Yes, Kenya’s post-election violence was just a harmless horror movie
Finally, someone has put the judges of the International Criminal Court to rights about what really went down in Kenya in January and February of 2008.
It took the eloquence of Eldoret North MP William Ruto to make the point that everybody has been getting unnecessarily excited over a movie – a work of art, the fictive imaginings of a fertile mind.
With nearly 60 of the 79 pages of the case the Chief Prosecutor at the ICC makes against Mr Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and journalist Joshua arap Sang redacted — or blacked out — it must be obvious that his imagination was running on empty.
“The allegations that have been made here, it sounds to me that they are only possible in a movie,” Mr Ruto told the judges in reference to the tall tales from the prosecutor and his team.
Only an unrepentant visual arts philistine would miss the artistry of the entire enterprise.
The charges of murder, forcible displacement, torture and persecution of people around Turbo town, the greater Eldoret area including Huruma, Kiambaa, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi, as well as Kapsabet town, and Nandi Hills town are premised on the make-believe of the movie produced in Kenya.
For movies to have integrity, they have got to be so close to reality as to occasion a proper suspension of disbelief. When one is dealing with a delicate genre like horror, one must do everything possible to approximate reality.
Good movies must have a narrative arc, telling a compelling story, complete with characters, plots sub-plots and scenes locations, and actions to be performed.
The 2007 election provided an excellent backdrop for a compelling story that had multiple conflicts and therefore could drag in everything from bloodshed to rape, to burning and large crowds walking without knowing where they were going.
Recreating reality is expensive, but when you are making a movie, it has got to be done. Visions of parts of the country burning were necessary to increase the aesthetic qualities of the picture. The Rift Valley is a perfect choice for the setting of the action, largely because of its picturesque beauty and variety of landscape.
Considering that the story would have over 1,000 deaths and 600,000 extras creating a long file of internal refugees, a spacious staging area was critical.
With the entire action coordinated to occur within a 25-kilometre radius of a house that acts as the production hub, it would be easier to manage logistics.
On the periphery, armed police officers would be shooting people to inject real-time action into the movie and create a parallel storyline not dissimilar to Rambo.
Staging violent scenes requires going the full movie-making distance. One cannot go for the kitchen-sink variety of edible fake blood.
There can be no compromising on the amount of alcohol-free, water-soluble hair gel, radiator lubricant and water that must be mixed with food colouring, chocolate syrup and hand sanitiser to make realistic blood that can spatter.
By following the right steps, the blood can make a nice splash as though one were slaughtering or hacking a person.
Props alone, though, cannot give a movie its reputation. One needs characters and actors who live the role. In creating the character bible, one must be cautious to ensure the characters have their traits defined by actions, such as distributing money to people who attend meetings and training.
Or handing out guns, grenades and gas cylinders to people who are ready to go out for war.
Dialogue can also build up a character if the words assigned to him or her have a chilling effect, such as offering a monetary price for every person killed or each building torched.
These movie-making antics create a sense of trepidation in the audience, heighten tension and improve dramatic opportunities for character development.
Add to this potent mixture, sound effects and music, as well as war chants, and you have the audience eating out of your hand. The music usually flows with what is going on in the movie, giving it an emotional tone and making the audience feel happy, sad, angry, scared, excited and emotional all at the same time. It can be punctuated by screams, shouts and war songs.
You cannot charge anyone for taking part in an artistic enterprise where everything is only happening in the mind. After all, no one died in this movie. No one was really raped. None displaced and none injured. It was all make-believe.
It must be puzzling that an innocent person like Mr Ruto would be dragged all the way to The Hague in the Netherlands to discuss the making of a movie when he could be planning how to manage Kenya after he becomes its fourth president.
