BEST KENYAN DOCUMENTARIES OF ALL TIME.

Documentaries tell and expand our understanding of shared human experience, hence fostering an informed, compassionate and not to mention the connected world.

Below is a list of some of the best Kenyan documentaries you wouldn’t mind glueing your eyes onto.

1. Sold Out Slaves (2016)

This is a Kenyan documentary that touches on Child prostitution in the country. Amidst the Extreme poverty levels, and the rising economy, sexual exploitation of children has been on the rise now.
In this documentary, young prostitutes talk about what led them to the sex trade and how they have been enslaved by it.
While sex tourists take their guilty pleasures, many underage sex workers have their own children at a very young age hence continuing their vicious circle to curb their extreme poverty levels.
This emotional film is based on abuse, Child prostitution, slavery, sex tourism and teenage pregnancy.

2. Softie (2020).

Are you a Human Rights Enthusiast?
Softie is a film about Boniface Mwangi ‘softie’, who is an activist and has long fought against the injustices in the country.
This film opens up a scene of activists and demonstrators in Nairobi who round up stray swines to personify the corrupt politicians.

3. Migingo: The Iron-Clad Island (2015).

Migingo is well known as the most densely populated island in the world. It is the home to Ugandan and Kenyan fishermen and their families.
RT Doc’s Peter Scott has documented the Island to find out how such a population live on a rock which is believed to be half size of a football pitch.
Scott, the respondent tries the local food and entertainment and converses with the fishermen, traders and the Island doctor about life on the Island.
Well according to Documentary storm, Peter has a big question that he needs to unveil. Why the residents are living in such cramped conditions when there are two bigger islands nearby?

4. In Search (2018).

It raises a question about the mothers who allow their children to undergo Female Genital Mutilation.
Beryl Magoko who is the Film director gave in to peer pressure and underwent the process and in this film, she holds deep conversations with other women who have undergone FGM.
Beryl who thought the act would be just some mere rite of passage but in the end, she holds a conversation with her mother which brings in some form of hope.

5. Minutes to Die (2017)

Ever heard of the deadly Snakebite Crisis?
Well, have a taste of the never-ending global health crisis, which the world knows nothing about and why snakebite is the most ignored yet a few minutes way to die.
This film features a child, a farmer and the poor communities who have suffered the fangs of dangerous snakes.
Scientists have gone out of their way to come up with new treatments to help the victims.

6. I Am Samuel (2020).

Well, this is an LGBTQ Film which features how the Kenyan Law which criminalizes anyone who identifies with it.
Samuel who falls in love with Alex faces threats of Violence and rejection as it is, being queer has not been fully accepted in the country.
The film is aimed at bringing voice to the queer community in a country where being gay or a lesbian is termed taboo.

By: Lyne Gatwiri.