Kenya art: Creatives imagine a new utopia for Nairobi

One of the collective, Stoneface Bombaa, grew up in Mathare, the capital’s second-largest informal settlement.

He has overcome great odds to become an artist and wants to use his work to address the way that people in Mathare live – often lacking jobs, housing and education.

Bombaa says they endure a “hand-to-mouth economy”, never sure where their next meal will come from.

“People are really angry,” he says, but through art, he feels he can “channel” his community’s anger into something positive as “art unites”.

Bombaa set out to create from the exhibitions “micro-utopia” sites dotted around the city.

He called it the “jungle room” and hoped to get people to connect with nature from within Mathare itself, in an attempt to bridge the ecological divide.

Ironically, the building he had identified as a possible site was demolished by the authorities to make way for a road.