Bungoma County to Reap Millions from 2019’s Edition of Drama and Film Festival

The Kenya National Drama and Film Festival (KNDFF) 2019 edition kicked off today in Bungoma County at Kibabii University.

The event will run to the 13th of April featuring the theme “Promoting Moral Responsibility among the Youth through Theater and Film.”

Being one of the oldest institutions-based annual arts events in the continent, it will bring together thousands of learners, parents, teachers, and music enthusiasts as well as the local folk to an event marked by dance and song.

The event is set to boost the economic activity in Bungoma County for all those who come to showcase their creativity in drama, cultural and modern dance, the poems, the choirs, the stand-up comedy among others have to find accommodation within the region.

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In a county strategically located in the Western region of Kenya, and one that acts as a gateway to Uganda and into Eastern and Central Africa countries including Rwanda, Burundi, and Southern Sudan, there is no denying that during the event it will be abuzz with economic activities.

Participants from various parts of the country will converge mainly in Bungoma town where hotels and restaurants will be booked to the brim and food as well as other goods and services will be sold aplenty.

The KNDFF event is one beneficial economy that runs into millions of shillings spent and earned. Schools already budgeted and sought accommodation within the region for their teachers and students together with the support staff.

The participants and all the other visitors at Kibabii University will spend millions of shillings to satiate their hunger and quench their thirsts. Among other items, they will also spend lots of cash in terms of transport from one place to another, beauty shops, tailors, airtime dealers, cultural arts, mechanics and many more.

This means that small traders, the open-air market vendors, boda-boda riders, fruit sellers and many of the locals will profit greatly from selling and offering their services for close to two weeks!

Assuming that 15,000 guests show up in the event and each of them spends 1,000 shillings on food, refreshments, and other services like transport a day, that will amount to 15 million shillings injected into Bungoma County’s economy.

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If these guests also spend, say a maximum of 10 days, the total amount will hit 150 million shillings! Still, even if they spend only 7 days, the amount will still be over 100 million shillings from food, refreshments, and moving from one point to another.

In terms of accommodation, if the same guests or even 10,000 of them stay in hotels and pay 1,000 or less per night, the local economy will earn between 6 and 10 million in 7 days.

Clearly, there is no way to emphasize enough how the festival will boost Bungoma’s economy.

Meanwhile, the event will unite Kenyans from all over the country to interact and marvel at how beautiful their culture and coming together is. Not only will the event benefit the locals and Kibabii University but it will also offer a platform where the public voice recommendations on what the government should do ensure that they youth stand a better chance of succeeding in the current economy.

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It will also nurture and shape the future of the participants where through awards and recognition, they will continue changing their lives on small but meaningful ways.

As a platform for education, for other youth and the society as a whole, the KNDFF event will serve to impart a lesson or two how we all ought to come together.

It will also feature special interest groups of physically challenged, impaired and deaf students who will take the center stage of the performances at the festivals to show the world that nothing is stopping them from doing what they love.

Performances will include Kianyaga Boys High School play titled Riddle of Sangoma, a play about a king who uses his friends to steal wealth and suppress the people, a feature film by Larmudiac Girls High School called The Net Web, and Gathambi Girls Secondary School film dubbed Misplaced Moral among others.

The festival will no doubt be the richest of them all and if you are capable, you should make it to Kibabii University in Bungoma County at all costs.

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