Kenyan actors are to meet on the 26
th of October 2012 at the Kenya National Theatre from 9am in a move that will see the thespians come together to actualize the
Kenya Actors Guild (KAG)
All Kenyan actors are being requested to attend this meeting where the agenda of the day will be:
- Introduce the Guild to actors (answer the questions of “What” and “Why”).
- Go through the guild constitution (facilitated by a lawyer- Download a copy of the constitution here http://www.actors.co.ke/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4309 )
- Recruitment of members to the Guild and its process.
- Chart the way forward for the guild and its members.
- Speeches (Kenya Film Commission Rep, Kenya Film and Television Producers Association Rep)
- Q and A.
Actors worldwide should and are identified and protected by Guilds
and the most common known guild in the world for actors is the Screen
Actors Guild (SAG now known as SAG-AFTRA after merging with the American
Federation of Television and Radio Artists).
KAG dates back to late 2008 when it was registered under the
Societies Act to look into Kenyan actors’ welfare and the founding
members are chairman Peter King Mwania, Secretary Lupita Nyong’o and
Treasurer Elly Omukubi among others. However due to unavoidable
circumstances, the guild never came to really take off.
Gerald Langiri took over from where that was left off when he founded
www.actors.co.ke in 2011 and also had the same vision in mind for the acting industry.
In a statement, Gerald Langiri said “Kenya being an emerging film
country, its acting fraternity is hindered from achieving its full
potential and this can be attributed to the fact that it lacks an active
guild to protect the rights of the actor, take care of the welfare of
actors and most importantly, let actors speak with one unified voice to
drive and dictate policies. Actors are always being left behind on
matters concerning the film industry but that is because we do not speak
as one. Film industries all over have guilds and it is about time we
had one in order for us to be taken seriously. It starts with us
actors.”
After the workshop and recruitment of members has taken place, the
guild will start its operations by having an official launch and an
Annual General Meeting where registered members will get to elect who
gets to represent them before embarking on guild related activities.
“Kenya Film Commission has been very helpful towards actualization of
the guild and their continued assistance cannot go unmentioned. They
have assisted in setting up this 1st workshop and we are still working
with them towards branding of the guild in due course. “Gerald Langiri
says.
The main objectives of the Guild are to represents its members through:
(a) To promote the Intellectual Property Rights within
Kenya and in particular among performers through sensitization,
education and empowerment of Kenyan performers;
(b) To agitate and lobby for equitable levels of compensation, benefits and working conditions for performers;
(c) The collection of compensation for exploitation of their recorded performances and protection against unauthorized use; and
(d) The preservation and expansion of work opportunities.
