The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) has reached an agreement with organisers of Kenya Golf Open Championship to use students from Kenya Film School to work alongside the European Tour TV production team who produce live broadcast feed for golf globally.
The ICT Cabinet Secretary (CS), Joe Mucheru speaking on Friday during the 2nd graduation ceremony of Kenya Film School (KFS) said that the students will be part of a team that will produce over 2,200 live golf broadcast hours and showcase Kenya to over 490 million homes across the world.
This year’s edition of the annual Kenya Golf Open Championship 2019, which is part of the European Golf Championship, will be played from March 14 to 17 at the Karen Club. The Championship attracts players from across the world.
Mucheru further observed that the quality of graduands at the institution was high as evidenced by the high absorption rates in the job market.
“It is refreshing to note that out of 21 students who are graduating today, 13 have already secured full-time jobs while others have gone on to venture into other businesses. There is a kind of link between the school and what the industry is looking for evidenced by the employment rate of over 70% while with the other 30% opting to be job creators themselves,” said the CS.
Mucheru reiterated that it is encouraging that those employed are spread across the country, with some being absorbed by county governments and others by government institutions.
He added that given the demand for places at the institution and demand for the graduates, the institution will increase student intake from the current figure of 30 to 45, starting the year 2020.
“It is my hope that between now and then we can convince more counties to sponsor more students and we can double the number,” said Mucheru.
The CS said that the recent reporting of the sighting of Black Panther in Kenya for the first time over 100 years is a clear indication of the need for us to tell our own stories from our own perspective.
“While the world was marveling over the sighting of the Black Panther for the first time in over 100 years in Laikipia county, the local communities have lived with the Black Panther for many years and even have local names in local dialects for it but this was not reported or recorded and it took the BBC to come and tell us that the black panther has been spotted,” said Mucheru.
Mucheru said that the spin off from the sighting of the Black Panther is that it affirmed that Wakanda, the famed city in the movie Black Panther is located in Kenya.
He insisted that it presents an opportunity for us to market our northern areas covering Laikipia and upwards as Wakanda Country, and encourage tourists and movie enthusiasts to come and experience the real Wakanda right here in Kenya.
Speaking at the same event, ICT Principal Secretary (PS) Jerome Ochieng announced that the Ministry of ICT will sponsor the best student from the institution to South Korea to visit and appreciate the media and film culture there and bring back the experience to the Kenya film industry.
The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Principal Secretary, Fatma Hirsi encouraged the students and other youth in the country to focus on their talents and those areas that they are good at and work on them passionately and in this way achieve excellence in their work.
The KFS Director, Hezekiah Kimondo said that the institution bagged a total of nine awards in the Kenya National Drama and Film festivals and also won the best student film in the 2018 Riverwood academy awards.
The KFS was started in 2016 under the Jubilee manifesto to provide opportunities to talented youth from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to venture into the film industry. The institution admits students based on passion for film, rather than grades attained in KCSE.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
