Little Theatre Club is yours, stay put, MP Masoud assures Mombasa creatives

Mvita MP Masoud Machele [pointing] at the LTC on Tuesday / JOHN CHESOLI

Mvita MP Masoud Machele at the LTC on Tuesday / JOHN CHESOLI

Mombasa Press Club chair Omar Shungu, Mvita MP Masoud Machele, LTC vice chair Collins Mangicho and creative Daudi Anguka at the LTC on Tuesday / JOHN CHESOLI

The Little Theatre Club will not be taken away from the creatives despite threats by the Kenya Railways Corporation to evict occupants, Mvita MP Masoud Machele has said.

The MP and Mombasa county commissioner Mohammed Noor met with the creatives at the club on Tuesday afternoon to resolve an issue.

The company claimed it owns the club and wants to develop the place.

“We are in dialogue to see how best to resolve this matter. But all is in order and I want to assure my brothers – the creatives – they will not be evicted,” Machele said.

LTC is the only public youth centre in Mombasa county and was gazetted as a national monument by the National Museums of Kenya.

It now faces an existential threat after the Kenya Railways Corporation ordered the eviction of occupants beginning this January.

In a letter dated December 10 and signed by KRC general manger business and commercial services Stanley Cheruiyot, the corporation claims ownership of the property.

“We bring to your attention that the property you are in occupation and use, Title Number: Mombasa/BlockXLVIII/124 is the property of Kenya Railways,” Cheruiyot said in the letter.

He invited the occupants to a meeting on December 18.

Collins Mangicho, LTC vice chair, said they did not attend the meeting on December 18 but attended another one on December 22.

He said the KRC Training Institute director Asava Kadima informed them they intend to put up a KRC training school at the facility and that they should be gone by January 1.

Mangicho said the halls at the club cannot be converted into classes because they are the spaces used for rehearsals.

The training school, a request by the county government of Mombasa, was to be established in Jomvu and not at the LTC, Mangicho and Machele said.

The club has been in operation for more than 70 years.

On Tuesday, Machele said the creative economy is a key pillar of President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration and it will be inexplicable to turn around and kill the industry in Mombasa by interfering with the club.

“I am sure even President Ruto cannot allow such a move to take place,” the MP said.

He said they have spoken with all partners involved, including the Culture PS Ummi Bashir, Transport PS Mohamed Daghar and the KRC management to get to the bottom of the matter.

“All is well. You can sleep heavily now,” he told the creatives.

Noor said the government is keen to ensure the creative economy is a success.

“Most of the creatives are from Mombasa and they have been nurtured here,” he said.

“As we continue with dialogue, we will all be winners at the end of the day because we are all government.”

Daudi Anguka, a creative, said the LTC is not only their home but also an industry facility.

“This industry has raised many artists in Kenya and beyond,” he said.

Anguka said the creatives have formed a taskforce that will follow up on the matter and ensure its logical conclusion.

“Dialogue is the way forward. We are not fighting with anyone. What we use is art to create jobs and to feed our families and other people,” he said.

He said LTC should in fact be upgraded to a state-of-the-art facility.

It also hosts journalists who have an office there as the Mombasa Press Club.