Kenya abruptly bans Rafiki film from Wanuri Kahiu shortly before its Cannes Film Festival debut because the lesbian story contains kissing scenes.

Kenya's notorious censorship board has abruptly banned the film Rafiki, from Wanuri Kahiu, shortly before its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in two weeks' time as part of the growing censorship trend gaining momentum and sweeping the African continent from Nigeria to East Africa and South Africa.

Rafiki, meaning friend in Swahili, is based on the short story Jambula Tree by Uganda’s Monica Arac de Nyeko, and revolves around two girls who develop a romance that’s opposed by their families. The film has been included for screening in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

The awkward banning by the East African country’s draconian Kenya Film Classificaion Board (KFCB) comes after Kenya earlier had effusive praise for the film and its inclusion in the Cannes Film Festival.

It’s similar to South Africa where the multiple award-winning film Inxeba was first lauded and congratulated by the South African government for making it to the top 9 in the Oscars’ foreign films category before suddenly falling silent with no support after it was banned with a new X18 classification by the South African Film and Publication Board (FPB) – a decision that was later overturned following an outcry by the public as well as the country’s writers, producers and organised TV and film industry.

Wanuri Kahiu who wrote, directed and co-produced the 80-minute film shot in Nairobi, told the breakfast show Morning Express on Kenya’s KTN channel on Friday morning that “unfortunately, our film has been censored in Kenya, because it deals with matters that are uncomfortable for the Kenya Film Classification Board but I truly believe that an adult Kenyan audience is mature and discerning enough to be able to watch this film and have their own conversation”.

Wanuri Kahiu said that her film is “a reflection of society, and we need to be having conversations about what is happening in our society. But unfortunately, because the film has been banned, we’ll be unable to have these conversations”. She said ” I’m incredibly disappointed, because I believe in Kenya.”

Earlier in April, Wanuri Kahiu in an interview on the Hot96FM radio station, said her film “speaks about our reality and the challenges our kids are facing and we’re trying to sweep it under the carpet and make it look like it’s not happening. Film and art should be a mirror of society and reflect on what’s happening with a view to offering solutions and guiding society to become better.”

In a televised speech, William Ruto, Kenya’s deputy president, warned that Kenyans are not only banned from watching censored films even privately, but that it is also against to law to even discuss “illegal material” once the KFCB have banned it.

Kenya’s censorship tsar, Ezekiel Mutua, in a statement said Rafiki is banned because it “legitimizes homosexuality” against the “values, cultures and beliefs of the people of Kenya” because “homosexual practices that run counter to the laws and the culture of Kenyan people”. He said “It is our considered view that the moral of the story in this film is to legitimize lesbianism in Kenya”. Rafiki contains scenes like kissing.

The embarrassing new ban will continue to drive both African and international producers, filmmakers and production companies away from Kenya and opting for other locations who are fearful that their projects, creativity, production budgets and freedom of expression are not welcome, nor respected and protected, in the East African country.

In November Ezekiel Mutua banned the teenage show Andi Mack from the Disney Channel (DStv 303) because one of the characters is gay. 

In June 2017 the KFCB – citing utterly bogus reasons culled from conspiracy theiry sites – banned The Loud House, Legend of Korra and Hey Arnold from Viacom International Media Networks Africa’s Nickelodeon (DStv 305), Star vs the Forces of Evil and Gravity Falls from Disney XD (DStv 304), as well as Adventure Time and Steven Universe from Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network (DStv 301) because of “gay” content.

None of the content reasons given by the KFCB for the bans for any of these shows are true. 

However, because these channels have only one channel feed into Africa, it means that Naspers’ MultiChoice and individual channel distributors, in order to remove the content for Kenya, have been forced to remove the content for DStv subscribers across the entire Africa, including countries like South Africa.

Andi Mack on The Disney Channel, that DStv won't show in Africa or South Africa because Kenya banned it, renewed for a 3rd season.

Disney has renewed its hit tween series, Andi Mack, banned from MultiChoice's DStv in Africa and Africa, for a 3rd season.

Episodes of the third season of Andi Mack with Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Lilan Bowden, Joshua Rush, Sofia Wylie and Asher Angel will be broadcast later in 2018 in America.

Filming on the 3rd season, produced by Horizon Productions, will start soon in Salt Lake City in America.

Disney says Andi Mack tells the heartwarming, diverse coming-of-age story about the most important things in any young person’s life - life and friends, and the journey of self-discovery.

"A series about a girl discovering that her sister is really her mother was new territory for Disney Channel, but Terri’s honest, authentic storytelling allowed our audience to connect deeply to these characters and their journeys of self-discovery," says Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide.

"What she has crafted stands as a high-water benchmark for kids and family storytelling around the world."

That's of course not true for Africa where Andi Mack is banned from being broadcast with MultiChoice that rolled over for the Kenya censorship board and is going along with its misguided decree to ban the show in Kenya and across Africa on The Disney Channel (DStv 303).

Africa's censorship problem of TV and film keeps expanding and growing due to the lack of public push-back against misguided African censorship boards who have become more and more emboldened in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa as they ban more and more content from being seen, instead of simply classifying it with proper parental guidance advisories.

After it's been in cinemas for weeks already in South Africa, South Africa's misguided Film and Publication Board (FPB) suddenly reclassified the film Inxeba as X18 last week - the same as hardcore pornography, although it contains none - without giving any reasons.

The FPB, funded by South African tax payers' money, now refuses to answer specific media enquiries about the exact reasons why the award-winning film suddenly got given a new classification months after it was given another one.

The multiple award-winning film that has a gay storyline - South Africa's official entry to the 90th Academy Awards and that made the top 9 shortlist in the Best Foreign Film category - has now effectively been banned from being shown in cinemas.

Inxeba can't even be shown with that classification on channels like M-Net (DStv 101), e.tv or the SABC during its pay-TV window licensing and free-to-air broadcast run.

So far in 2018 no further additional TV shows have been banned in Africa but Kenya's dictatorial government did shut down several entire TV channels who were slapped with a censorship blackout before they could broadcast the symbolic inauguration ceremony of opposition leader Raila Odinga.