By Brian Nzomo, Editor
By EDITOR.
At the helm of the Kenya Film and classification board (KFCB), the now outgoing CEO Dr. Ezekiel Mutua had sat with lofty hauteur surpassing that of a Hellenic hubris. Let’s be honest, his penchant for feeling indispensable as a moral cruciality in society, inebriated him to the point of running the role using his own misguided Christian view of the world.
This vainglorious attitude was wildly mistaken to be passion and zeal by many Kenyans as many air their disappointment with the CS of Information Mr. Joe Mucheru over this decision to terminate Mutua’s contract. According to many of them, most of whom identify with the Christian faith, Mutua was a saviour. His role at the helm of media regulation was so clamorous as he spoke against and ultimately banned songs and films deemed unpalatable to society; in the name of ‘protecting children against immoral content’.
The problem with Mr. Mutua’s approach was the fact that he was purveying his own puritanical ideals and stratifying them as the overruling morality. He has promoted homophobia and his distaste for atheists has been known well in both the mainstream and social media.
Mr. Mutua is guilty of imposing his Christian values in the name of ‘Kenya is a Christian nation’, yet it is well known that the constitution itself guarantees that this is a secular state where every one is allowed to believe in their own deities or not believe at all. His lame argument that the preamble of the constitution states that this nation is god-fearing says a lot about his intellect.
Any government official who ascends the rungs of power believing that his own religious values should influence public policy is simply bigoted and rigid-minded. They cannot be trusted to treat everyone equally and fairly as expected in any democracy.
Mutua’s view on the morality of art is inclined on what he himself deems best and does not take into account that not everyone is offended or repulsive to art of such nature. We want to relay this to him; art has no responsibility of being moral. Art is about openness, the rawness of the glory and gore and a free spirited expression of even the primordial cravings of man.
When people like Mutua are in power, one does not wonder why Kenya is such a repressed nation. Agents of oppression like Mutua masquerading as moral policemen have killed the very spirit of what art is. And we all know what repression does. All the gore piled inside us will have no room for being expressed and will eventually be manifested in all the execrable deeds we see in our ‘Christian society’.
Despite Mutua being widely supported to religious faithfools, it remains paradoxical that Kenya remains a nation lurking with the most vicious sexual atrocities and fiery depravity. Why is it that despite the forceful repression of the so-called dirty arts, Kenya doesn’t seem to heal at all from its debauched sore? Things only seem to get worse.
It is because Mutua and other moralists have beguiled you into biting the bait of their puritanical nonsense. Telling you that being tough on evil art will save this nation from the abyss of destruction. He insists that children will grow up into responsible adults as long as they are bombarded with his version of ‘morality’. This is disregarding the fact that there are a myriad of problems and societal breakdowns instituted by a moribund system; that force our children into the most despicable of vices. Mutua and the rest of the religious folk will not acknowledge this and aspire to change the system, instead they will repress themselves hoping that morality will germinate from a cursed substratum.
We want the hypocrisy to end. It is also a surprise to us that he has been discarded over claims arising that some shady deals have been going on in the board’s corridors. Such a man is unfit to run his mouth in the media and dictate to artistes what they should do to please his ego.
We are however enthusiastic knowing the fascist is out of office albeit momentarily till the court decides the legality of his suspension. It would be eating not seeing his moustache on my screens for some time.
And religious puritans; take it easy. We have a far more bigger problem to look at in our society and that is oppression in the system. Stop saying Kenya is on the brink of the devil’s clutches. Look around you since the beginning of our five decade history. Stop looking for the devil in the wrong places.
We hope the acting CEO Mr. Christopher Wambua will do things much differently as a regulator rather than an oppressor.
Brian Nzomo is a second year student at the Kenyatta university studying Media studies. Contact him via email: bryonzoms505@gmail.com
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