By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
In Summary
- Apart from the annual Kalasha awards, Kenya hardly gives its local actors their deserved recognition.
- Kenya’s Academy Award winning actor-fashion model Lupita Nyong’o has acknowledged more than once that she is not the only outstanding actor in Kenya.
The Red Carpet was officially meant for the three
Hollywood stars who had come to Kenya, courtesy of the Villa Rosa
Kempinski Hotel.
But the carpet could have equally been meant as a marketing
moment for all the local actors, TV and film producers and photographers
who had been invited to the event specially to meet international
celebrities Ron Perlman, Tony Jaa and Michael Jai White.
The three actors, who star with Dolph Lundgrun in
the soon-to-be-premiered action thriller Skin Trade, were invited guests
of Kempinski’s general manager Manish Nambiar who is also one of the
producers of the action-packed adventure film.
During a press conference last Tuesday night, it
was asked how stars based in the States who had made Skin Trade in
Bangkok, Thailand, one of the leading global centres for sex
trafficking, would find time to come to Kenya.
Clearly their coming was not meant to reflect badly
on Kenya for its being another site where sex trafficking exists. No
mention was made, for instance, of a 2011 report by the International
Peace Institute (by IPI executive director Peter Gastrow) which claims
that up to 20,000 Somali and Ethiopian girls and women are shipped to
Nairobi and Mombasa annually after which they either “end up in brothels
[or] shipped to other parts of the world.”
Instead, Mr Nambiar was looking forward to the
actors having an outstanding stay at the Olare Mara Kempinski in Maasai
Mara after which they could tell the world that Kenya is still a
desirable destination to visit despite alarming reports to the contrary.
After Kenya, the Skin Trade team will go to Rwanda and Djibouti.
Another rationale for the actors coming to Kenya
was given by Ron Perlman who recalled that he had originally come to
Kenya more than 30 years ago to make his first movie, Quest for Fire.
“I have fond memories from that time so I was happy
to have the chance to come back to Kenya,” said the award-winning actor
best known in Kenya for his role as Clay Morrow in the popular TV
series Sons of Anarchy.
Kempinski’s regional director of public relations,
Lashley Pulsipher, further explained that Mr Nambiar had a passion for
Africa and Kenya especially which he wanted to share with the cast.
Kempinski’s Kenyan staff must also have known that
urban Kenyans love action-adventure films, especially ones featuring
karate, tae kwon do or even the Thai version of martial arts Muay Thai,
which is Tony Jaa’s specialty. Jaa gave a dazzling demonstration of Muay
Thai with a whirlwind series of kicks, katas and acrobatic spins that
was well received.
The Thai-born Jaa wasn’t the only martial artist in
Skin Trade. Michael Jai White, the African American actor best known in
Kenya for his performance in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I get Married 1
& 2, said he had eight black belts and used those skills generously
in Skin Trade.
Back to the Red Carpet. There was a mix of local
media people, including actors who were mainly TV and film stars, but
also several who additionally worked on stage, like Mugambi Nthige who
recently scripted and co-starred in Stories from the Mall, commemorating
the Westgate tragedy.
It was an impressive array of local talent that
featured veteran actors like Raymond Ofula and Joseph Kimani Wairimu of
Nairobi Half-Life as well as younger talents like Jacky Vike of Papa
Shirandula (on Citizen TV) and Maureen Koech of the Spielworks TV series
Lies that Bind.
Yet the other reason Kenyan actors deserve Red
Carpet treatment is because a number are well known internationally.
Stars like Naomi Ng’ang’a, Milkah Ndegwa, Nduta Florence of Lies that
Bind fall into this category since their show is screened all over West
and South Africa as well as in the UK.
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