KNT was built in 1953, during the State of Emergency declared by the colonial government to “deal” with the Mau Mau uprising.
More than any other public institution in Kenya, the Kenya National Theatre (KNT) has a history steeped in struggle; a struggle for its soul and one that mirrors the journey the country has travelled.
Kenya’s foremost novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o touched on the theatre’s chequered past when he gave a rousing speech during the official opening or the refurbished centre on September 2, an event that was also attended by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Ngugi spoke of a massacre that took place in 1922 at the spot the National Theatre stands today, when colonial police officers mowed down 150 workers led by Mary Nyanjiru, who were protesting the arrest of Harry Thuku.
It is said that white settlers stood up at the terraces of the Norfolk Hotel and participated in the massacre. The road dividing the Norfolk Hotel and the National Theatre is named after Harry Thuku.
Thus began the uneasy relationship between the Norfolk Hotel and the KNT. Hopefully this uneasiness was finally brought to an end by President Kenyatta, during the re-opening of the refurbished theatre when he ordered that land meant for the expansion of the adjacent Kenya Cultural Centre (KCC) — which incorporates KNT — be given back to KCC.
The two acre piece of land that had been in the hands of the neighbouring Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) had long been leased out to Norfolk for use as parking space for its customers. The land has been a cause of tension over the years between the management of the Norfolk and that of the theatre.
KNT was built in 1953, during the State of Emergency declared by the colonial government to “deal” with the Mau Mau uprising. In his speech titled, “For the Theatre of our Collective Dreams,” Ngugi said the establishment of KCC then was part of a series of belated attempts by the colonial state and its machinery to create a multiracial class, schooled in British theatrical culture.
In reality, he claimed, it was part of a larger cultural offensive to nurture a Kenyan black middle class with an English mindset, to replace the nationalist mindset that was beginning to germinate among Kenyans.
The refurbished KNT, according to the director of the KCC Odero Aghan, has ushered in a new chapter for the institution. He is optimistic that the theatre — refurbished at a cost of Ksh100 million ($10,000), courtesy of Kenya Breweries Ltd, will no longer host mediocre and “amateurish” productions. He said that the venue is already booked till December.
“Before the refurbishment, we used to operate on a pay-get in-use model, meaning that anyone, as long as they demonstrate the ability to pay, was guaranteed use of the facilities, irrespective of the quality of productions,” he said.
That model, he said, has to change. Prospective performers will have to reckon with a vetting panel, whose chief mandate will be to ensure quality. He, however, prefers to call the vetting panel an “evaluating committee.”
Asked whether that won’t be viewed as censorship of creative output, Aghan said he knows that “when they cross that particular bridge, not everyone will be happy.” He is, however quick to add that it will be a “widespread consultative process.”
Ngugi, whose plays The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, co-written with Micere Mugo, and I Will Marry When I Want, co-written with Ngugi wa Mirii, were performed at KNT, also outlined the way forward in his speech when he said the new KNT should become “the nerve centre in the experiments in new art forms and structures. Let it be the site for our young dreamers in music and drama.
Orchestras, dance and drama companies, resident or originating at the National Theatre, should go out into the villages, regions and urban areas. In turn, the National Theatre should be accessible to regional performance groups.”
Incidentally, it was the performance of I will Marry When I Want that saw Ngugi detained in 1978. In 1982, he wanted Maitu Njugira (Mother Sing for Me) to be staged at KNT but the government refused of it. This incident escalated and led to his flight into exile.
Prof Chris Wanjala, a literature scholar and cultural commentator echoes Ngugi when he says that the level of performances staged at the KNT should befit the national stature of the institution. “Playwrights need to come up with scripts that address issues affecting the country like corruption, terrorism, and so on,” said Prof Wanjala. “We need to see performances that people can relate to.” Now that KCC has got its land back, it is hoped that the uncomfortable history with the Norfolk Hotel will be a thing of the past. This past includes an incident when the dreaded police reservist Patrick Shaw sat on the terrace at the Norfolk throughout the staging of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi in 1982.
“A police squad, armed with riot gear, was at the ready outside the grounds of the Central Police station,” recounted Aghan.
Much later, the hotel would lay claim to the grounds at the KCC, turning it into parking for its customers. Aghan said that: “The Norfolk management fenced off the grounds and erected a gate. They then insisted on using the parking space until the full cost of setting up the fence and gate was recovered.”
In the meantime, KBC had claimed the space meant for the expansion of KCC as their own, such that when Norforlk’s “lease” for KCC’s parking space lapsed, the public broadcaster, according to Aghan, entered into a deal with the hotel whereby the latter would use the space for parking and pay the former.
Seeing as they had been “dwarfed” in efforts to claim back their land, KCC sought, like a character in Francis Imbuga’s play, Betrayal in the City — which has been staged at KNT countless times — to consult a “taller relative.” That is how KNT started lobbying the Jubilee government to get the land back.
Thus when President Kenyatta came to open the refurbished KNT, he had another mission, perhaps more meaningful to the theatre fraternity — getting back KNT’s land.
The recovered land will be the site for the proposed International Art and Culture Centre, one of the flagship projects envisioned in the Vision 2030 blueprint.
The tussle over land ownership is not the only controversy to dog KCC. Until two years ago, the institution, despite being government owned, was still deemed to be private property, subject to paying land rates. Indeed, Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero had threatened to auction the institution to recover Ksh400 million in accrued land rates.
Records indicated that KCC had not remitted rates since its inception in 1953. Those records further showed that it was owned by Barclays Bank of England.
During the colonial period, the Queen of England transferred the institution to Barclays Bank but the matter was not resolved when the first government after Independence started repossessing institutions previously owned by the colonial government and its affiliates.
“All those issues have been resolved, including the restoration of the land title; in the past five years, we have managed to do the impossible,” said Aghan. “We also managed to chase away groups and individuals who were doing business other than art and culture related.”
Former culture minister William ole Ntimama, while presiding over an event at KNT in 2008, had dismissed the institution as a den of idlers and drug peddlers.
The Kenya National Theatre may have a spanking new look and the director may be waxing lyrical about how the place is going to turn a new leaf, but for Prof Wanjala, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
“The Kenya National Theatre needs to come alive not just in terms of physical beauty, but in the dynamism of the content,” said Prof Wanjala.
And like Ngugi said, Kenya is a big country, “with a big history, and a big people, and she deserves a great theatre of our collective dreams.”
