By Philomena Gitau
Over the past 2 weeks, Kenya Film Classification Board has been on a crackdown on Public Service Vehicles (PSV) to ensure clean content displayed on the screens all over the country. “Matatus plying the Rongai route is known to be notorious when it comes to displaying inappropriate pornographic content on the PSV screens”, said Kenya Film Classification Board C.E.O Dr. Ezekiel Mutua.
Adding “So far 24 Matatus of the said route have agreed to comply with the new K.F.C.B Regulation Policy”. He was speaking during a joint conference between Kenya Film Classification Board and PSV stakeholders on the ongoing crackdown on PSVs which are exhibiting content without licenses and others exhibiting inappropriate content.
The conference took place at a hotel in Nairobi which saw the attendance of representatives of the Matatu Welfare Association, Matatu Owners Association, the Kenya Bus Owners Association and Sacco, Representatives of the Film and Stage Plays.
According to the Constitution’s Act Cap 222, enacted in 1963 has since been revised regularly, ensures that public content should be suitable for consumption in all ways possible. “There’s a problem in knowing who should be in charge of this content because there are artists who collect funds when their songs are played on these screens, and then there’s K.F.C.B who are policing on these regulations to be adhered to”, said Mr. Edwins Mukabana, the Director of Association of Bus Owners and Chairman of Kenya Bus.
Mukabana pointed that “There’s also the issue of digital advertising which somehow hinders vehicle owners from regulating the content displayed on PSVs thus it is difficult in knowing what can put them in trouble and what cannot. There should be guidelines on this”,
he said.
Dickson Mbugua, the Chairman of the Matatu Welfare Association of Kenya supported KFCB on the crackdown to stop the spread of immorality in the society but has a problem with the dismantling of screens. “Over 20,000 PSV vehicles are privately owned, and the intention of the owners placing the screens in the vehicle is to purely entertain passengers”
Mbugua requested K.F.C.B to set up a committee to discuss and see how this matter can be solved amicably between the two boards as it cannot be solved in a day. Every Matatu owner that wished to comply with the regulations will be issued with an Exhibition License
costing them 2,000 Shillings per year, and the content they want to display be examined and it will be rated either PG/GE/16years/18years by the board.
“Our overall mandate is to ensure that children are not exposed to harmful content, and we are on this crackdown to simply maintain moral values decency in our public vehicles”, Dr. Mutua said.
The Kenya Classification Board came to an agreement with the various PSV stakeholders to work together in order to develop and enforce the code of conduct for drivers and conductors in efforts to safeguard decency in the content exhibited in PSVs.
Dr. Mutua emphasized that Kenya Classification Board will not trade moral values for money, and will do what it takes in their capacity to see that children are not shown pornographic content. He also asked the police not to dismantle screens for those PSV owners who do not comply and asked them to restore the dismantled screens for those who have already complied.
