- Title: KENYA: Artists push for public debate on elections at Kenyan festival.
- Date: 30th January 2013
- Summary: CROWD WATCHING A DOCUMENTARY
- Embargoed: 14th February 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Arts,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAFX9H1L97I6P22A1WRIIXJCH0
- Story Text: A troubled election that sparked deadly violence and killed over 1000 people in Kenya is the subject of an exhibition of art and music being held in the capital, Nairobi.
Voters will pick a new president on March 4, the first election under a new constitution and the first since the 2007 vote that triggered ethnic killings across the country.
Analysts have raised concerns that the issues which fuelled the chaos five years ago are far from dealt with.
The exhibition of editorial cartoons, films and music with a civic message will be on display at the French Cultural Centre in Nairobi until February 1st.
Organisers of the event dubbed "Kesho Imefika", Swahili for "Tomorrow is here" say its main aim is to get people talking.
Maina Kiai, a veteran Kenyan human rights activist and UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, played the role of facilitator in discussions at the festival.
"This is a way to try and rectify, to try and just provide some information hopefully that will be enough content, enough questions, enough food for thought that people will think carefully as we go to the elections in March," he said.
The films selected for what organisers are calling a citizens' festival all carried a similar theme - Kenya's historical inequalities, the 2007 post poll violence and the camps that sprung up when nearly 500,000 people were uprooted from their homes.
Three Kenyans, including a top presidential candidate and son of Kenya's first president, Uhuru Kenyatta along with his running mate, former minister, William Ruto have been accused of crimes against humanity in the countrywide violence and face charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Kenyatta has scored up to 40 percent in recent opinion polls.
The films as well as Kenya's political climate sparked heated debate.
"One of the problems that came out in the film and why we keep having violence is from 69, when that violence first happened no one has ever been arrested or taken to court. Now this year we have people who are suspects in this same violence they have a party they are running on and we have 39 percent of Kenyans who are ready to vote for them."
"It is going to be helpful because it preaches peace, we shouldn't be tribal, we shouldn't fight the way we did in the past," said Terry Mwatu, a festival visitor.
"This festival has shown us a lot of things, so what have I learnt? I have learnt that we should not go back to what happened here in 2007," said Ali Sadat, another visitor.
Kenya's civil society and several popular figures in the arts and music are playing a crucial role in peace-building and encouraging reconciliation. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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