File image of Trade CS Moses Kuria.
Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria on Tuesday said the government will soon start to commercialize Kenya’s traditions with the aim of benefiting from it.
Speaking during the Utamaduni Day celebrations at the Bomas of Kenya, Kuria said foreigners coming to Kenya will now have to pay for every photograph they take since Kenya is protected under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 1970 treaty.
“Those foreign people who have been coming here rating our artifacts, rating our emblems of heritage, our shanga, Maasai culture, we are saying now because we are protected by international laws and conventions, that is going to be a thing of the past. Even to photograph a Maasai now you have to pay and you pay in US dollars,” Kuria said.
The former Gatundu MP at the same time emphasized the necessity of drawing on ancient knowledge and ancestors’ wisdom to overcome modern problems.
Kuria urged Kenyans to think seriously about “where we are coming from as a nation and where we are going as a people.”
“If we just try to make a copy and paste of their system of government indeed, even as a government we are going to be very successful. Our traditional medicine, our traditional jurisprudence, the way we conducted settlement of disputes among the people. We can indeed learn a lot from that generation,” he added.
During the event, Culture and Heritage Principal Secretary Ummi Bashir announced that the government will in the net one year come up with a national dress for Utamaduni Day.
“Kenya does not have a national dress, do we? That is something that we are working on and we promise by the next Utamaduni Day we will consult and have at least a Kenyan national dress,” Bashir stated.
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