It is a win for the controversial ‘Rafiki’ film after the High Court suspended the ban by the Kenya Films and Classifications Board (KFCB).
According to Justice Wilfred Okwany, the suspension of the ban will be on for the next seven days so as to allow the film director Wanuri Kahiu submit it for the Oscar Awards.
Justice Okwany said that the film shall be opened for viewing to willing adults only.
ALSO READ: Wanuri Kahiu, Creative Economy Working Group Challenge Constitutionality of Rafiki Ban
Last week, Wanuri Kahiu took KFCB to court to lift the ban on the film to enable her to submit it for next year’s Academy Awards.
KFCB banned the film on April 26 last year.
In her petition to the High Court in Kenya at Nairobi Constitutional and Human Rights Division, Kahiu said the following in her affidavit: ‘‘As a result of the ban, the 1st petitioner cannot submit the film Rafiki for review by the Oscar Selection Committee Kenya for consideration as Kenya’s entry to the Academy for the Best Foreign Film Category award at the 2019 Oscars Awards. Entries close on September 30, 2018. I am afraid that the act and regulations under which Rafiki was banned are a threat to freedom of artistic creativity and freedom of the media.”
‘Rafiki’, adapted from an award-winning short story Jambula Tree by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko is based on the love story of two women.
In April, KFCB banned the film citing homosexual scenes that it said were illegal in Kenya.
The suspension shall lapse on 30th September.