Banning songs is just pointless

Every so often, you’ll hear that Kenya Films Classification Board (KFCB) CEO Ezekiel Mutua has banned a song for one reason or the other. The latest casualties are Sailors Gang’s Wamlambez and Tetema by Diamond Platnumz and Rayvanny. He restricted the songs from being played in public places and termed them as pure pornography.

Also read: Stop looking for content from new-age musicians!

I find this interesting because apart from the fact that you can’t really ban a song, it’s also just pointless because you end up making them popular. Think of it though, news about the ban was carried on the dailies and people who didn’t know about the song now know about it and probably went on YouTube to watch it.

Secondly, it’s really hard to enforce such a ban. Say you are caught playing the song outside a club, would you be arrested? And if you were apprehended what would you be charged with? Which law have you broken? You see, for such a ban to be effective, it has to be published in a gazette notice and I don’t think anyone in government is that idle.

The third reason is why now? I just kept wondering. Truth is Wamlambez and Tetema are not new songs, the former was released in April while the latter came out in February – which is six months ago. Say the song are dirty as we have been told, then why weren’t they banned as soon as they were released?

In my opinion, people should be left to decide the kind of songs that they want to listen to. If you feel that a certain song is lewd the truth is you don’t have to listen to it, no one will force you to consume it. The same way you should not stop people from listening to songs because you seem them in a certain way. Enough said.