Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has condemned the police for the manner in which former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malalah was arrested.
According to Malalah, his arrest was linked to a drama play he scripted Echoes of War performed by Butere Girls High School at the 2025 Kenya National Drama and Film Festivals.
Speaking through his Instagram page on Wednesday evening, April 9, 2025, Salasya said the arrest was unnecessary and should have been handled differently, especially since students were involved.
“It was unlawful for arresting and tear-gazing former senator before minors. It was prudent for police to summon him even after a court ruling on the play rather than waiting until it was too late for him to be arrested. This means we still live in a banana Republic. Learning institutions must be separated from the politics of the day,” Salasya stated.
His remarks came shortly after Malalah posted a video from his car, looking distressed and shaken. In the video, the former UDA Secretary General said over 50 police officers had surrounded him, and he was being targeted for writing a play.
“It has reached a point in Kenya where I am being arrested for writing a play,” he said. “You’re bringing 50 police officers. What crime have I committed? Writing? You are arresting me for writing a play?”
Malalah was expected to oversee and assess students in Nakuru on the day of the incident, but the heavy police presence and confrontation derailed those plans. In the video, Malalah also addressed a man he referred to as a DCIO. The officer remained silent, with no explanation as to why the arrest was taking place.
It remains unclear whether Malalah was formally arrested, but the incident raised eyebrows and has since dominated the airwaves with the students expected to perform the controversial play at Melvin Jones.
Echoes of War
Echoes of War had made a strong impression during the drama festival season, emerging victorious at the Butere Sub-County level and securing third place at the Western Regional Drama Festivals. Despite its success, the play was abruptly removed from the list of performances slated for the regional winners’ gala, ending its prospects of reaching the national stage.
Not long after, the school’s drama club was dissolved, and the participating students were sent home. This move followed a directive branding the play as inappropriate.
School principal Jennipher Omondi is said to have enforced the ban based on this directive. In protest, former student and actress Anifa Mango filed a legal petition contesting the decision. Her lawyer, Kennedy Echesa, argued that the principal’s actions were unjust, and unlawful, and violated the students’ rights to free expression and fair treatment.
Justice Fridah Okwany of the High Court ruled in Mango’s favour, instructing the school to reinstate the 50 drama students and facilitate their participation in the National Drama Festivals, which began on April 7, 2025, in Nakuru County.
This case echoes a similar incident from 2013 when the Ministry of Education banned Shackles of Doom, a play written by Cleophas Malalah. That production, which explored themes such as tribalism, ethnicity, and inequality, was also initially blocked but later cleared by the High Court, allowing it to be performed.