Hundreds of creative artists and filmmakers across Embu County on Monday benefited from a free training on production of clean content by Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB).
The one-day training dubbed Creative in Arts and Film Literacy (CAFiL) Forum is geared towards promotion of content that upholds Kenya’s cultural values and protects children from inappropriate audiovisual content.
The Embu forum was the third after Kisumu and Nakuru in a series of engagements with artists and filmmakers lined up across the country according to KFCB Ag Chief Manager Corporate Services Nelly Muluka.
Ms Muluka said the initiative aligns with the fifth pillar of Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), Talanta Hela Initiative as well as Vision 2030 which recognise creative arts as a driver for youth empowerment.
She said they are also using the forums to discuss challenges and opportunities available in the creative arts economy to spur growth, while affirming their commitment in creating a conducive environment for the growth of the film industry.
“It is not in doubt that the creative economy is one of the spaces that, if well utilised, can create opportunities of harnessing job prospects,” Ms Muluka said, noting that the richest people globally are in the creative industry.
She noted that the biggest chunk of the country’s population constitutes the youth majority of whom are digital-savvy and if equipped with this information, can easily monetise their creativity.
Ms Muluka said they are also equipping them with the Regulator’s Handbook for Film Practitioners that will, besides creating a facilitative framework, give them knowledge on other opportunities available within the government they may not be aware of.
“Our objective is to create enough awareness to enable businesses of digital content creators, artists and filmmakers to move to the next level,” she said.
KFCB Head of Legal Department Loice Shalakha reported that they have formulated four news regulations with the key one being Self-Classification Regulation that allows Video-on- Demand (ODD), Over-The-Top (OTT) and broadcasters to self-classify the content.
She said their role will be to monitor compliance of the content with the regulation once enacted into law that will relieve them of the burden of having all the content coming to them for classification.
Additionally, Ms Shalakha said they are benchmarking with other countries on harmonisation of classification guidelines to ensure content coming in from other countries or going out don’t have to be classified again.
“We’ve benchmarked with several countries and we are getting the best practice that we can incorporate in our law to ensure there is efficiency and effectiveness in regulation of the film industry,” she said.
By Samuel Waititu
