Will Kenya’s Kalasha awards really happen this year?

Gahigo Drummers perform during the Kalasha Awards ceremony at the KICC in Nairobi on March 30, 2024. 

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

The Kalashas, Kenya’s international film and television awards, may not be held this year -- the first time in its 13 years of existence, due to inadequate funding.

While Timothy Owase, CEO of the Kenya Film Commission (KFC), the body that runs the colourful annual event, says it will go ahead, the facts point to the contrary.

Multiple sources within the commission have told The EastAfrican that neither the Kalasha International Film & TV Market Trade Fair nor the awards will take place this year because the commission has no money.

The three-day trade fair offers a unique opportunity for international film players and festival-goers to boost their business through content trade, partnership opportunities, and networking with side events that include conferences, workshops, coaching, and pitching sessions that have always been the build-up to the awards held on the fourth day.

But there is every indication that that will not be the case this year because, as some insiders put it, “the commission is broke”.

In the 2023/2024 financial year, KFC received Ksh442,729,293 ($3,425,371), up from Ksh310,052,499 ($2,398,858) the year before, according to an Auditor-General’s report dated April 17, 2024.

KFC introduced an awards scheme in 2019 during the 9th edition of the Kalashas, with a total of Ksh1.7 million ($13,152) allocated as prize money to the winners that year. Each winner received Ksh50,000 ($386).

Kenya Film Commission Chief Executive Officer Timothy Owase delivers his remarks during the opening ceremony of the 6th edition of the Kalasha International Film and TV Awards and Market at the KICC in Nairobi on March 30, 2024. 

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

The prize money was then doubled in the 10th edition and maintained in subsequent editions. For the 2024/2025 financial year the KFC budget was slashed to Ksh104 million ($804,642), leaving the commission struggling to fund programmes.

“We don’t have a budget at KFC to organise this year’s market and awards event. The austerity measures by the government have left us with no money to support the industry. What was allocated for us in the current financial year is only enough to run the office operations and pay staff salaries,” a highly placed source within the Commission told The EastAfrican.

According to the source, last year KFC spent Ksh30 million ($232,108) to organise the three-day trade fair and the Kalasha Awards.

John Kyalo from the KFC Film Development Department, which is tasked with organising the trade fair and the awards, and Catherine Wanjiru, head of the Commission’s Communication Department, declined to comment on the matter, referring us to the CEO.

“For the clarification you seek, I will have to refer you to the CEO who is best placed to respond to them,” Ms Wanjiru said.

Mr Owase says it is still on.

Singer Okello Max performs during the Kalasha Awards ceremony at the KICC in Nairobi on March 30, 2024. 

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

“As long as you have not officially heard from us, you treat that as rumours. You wait until we officially communicate the position but, from where I sit, I am still planning for Kalasha Awards. In case of any change, the organisation will communicate,” Mr Owase told The EastAfrican.

A former KFC manager says skipping the awards sends the wrong message.

“The fair and the awards are everything that is KFC, they are the highlight of the Commission mandates every year. I have also received information that it won't be happening this year and it’s very sad,’’ he said.

“I believe we tried doing our best in organising the previous events, maybe our best wasn’t good enough. Our major undoing that got us into trouble capturing the attention of those high in government was when we struggled to pay winners of 2022 on time and some of the winners blasted us on social media,” the former official said.

In December 2023, singer-cum-actress Sanaipei Tande tweeted on X, calling out former Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba for allegedly failing to honour a monetary promise he made at the 2022 Kalasha Awards. Sanaipei wondered what had happened to the Ksh7.8 million ($60,348) she and other 38 winners were promised by the CS.

Lifetime Achievement Award winner Jenny Pont receives an award from Sports and Youth Affairs CS Ababu Namwamba during the Kalasha Awards ceremony at the KICC on March 30, 2024. 

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

During the awards, Mr Namwamba said the government was going to double the prize for each category.

“The CS made a proclamation that hadn’t been planned for, putting us under immense pressure. We had planned for Ksh100,000 ($773), so now we had to find ways to get the extra money. That situation put the KFC leadership under pressure and scrutiny,” the former manager said.

Film distributor Mike Strano told The EastAfrican that he had also heard the rumours of possible postponement of this year’s Kalashas “from a fairly reliable source – someone who knows exactly what they were talking about.”

“It would be a huge blow to the industry. The awards are 13 years old, and this would be the 10th trade fair. The events have been massive in pushing Kenyan film to the outside world and offering opportunities to many film stakeholders, this would be a huge setback, no doubt,” Mr Strano said.

A look at the timeline lends credence to fears that this year's event may not take place.

Whereas the CEO maintains the Commission is still planning for this year’s Kalasha, there has been no activity to suggest this. It takes at least three months of good planning to organise a successful gala event, and from the look of things, that is not happening yet.

Going by recent events, the Commission always makes a public call to filmmakers to submit their works in November ahead of the event held in March the following year.

Several filmmakers who spoke to The EastAfrican said they had been inquiring from the Commission as to when the window to submit opens.

The EastAfrican wrote to KFC via its official email addresses enquiring about the dates for the call for submissions.

“Thank you for reaching out to us regarding the Kalasha Awards. At the moment, the event has not yet been scheduled, and the call for submissions has not been announced. We are currently awaiting further details and will provide updates as soon as they become available,” the Commission responded.

Guests during the Kalasha Awards ceremony at the KICC in Nairobi on March 30, 2024. 

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

When the call for submission is made, the process runs for an entire month.

‘’Setting up of a jury to analyse the submissions for nomination follows, and this process normally takes two weeks. What follows is the public screening of the nominated entries to allow the masses to vote and this takes time as well,’’ an official said.

With no planned programmes, the Commission risks losing funding from one of its partners, the German organisation GIZ.

“There is an empowerment fund that we had received from GIZ. Last financial year we disbursed Ksh33 million (255,319) for the empowerment programme. For this financial year, GIZ committed Ksh40 million ($309,477) to support the programme, which is aimed at funding youthful local filmmakers. Can you imagine that money is now going back to GIZ, because we didn’t have any programmes aimed at benefiting the industry that we could have used to make a case and defend this funding?” said another inside source.