Betrayal in the City by Francis Imbuga

About Francis Imbuga

Betrayal in the Citu by Francis Imbuga

Set in the fictional state of Kafira — widely understood as a composite portrait of post-colonial African regimes — Betrayal in the City follows Mosese, a man imprisoned for protesting the desecration of his brother's grave at a government construction site. The play explores how the machinery of state repression functions: how dissent is criminalised, how intellectuals are co-opted or silenced, and how ordinary people become complicit in their own oppression. Imbuga's dialogue is sharp and theatrical, charged with irony and dark humour. The play was controversial on publication for its direct political critique, and remains one of the most widely studied and performed works in Kenyan and East African theatre. It is required reading across secondary schools in the region and continues to speak with uncomfortable directness to political realities across the continent.