Former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala has made an emotional appeal to First Lady Rachel Ruto to break her silence over the recent teargassing and intimidation of students from Butere Girls High School during the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival in Nakuru.
Speaking during a media interview on Sunday, April 13, 2025, Malala, who directed the controversial play Echoes of War, urged the First Lady—herself an alumnus and patron of Butere Girls—to defend the rights and dignity of the students who were harassed during what has now become a nationally debated incident.
“If I were in government, I would ask William Ruto to be a father to these children. You cannot use force, dictatorship and intimidation on our children,” Malala said.
He emphasized that Rachel Ruto’s connection to the school places her in a unique position to intervene.
“But, before I talk to William Ruto, I would use Mama Rachel Ruto to step into this because she is an old girl, the patron of the alumni association of Butere Girls. If you cannot speak when your own school is being disadvantaged, intimidated and teargassed, when will you speak, Mama Rachel Ruto?” he posed.
“We need to hear your voice now as a mother,” he added.
Malala further likened the ongoing controversy to a play unfolding in real life, saying that the current conflict must lead to a resolution, particularly one that benefits the affected students.
“Every play has got a conflict and a resolution. Even in this play that is being acted now by non-cast members of Butere Girls, we have Murkomen trying to give certain solutions, we have got the president, we have got Malala, we have the police officers—there is a conflict yes, but just as in a normal play, we must have a resolution for the benefit of the children of Butere Girls,” he stated.
Butere Girls’ confrontation
Malala’s comments follow a dramatic incident on April 10, when Butere Girls students walked off the stage at Melvin Jones International School in Nakuru, the venue of the national drama festivals.
The students, visibly upset, said the walkout was not a spur-of-the-moment act but the culmination of systematic mistreatment, citing lack of proper sound, stage décor, and harassment by police officers.
“We were harassed by the police. We went to the stage with nothing — no sound, no decor, nothing. So we sang the National Anthem and left,” one student said.
As tensions escalated, the students began chanting and demanding the whereabouts of their director, Malala who had been arrested at the time.
“We want our director. We are not performing without our director. Where is Mr. Cleophas? We want him. We are not going back to Butere,” they shouted.
The situation escalated when police fired teargas at the students as they exited the venue—an act that has sparked widespread public condemnation and renewed scrutiny of how state agencies handle dissent and student expression.