Who will stand up to Mr Mutua?

We wish to bring to the attention of the members of the public that this lesbian hook-up party has been banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) and will therefore not take place. Any breach will be met with the full force of the law.

The owners of the premises have denied ever organizing the event or generating the poster being circulated online. The Board has reported the matter to the police for further investigation. The owners of the premises are fully cooperative.

Bearing one of the variations of the Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT), the so called colours of pride, the notice suggests that attendees will be lesbians. The use of "Girls Only" further implies that that the party will be an orgy of lesbians. Like in the case of the foiled Project X, the Board is privy to information that there will be filming of pornograhic content during the orgy.

The Constitution of Kenya 2010, Article 45 outlaws and criminalizes homosexuality. Section 181 of the Penal Code prohibits the distribution and exhibition of indecent content.

In light of the foregoing and in order to uphold the law, public decency and morality, the Board has banned the party.—Ezekiel Mutua, CEO, Kenya Film Classification Board

There are certain disturbing implications from this post on Facebook by the chief executive of the Kenya Film Classification Board. The first is his insistence that beyond its mandate of classifying films, it is now charged, by law no less, to police public decency and morality, that it has the capacity to identify acts of public indecency or immorality, that it is empowered to determine where, when and why people may peaceably assemble and associate with one another, or that it has the power to decide for what purpose persons are meeting, declare those purposes to be unlawful and to intervene in force to prevent that meeting.

The proprietor of the venue where the meeting was to take place have been accosted by law enforcement officials and coerced to admit or deny that they intended to host a sex party on their premises. Their business, I fear, may have been adversely affected by the salaciousness of the situation and the association with immorality that the events of the past few hours have engendered.

It is important to remind Mr Mutua, the aforementioned chief executive, that though his agency is tasked with the classification of films to ensure that they are wholesome and not injurious to vulnerable persons such as children, he and his agency are skating pretty close to the line where Kenyans used to be hounded by agents of the State on charges of sedition and treason. Many of them were tortured for their alleged crimes. Some of them were murdered.

The Bill of Rights in our Constitution is robust. There is a reason why we require a referendum to amend even a punctuation mark in the Bill of Rights. Vigilant Kenyans will not permit Mr Mutua or his acolytes to amend the Bill of Rights by the backdoor. So far, because of the political environment in the country, few Kenyans have challenged Mr Mutua's overreach, either in the media or in the courts of law. One day soon, someone will challenge Mr Mutua's interpretation of the Films and Stage Plays Act and I fear that Mr Mutua will come out the poorer in that contest.

Kenya's identity is changing and there are those who are deathly afraid of the change. So what if some Kenyans do not wish to conform to a moral or "traditional" idea of sexual morality that has been left behind by teh sands of time? It is not the business of the State or State agents like Mr Mutua to tell them whom they can love and how they can love them. If their love is no danger to children or the mentally unstable, Mr Mutua should not purport to intervene. Kenya faces far more dangerous foes than the rainbow brigade. Who will stand up to Mr Mutua's incessant bullying?