Beyond the Ballot organizers dismantle the mobile screen at Mazingira Park in Kilifi county on Sunday evening / BRIAN OTIENO

The Mazingira Park in Kilifi county moments after police stopped a screening that was supposed to be done to the young people / BRIAN OTIENO

Police on Sunday evening disrupted a civic education forum in Kilifi, saying some of the films used are inciting in nature.

The Kilifi forum was part of the civic education fora, dubbed ‘Beyond The Ballot’, organized by Chevening Alumni of Kenya alongside the Kilifi Creek Festival.

The fora use films to educate Kenyans about their constitutional rights.

Mumo Liku, a co-founder of the Kilifi Creek Festival, said they were set to screen three films, including Dead Presidents, Chess Not Checkers, and The People Shall.

“The films talk about and are around civic education, telling people about voting. The People Shall looks at the Gen Z protests of 2024.

“The name of the work we are doing is called ‘Beyond The Ballot’. What happens beyond the ballot? After we finish voting, what is my duty as a Kenyan?

“We are here to teach guys to know and differentiate the different roles of the people they elect into government,” Liku said.

He said in most cases, Kenyans do not know the specific roles that each of their leaders are supposed to be doing leading to misdirected concerns.

He said sadly, most Kenyans think their civic duties end at voting.

“But there is more to that. We need to hold leaders to account,” he said.

He however said they could not screen the films because police showed up at the event and demanded that the screening stops.

“We know this is an electioneering year and these films really wake people up. It seems some people are uncomfortable with them,” Liku said.

He said the information about authorities not wanting the films to be screened came late after they had set up and ready for the screening.

This is despite the organisers having sat with the security apparatus on Friday and Saturday and explaining to them what the screening is all about.

“We were told that we don’t have the right permits to screen today. They said our other screenings may continue, but the one specifically at Mazingira Park has to stop,” Liku said.

On Friday and Saturday, the police demanded the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) licenses for all the films they were to screen, which they were given.

“They told us to write letters which we did and took to them and they received. We even have the received letters but later they told us we still don’t have authorisation to continue with it,” Liku said.

Charles Deya, a Kilifi resident, said he was excited about the screening and even brought his whole family to watch.

“From the sound of it, it talks about civic education and civic awareness, which is sorely lacking in our people. Screenings like these are the ones that raise our collective consciousness,” Deya told the Star.

He said heading into an electioneering year, the young people need civic awareness so as to avoid the mistakes they have been making in past elections.

“The public needs to know clearly what the specific roles of each political office are so that we don’t keep pushing items that are supposed to be done by the executive to people who are supposed to be part of the legislature,” Deya said.

“So, when I hear that some faceless, nameless people have called off this thing on the basis of incitement, I shudder to think what kind of paranoia that is,” Deya said.

Chevening Alumni of Kenya chairman Peter Pages Bwire said films play a strategic role in the development of towns, cities and nations.

Chevening is a scholarship program from the UK that gives scholarships to Africans and other third world countries to do their masters degrees in the UK.

Pages, who runs the Kitale Film Week in Kitale, Trans Nzoia county, said they were all set for the screening in Kilifi when the police turned against them, showed up at the Mazingira Park and demanded that all is shut down.

Pages said he thought of partnering with Liku to showcase educative films across the country so Kenyans can get to be more knowledgeable especially on constitutional rights.

“So, last year when the year was about to end, I thought of an idea to do mobile cinema beyond Kitale because of the impact the Kitale mobile cinemas has had in the town. Communities show up in markets, schools, CBD, among other places and contribute to the conversation of the day,” Pages said.

He said Chevening has the Chevening Alumni Fund which they applied for and were given a grant for their project.

He said the mobile cinema is now set for Kilifi, Nakuru, and Trans Nzoia counties because of the limited grant they have.

“We want to use the energy that the young people have had for a few years, which we saw in 2024. We want to channel that energy and frustrations into knowledge and informed decision making,” Pages said.

“We, the young people, are very angry. But what do we do about this anger? How do we use it to make our lives better? If we are just frustrated and go and burn Parliament, it is good for our feelings, but how can we deal with those issues before it gets to that point?” Pages said.

He said the mobile cinema screenings target young people to make them better understand how to deal with their frustrations, who they can talk to, what they can change, how they can make those changes, and who they can work with.

Pages said the fora he has had have also taught him a few things he did not know, which surprised him.

“If I do not like the idea the governor has and wants to implement, what can I as a young person do to have my frustrations about it heard? Those are the things we want young people to know,” he said.

He said many young people do not know how they can be involved in such matters.

Lawyer Kipkemboi Rotuk, a Chevening alumnus, said there are many constitutional rights that young people have but do not k now about them, making leaders take advantage of that to do whatever they like.

Rotuk said educating the young people about these rights is key to a developing democracy.

Kilifi North deputy county commissioner Samuel Muinde Mutisya, who also acts as the county commissioner currently, told the Star he was not aware of the matter and referred us to the area subcounty police commander.

However, by the time of going to press, the subcounty police commander had yet to respond to the Star.