Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu says Kenya is threatening to arrest her for depicting a same-sex love story in her film Rafiki.

According to The Hindu, Kahiu says the threats came from the Kenya Film Classification Board, the organization responsible for approving films. They banned Rafiki for “normalizing homosexuality in Kenya.”

“It seems like they are trying to build a case to imprison me… Most recently I saw them tweeting that I have broken the law,” she said.

The board also accused her of sending a fake script for approval, an allegation she denies. Kahiu expected the film to be banned, but she is surprised by the threats. Nonetheless, she has no regrets and doesn’t plan to back down.

“I am an artiste, and it’s my constitutional right to make this film,” she declared. “So I would do it again, and I would do it again, and I would do it again. I won’t stop doing my work because other people are trying to violate my right. I think it’s for them to deal with their violations.”

Kahiu believes Kenya has progressed past exiling creators for their work and thinks the country’s new democracy is “just beginning to understand the limitations and the edges of the constitution.” However, if the authorities come, they won’t have to look very far.

“If they want they can arrest me and we can go to court to prove I haven’t broken the law. But I am going home. It’s where I live. I am not going to hide, I am not going into exile,” she said. “My family is there, my children are there, my husband is not about to leave. It’s a place that inspires me, that I make films for, the place that I make films about.”

Samantha Mugatsia and Sheila Munyiva, the actresses who portray the couple, have not been targeted.

Wanuir Kahiu

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