How the national theatre found its calling through struggle, defiance

The script of Kenya’s theatre scene is one characterised by a yearning for shows but antagonised by racism and classism.

This hit the climax with a pushback from local thespians through protest art, the emergence of original local playwrights, and increased community engagement in its evolution.

Veteran thespian and theatre researcher Steenie Njoroge recounts the journey that got the Kenya National Theatre (KNT) and Nairobi’s theatre art scene to where it is today.

The year was 1952. It was three years after the colonial government built the KNT (fondly known as ‘The Shrine’) and a year since it was opened. The KNT staged its first play, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw. The play was about William Shakespeare, who hoped to meet the ‘Dark Lady,’ accidentally meeting Queen Elizabeth I and trying to persuade her to create a national theatre.

“It being the opening play shows that the theatre was about Shakespearean plays. There was an annual Shakespearean school festival, and there were only four schools that did plays at the time,” says Steenie.

It was also a white man’s territory as the settlers from the nearby Norfolk Hotel walked to the theatre to watch plays.

In 1953, African plays that were anti-Mau Mau movement and pro-colonial were staged by Kipanga Athumani and Peter Lugoye to quell the uprising during the State of Emergency.

Challenge racism

The turning point was in 1968 when the KNT screened a movie, The Kenya We Want, to celebrate five years of independence. Former Labour minister Tom Mboya was in attendance. After the event, the late Seth Adagala, who had just come back from a drama school abroad, became KNT’s first African director.

“Kenyans wanted to do their own thing at the theatre and to challenge the apparent racism,” says Steenie.

In 1969, the National Theatre Drama School (NTDS) was formed to train theatre practitioners to spread theatre in local communities. The first batch, which had Kenneth Watene, formed the National Theatre Company, and they started performing plays at the theatre.

The first production was a double bill, meaning two plays for the price of one.

These were The Black Hermit by Ngugi wa Thiongó and Sons and Daughters by the late Joe de Graft, a Ghanaian playwright and writer. Both plays were staged at KNT’s Ukumbi Mdogo. The white man still occupied the main auditorium. 

The first play to be performed at the main auditorium by an African was a production of The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka in 1970.

Seth played Baroka (also known as the Lion), while the late pioneering actor Ann Wanjugu played Sidi (the Jewel). The first African musical to be done at The Shrine was Utisi by Prof Kivutha Kibwana in 1974.

The biggest play of 1975 was Muntu by Joe de Graft, sponsored by the All African Conferences of Churches, in which it starred John Sibi-Okumu, David Mulwa, and Kenneth Watene.

Another hit play was The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, written by Ngugi wa Thiongó and the late Micere Mugo in 1976.

Education tool

Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City was showcased at the Festival of African Culture in Lagos in 1977.

“The play, written in English, was a clear contrast to the other plays that were staged by other African countries like Nigeria and Tanzania. I think this is why Ngugi started writing in the Gikuyu language,” says Steenie.

It was also in the 1970s when Ngugi started the Kamirithu Community Educational and Cultural Centre (KCECC) in Limuru as a response from the community who reached out to him.

The KCECC became an education tool using theatre performances to sensitise communities about the oppression of the time.

The African Digital Heritage explains that it was Ngugi, the late Ngugi wa Mirii, and other associates from the University of Nairobi who organised the KCECC and helped the community members to run it.

They penned theatre works that spoke against the political class of the time. Theatre became a place to fight for rights.

Ngugi wa Mirii and Ngugi wa Thiongó co-wrote Ngaahika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want), which protested against capitalism, pollution, religious hypocrisy, and the Kenyan government.

Ngugi took control of and headed the department of literature at the University of Nairobi (UoN).

In 1976, Ngugi introduced the Free Traveling Theatre of the UoN. Due to the political interferences with Ngugi fighting for the reclamation of the KNT and wanting to free it from colonial rule, Micere went into exile in 1982 and was stripped of the Kenyan citizenship.

She went to Zimbabwe and later to the US. John Ruganda and David Rubadiri, who also managed the Free Travelling Theatre, were chased away from the university, and he also went into exile in 1982.

Seth was removed from the KNT director post. The running of the KNT stopped. The Free Travelling Theatre also stopped operating, and the Nairobi University Players was formed to promote collaborations between UoN students and professional thespians.

It took John Ruganda’s plays, Music Without Tears and Shreds of Tenderness, to Yugoslavia and France. Not much was happening in the KNT; theatre practitioners had to find alternative places to stage plays.

Weru Muhoro founded Sarakasi Limited and transported his plays all over the country. His Gikuyu play, Cia Gena (translated to Enough is Enough), with its Luo version of the play too, was received well by audiences.

“He later opened a theatre in Karen, but people wouldn’t go to watch them because they were used to having plays brought to where they were,” narrates Steenie.

In 1989, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) sponsored Redemption by David Mulwa, which was performed in different churches across the country.

Amass Sh1 million

Steenie says: “In the 1990s, the first play to amass Sh1 million from the gate fee was (a production of) Kongi’s Harvest by Wole Soyinka. It was a set book.”

In 1997, Clarion, under Prof Kivutha Kibwana and Smokey Wanjala, funded two plays, Kanzala by Prof Kivutha and Kabla ya Dhoruba by Wakanyote Njuguna.

The late Wahome Mutahi established Igiza Productions and wrote and directed Gikuyu plays, hitting at the President Daniel Moi’s dictatorial regime with productions like Mugathe Ndotono (translated to Mtukufu Fimbo) and Igooti Ria Muingi (translated to The People’s Court).

Steenie directed the latter, and the play was presented countrywide for two years. When Wahome died in 2003, his company ceased to exist.

KNT was renovated in 2015 and re-launched by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and in 2023,  it was re-launched by former Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports, and the Arts in 2024.

Little Theatre Club, Mombasa

In Mombasa, the oldest theatre in Kenya, the Little Theatre Club (LTC) stands tall after seven decades. Veteran stage and TV actor Hillary Namanje details the story of how the historical structure came to be.

“The LTC came into existence after two gentlemen had a meeting in a bar in 1945. One of them was an actor and another a navy officer. They wanted to create a place where the British Royal Navy could be entertained,” says Hillary.

In 1952, the theatre, a plot owned by the East African Railways and Harbours, was opened as a recreation centre.

When he joined the theatre in the 1980s, Hillary remembers seeing two groups: of Africans and of the Whites. African groups staged African performances once or twice a year, while the British group had monthly plays. Hillary, once starting in the African group, was able to act on both groups.

“In 2002, there was a strife between the British and the African management due to financial misappropriation. The British left the club for the Africans,” he says.

The LTC was in a dilapidated state and a few years later, it stopped to function. The late Gillie Owino wrote a proposal to then Cabinet Secretary of Tourism Najib Balala for LTC’s renovation, and they were given Sh50 million in 2017.

He recollects the late playwright Kuldip Sondhi, whose plays were about corruption and social injustices. Kuldip wrote and produced 13 plays, including Don Geronimo and Parlour Games.

The club was closed for renovations and reopened a year later. Today, both theatre spaces stage diverse productions to the excitement of their audiences.