‘Wolf of Wall Street’ DVD peddlers get rounded up in Kenya

Film censors arrested at least 30 traders for selling banned copies of Martin Scorsese's profanity-laden, chock-full-of-sex film about crazed stockbrokers. The country's film board says it's too full of hedonism, sex, cursing and nudity.

Kenya Film Classification Board banned the Oscar-nominated film in January for its "extreme scenes of nudity, sex, debauchery, hedonism and cursing". Unfortunately, many Kenyans have already watched it on pirated copies sold in small DVD shops.


Eva Mbuni, corporate communications officer at the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) said at least 30 traders had been arrested in less than a month as part of an ongoing crackdown on the distribution of restricted and unclassified films.

“We are doing this for the sake of our children and our women,” Ms Mbuni said. “What we are seeing is more and more films being produced portraying our women and children badly.

The back street sale of pirated DVDs is a thriving and lucrative business in major cities across Kenya.

Most of the traders due to be arraigned in court are from Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret. They could be fined up to $1,160 or be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison.

Film distributors and major cinema halls in Kenya have appealed against the decision to ban the Wolf of Wall Street, which has been nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Its lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio is up for the best actor award.

“The movie could have been allowed, if the distributors had edited out some of the parts we were uncomfortable with,” said Ms Mbuni. “But they refused our advisory to them and we had no choice.”

KFCB is a government body charged with classifying films for public viewing and has powers to regulate the distribution of those it deems unfit.