Kenyan puppeteer. Fedelis Kyalo Kithome is a professional puppeteer who has also worked as a scriptwriter, puppet builder, percussionist, and community education specialist. Much of his work has focussed on issues affecting contemporary African society, including HIV/AIDS, corruption, the girl child and her education, environmental degradation and the need for conservation. His work has taken the form of public and theatrical performances, as well as television productions. He has directed and performed the folklore-based Tears by the River in Belgium, Austria, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Ecuador, Argentina and Poland, where he won an Honorary Diploma of POLUNIMA in puppet manipulation. More recently he wrote and has performed The Last Man Standing, within Kenya and at the Out of the Box International Puppetry Festival in Cape Town, South Africa (2011) and at the Indonesian Wayang Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia (2012).
Fedelis is also part of the crew of The XYZ Show, a puppetry-based political satire television production created by Godfrey Mwampembwa, popularly known as “Gado”, and the forthcoming This Is Africa (T.I.A) children’s puppet series.
His work appeals to both young and old, and a pleasing personal effervescence complements his skills as an entertainer. Fedelis often dresses for the occasion. For instance, he appears as an African warrior in the jungle when using puppets to weave tales of monkeys and lions, or at a local performance he becomes part of the community itself telling educational stories befitting his theme. Fidelis Kyalo Kithome is also a council member of UNIMA-Kenya.
(See Kenya.)