slogans. Just masterful allegory. That’s how you turn critique into art.
This is where Malala faltered.
His script was potent, yes — but politically naked and artistically bare.
In contrast, Murungu’s use of the feline kingdom, inspired by Eliot’s Macavity: The Mystery Cat, was mercurial and brilliant.
He didn’t shout; he whispered. And somehow, the whisper thundered louder.
Karima Girls didn’t present propaganda.
They held up a mirror.
And in that mirror, we saw our children, our fear, our silence — and a system that thrives when voices are muffled.
Let it be known: The most dangerous art isn’t loud.
It is intelligent.
It hides in plain sight and leaves the audience wounded long after the curtain falls.
That is not just theatre. That is resistance — refined.
- Mr Onyancha is a thespian
