Butere Girls students leaving the Melvin Jones Academy the venue of the 63rd edition of the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival in Nakuru, on April 10 ,2025.
There is police brutality in Kenya and everybody knows that but when that is combined with maximum police stupidity it can endanger the life of a nation forget just the life of the government who uses the police for those actions.
There was no point banning the Butere Girls play in the first place but once the courts overturned the government ban and allowed Butere Girls High School to stage their drama show there was no need whatsoever for the Kenya police to get involved and harass the school girls doing the show.
In fact if the government had stayed away from the whole thing all the way only Kenyans interested in theartre work would even know about the play. Now it is national news in the whole country. How smart is that for the Kenya government. Of course there is Cleophas Malala all over the school girls for his own political purposes and we are going to talk about that in a bit.
The clearest statement of what actually happened is the FIDA demand for justice for the Butere High School girls.
Fida calls on Ipoa to probe use of force against Butere Girls students
The Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) has condemned the alleged use of force against Butere Girls during their scheduled performance of the play Echoes of War.
According to the federation, police officers interfered with the performance and endangered the lives of the children.
“These unfortunate actions against the students of Butere Girls violate the following constitutional provisions on the freedoms and rights of the children: Article 28, Article 33(1)(b), Article 36, Article 37, and Article 53.”
Fida further called on the Ministry of Education to ensure that Butere Girls perform the play based on the instructions set in the court order and that such violations will not recur in future events.
“Reports from top media houses confirm that the students were barred from rehearsing the play yesterday. This morning, the students were made to begin the play much earlier than the official starting time. Once in the performance hall, they were surprised to find no public address system, audience, or costumes for the performance, as should be the norm,” Fida said.
The Federation added that the students refused to perform under the circumstances and peacefully walked out of the arena.
“Once outside, police officers lobbed tear gas at the students who were now being interviewed by journalists. The chaos that followed saw the girls flee in panic, some becoming separated from their teachers and school bus.”
There was absolutely no reason to attack the school girls with teargas and terrorize them to flea from the scene in chaos and despair and for that the Kenya police and their bosses should be held accountable.
The other crazy thing about this whole circus and the abuse of the students is the involvement of Cleophas Malala to whom it now seems the poor girls were just dancers for his political ambitions and it was a terrible violation on these young people which does not bother him at all.
The one question that baffles me right now is to ask where is the Butere Girls High School principal in all this mess. How the heck did the principal allow some politician who has nothing to do with the school to be in charge of the Butere Girls Drama team.
Was the principal paying Malala under the table to work in the school or was Malala the one paying the principal to give him the school girls for his work in his political agenda. That is abuse of the school girls and the principal needs to be held accountable.
Did the principal for Butere Girls High School even bother to come to help the students or even to watch the play from the school girls under her care? Can the principal talk to the students, their parents and to Kenyans now?
I know the parents of the students are mad with the police for terrorizing their children but they need to be even more mad with the principal for using their children as toys for politicians.
“Section 9.0 note C of the regulations states that trainers of KNDFF items shall be teachers and tutors registered by the Teachers Service Commission or lecturers employed by registered post-secondary education institutions,” the CS said.
“The Ministry of Education is fully committed to promoting talents among our learners through all forms of co-curricular activities available in our school system. However, school principals are advised to stick to the rules and regulations governing the co-curricular activities,” he added.
By allowing Malala to write and direct the play, the school was in contravention of the regulations of Kenya National Drama and Film Festival.
Malala: Police didn’t harass me, they acted professionally
And the political sad drama continues with Malala who claimed he was taken to the forest by the police before being taken to the police cell now telling Kenyans that the police officers were perfect with him and he was not mistreated. Maybe the political gift the police were supposed to give Malala just did not work.
According to the news today, former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala has hailed police officers who held him since Wednesday evening for their professionalism.
Speaking in Eldama Ravine after he was released, Malala said police officers had an option of harming him but did not.
“They did not harass me, we have a very disciplined police service. They had the option of beating me up in the wilderness, but they did not do that. If I say that police beat me up, I will be lying,” he said.
According to Malala, the officers were following instructions from someone on the phone all through the night.
“I want to celebrate them because they had an option of finishing me up last night.”
In short Cleophas Malala has already achieved his ambition of getting big publicity using Butere High School girls and his hope is that this could help him win back his senate seat in Kakamega. That is what the whole thing was about for Malala and nothing more. Those young girls mean nothing to him. Terrible, isn’t it?
Kenyan politicians are now going to jump screaming all over place about the whole situation for their own political interests and ambitions. How about those girls from Butere Girls High School. Does anybody care about them?
