Film makers urged to take advantage of Nakuru scenery

Visitors viewing the Menengai Crater in Nakuru. Businessman Crispus Wathimba has urged film producers to make good use of scenic sites found in the county to spice up their work. FILE PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The free workshop on film production was conducted by Ustadi Film Production and Wathimba Foundation.
  • He pointed out at the Menengai crater, lakes Nakuru and Elementaita as some of the scenic sites that can be exploited.
  • Wathimba said it is through empowerment of the youth that the current runaway unemployment in the country can be tamed.
  • He said the annual schools drama festival was a clear indicator that the youth have a lot of potential.

Upcoming film producers in Nakuru have been asked to make good use of scenic sites found in the county to spice up their work.

This comes at a time the film industry is gaining popularity with the introduction of digital television broadcasting.

Businessman Crispus Wathimba has pointed out at the Menengai crater, lakes Nakuru and Elementaita as some of the scenic sites that can be exploited.

He was speaking at St Paul’s University in Nakuru Town where more than 50 youth from Bahati and Nakuru towns completed a two-day workshop on film production.

Mr Wathimba said that making good use of the geographical features will also help market Nakuru to the rest of the world.

The free workshop on film production was conducted by Ustadi Film Production and Wathimba Foundation.

Mr Wathimba said it was wrong for Kenyans to continue watching foreign movies at a time when thousands of talented youth are faced with unemployment.

“The [annual] drama festival is one of the key indicators that this country has potential and we as leaders and other stakeholders need to ignite that passion amongst our youth to take their acting skills to the next level of film production,” said Mr Wathimba.

FOREIGN CONTENT

He said that even with the liberalisation of airwaves, it was sad that many stations were still airing foreign content mainly from the Western world, Nigeria and India.

“This negative trend can be reversed if more young Kenyans with a passion in [the] film industry are facilitated and given proper training,” said Mr Wathimba.

He said it is through empowerment of the youth that the current runaway unemployment in the country can be tamed.

“The situation we are in now is that we have a lot of the youth idling in trading centres and lack ideas of what they can do to uplift their standards of living,” said Mr Wathimba.

He said the government efforts to change the situation through initiatives such as the Youth Enterprise Fund and Uwezo Fund have been overwhelmed by the increasing number of youths finishing secondary and tertiary education.

The funds, he said, are not serving the youth adequately.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education about 600,000 students complete secondary school education annually with the majority missing out on university and college placement as government institutions can only accommodate about 100,000 students.