Healing a nation' The play showing Kenya to itself by retelling its past

The play showing Kenya to itself by retelling its past

- Carlos Mureithi

On a recent Saturday at an auditorium in Nairobi, a rapt audience of more than 600 people holds their breath as the revered Kenyan statesman and independence activist Tom Mboya walks out of a pharmacy with his friend Mohini Sehmi.

Gunshots ring out. "Did you hear that?" a panicked Sehmi asks Mboya, who slowly collapses to the ground. "Tom! Tom! Tom!" she calls frantically, realizing that he has been hit.

The scene is part of a play that captures Kenya's transition to independence through the extraordinary life of Mboya, a fierce campaigner against government corruption before his untimely death in a suspected political assassination at the age of 38.

Tom Mboya is one installment of a wider series retelling Kenya's history called Too Early for Birds (TEFB), first performed in 2017. Audience participation is encouraged and amid the booing and laughter there are shouts of a phrase that brings the past directly into the present: "Ruto must go."

Kenya has been troubled in recent months by the fate of people accused of involvement in mass anti-government protests. These began on 18 June in opposition to proposed tax rises but broadened to encompass wider calls for reform, partly in response to the violent suppression of the initial demonstrations. Many of those present chanted for the resignation of the president, William Ruto.