Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua has called for the arrest of popular Ohangla musician Otieno Aloka over an “obscene” live performance on Facebook.
Following the performance on Saturday, August 15, the ‘Kanungo eteko’ hitmaker drew criticism from Kenyans on social media over his use of vulgar lyrics. Kisumu Women Representative Rosa Buyu was among those who accused the musician of promoting immorality.
“I speak as a mother to condemn in no uncertain terms, the lyrics by Aloka, one of the country’s musicians. It is true that we must, as a country, nurture and promote talent amongst our youth to enhance self-empowerment and to also reduce the high level of unemployment amongst our young people,” said Buyu.
Adding: “Demeaning women and using such vulgar language in a song that is open to a diverse audience in terms of age and sex is highly irresponsible! I will petition Mr Ezekiel Mutua to ensure that this song is pulled down and not given any opportunity in our airwaves!”
And Mutua heeded to calls by the public, promising to take legal action against Otieno Aloka in collaboration with the DCI.
“The board is inundated with complaints about an obscene Ohangla video that’s promoting paedophilia and the degradation of women. We have alerted the DCI to arrest the singer and the producer. Thank you, Hon. Rosa Buyu for bringing this to our attention. We are working with Google to have the video brought down and will ensure that the artist faces the full force of the law for violating the provisions of the Films and Stage Plays Act Cap 222 in respect to content creation regulations,” Mutua said in a statement.
The KFCB boss noted that children who are at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic faced increased risk of consuming harmful content.
“Owing to Covid-19 and the e-learning program due to closure of schools, most children have access to gadgets and we need to protect them from exposure to harmful content by ensuring that content meant for adults is not circulating online.
“Content does not have to be dirty to sell and our artistes must know that such dirty content will also be consumed by their children,”Mutua wrote.
He also disclosed that, “The producer had not obtained a filming license neither has the video been approved by the Board for public exhibition/consumption and age appropriateness. We shall deal with this kind of content creation violations and ensure that art is not used to destroy our culture and morality and that children are not prematurely exposed to adult content. I urge those in possession of the video not to glorify or give it prominence and credence by sharing. I also urge our artistes to desist from using new technologies to break the law by producing and posting content that has not been approved by the Board for public consumption”.
