The Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival

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The Kenya Schools and Colleges Drama Festival is a series of student theatre competitions in Kenya, held from January to April each year, advancing through local, county and regional stages to the National Drama Festival. Students from primary schools to colleges take part, with a total annual participation of roughly five million students, making it the biggest educational theatre event in Africa.

The first Schools Drama Festival was held in 1959, and had its roots in British colonialism, modelled on a typical British drama festival for higher education. An indigenous play first won in 1971. Through the 1970s, the festival became a hotbed of radical theatre, and an outlet of protest against the Kenya African National Union (KANU) regime's suppression of theatre. Kenya's first College Drama Festival took place in 1975, and a Primary Schools Drama Festival in 1981. In the early 1980s, the primary, secondary and colleges festivals were integrated into a single event.

In addition to traditional stage plays, the festival has been expanded to include other modes of drama. Dramatised verse and cultural creative dance were added in 1981, African storytelling narratives in 1997, and between 2012 and 2016 the festival was expanded to include stand-up comedy, modern dance, mime and film.