Some Had Even Pre-Sold the Cars! Bamenya Explains the Controversy Behind Mashariki Film Festival Prizes
Benimana Ramadhan, popularly known as Bamenya, has spoken out after winning one of the cars awarded at the 11th Mashariki Film Festival a prize that stirred debate after allegations emerged that some contestants had already begun selling the cars even before winning them.
After receiving his car, Bamenya confirmed that he was aware of actors who had collected money from supporters with promises that they would win, planning to later use the vehicle for commercial car-rental businesses. He said this motivated him to fight harder for the prize so that it would not be diverted into projects that do not uplift Rwanda’s film industry.
Bamenya won with over 80,000 votes, which based on standard voting rates represented contributions worth approximately 16 million Rwandan francs, despite the car itself being valued at around 13 million francs.
Overwhelmed with excitement, he dedicated the award to the entire cast and crew of Bamenya Series, a production that has been running for eight years and remains one of Rwanda’s most-watched comedy series. He said the car will help improve their work efficiency. “This car will support the ones we already had. Transport challenges will now reduce. At times we had two cars or one would be missing, and sometimes we had to act as a family that owns a car. This prize will help fix that,” he said.
He emphasized that the film industry is not about rivalry but teamwork. Even among the nominees, including Clapton Kibonke, he said colleagues voted for him willingly and he too would gladly back them in future editions. “This wasn’t a battle. Today it’s me, tomorrow it could be Killaman, Clapton, Papa Sava, or others. We support each other. Winning doesn’t mean I defeated anyone my colleagues were with me all the way,” he added.
Bamenya also revealed that some individuals outside the industry had begun contacting actors, offering to finance their votes in exchange for taking control of the prize cars for rental businesses. “There are people out there who were already pushing actors to let them invest so they could later take the cars into car-rental ventures. These cars are worth about 26 million francs, but Kecapu and I were voted in with over 30 million francs. We want these cars to remain within the film projects, not become tools for someone else’s business,” he explained.
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