DO PERIMETER WALL PROVIDE REAL SECURITY?

Living behind high walls 

An estate along the Northern by pass in Runda. Photo/FILE 

By EVELYN SITUMA and MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, May 22  2014 at  16:49

In Summary

• Simple fences are slowly disappearing and replaced by high walls for security reasons

inShar

Walls rise up in the leafy suburbs of the city imposing their might and stature on every passer-by.

These high mortar and brick perimeter walls are what many home owners are spending tens of thousands of shillings on, just to secure their homes and keep intruders and criminals away.

The question of whether or not these structures keep criminals away is debatable.

While there are those who believe their investment in the walls has paid off, some don’t quite understand how a thief could overcome a detailed security system and manage to steal from a well secured compound even when they have erected walls.

The Bangladesh high commissioner to Kenya was two months ago attacked and robbed at his residence in Karen. In his interview with a television station, he expressed his shock over the experience.

According to him, he was astonished that thieves broke in, yet he had a perimeter wall, a guard and CCTV surveillance system.

On the other hand, artist Tabitha Wa Thuku lives in another leafy Nairobi suburb without having invested in erecting walls. Yet she has never had a problem with thieves breaking into her home and studio.

“My neighbors all of whom have high perimeter walls and still have gotten robbed in their homes, ask me why it is that my place has not been attacked. Several have even suggested that I might have a hand in the break-ins, which of course is ridiculous,” said the artist.

Admitting she has no interest in building a wall around her home, Tabitha says the thieves probably know they won’t find much money and few material things of value.

Insecurity

“Most of them do not know that visual art can be worth thousands of shillings, which is good for me,” said Tabitha who has exhibited her art in most of the galleries and museums in Nairobi. It has also been shown overseas with much success.

The level of insecurity in the country has made people desperate. Shunning picket fences, chain-link and rail fences, a good number of home owners are investing in stone walls for security and privacy.

Doreen, a resident in Rongai, opted for a fence to keep intruders away.

“I would hang clothes to dry outside only to find them gone,” said Doreen. Since she put up a stone walled fence, she hasn’t lost anything. The fence she adds has also saved her from noisy neighbours who used to peep regularly into her yard.

Though most homeowners don’t mind having this perimeter walls, some perceive them as a prison of sorts.
Stephen Omwando, Group Chief Executive Office of KK Security disagrees. He says, stone walls are a deterrent to criminals. Although he adds that they don’t necessarily keep thieves away, but they certainly delay them from looting.

“Once you have a perimeter wall, your house becomes a hard target,” he said.

The choice of fencing styles and materials is based on one’s assumption of what really can guarantee maximum security. Green hedged fences made with either indigenous trees or prickly bushes like cay-apple are affordable and have aesthetic appeal in a compound.

But even with their boganvillias and leafy shrubs, residents in posh estates add some aspects of security to keep intruders at bay, such as censored lights.

Gated community

In the final analysis, homeowners are bound to be told that they must have either a stone or brick and mortar wall to keep out undesirable members of society.

They might even be encouraged to add electrical wire fencing on top of their wall to further ensure protection of their home.

Whatever the case, whether one lives in a gated community or in an open-air home like Tabitha’s, one is best advised to be conscious that one need never be naïve about living in Nairobi since it’s a city like most capital cities in the world where the gap between rich or middle class and poor, haves and have-nots is wide.

That means there will always be a temptation among some to bridge that gap by any means necessary, including people coming into complete strangers’ homes and taking whatever they want.

So the need is to be wise and vigilant while deciding how best to feel safe in your own home, since everyone would like to believe their home is their secure castle.

CREATIVITY'S THE KEY TO ALL THAT'S ARTISTIC, BEAUTIFUL AND LIFE AFFIRMING: MASK

MASK awards to promote creativity in rural schools

 

First prize winner Louis Nderi with Industrialist Manu Chandaria & Alla Tkachuk. Photo/Margaretta Wa Gacheru  

By Margaretta Wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, May 29  2014 at  15:44

In Summary

Kenya’s education system needs to change fast to offer training in creativity and teach youth how to think innovatively so as to generate new ideas and enterprises of their own.

inShar

Drawing a direct line between art, innovation and entrepreneurship, Dr Manu Chandaria was the perfect guest speaker to launch the 2014 Mask Awards ceremony.

Only the second set of awards given since Alla Tkachuk founded her Mobile Arts School in Kenya (MASK) seven years ago. Dr Chandaria spoke with a passion and sense of urgency that was refreshing but disturbing at the same time at the ceremony held last week at the University of Nairobi’s School of Art and Design.

Referring to the “six million” youth who have left school with no clear career path, he said Kenya’s education system needed to change fast to offer training in creativity, to teach youth how to think innovatively in order to generate new ideas and enterprises of their own.

In her opening remarks, Ms Tkachuk said creativity was defined as “the ability to generate new ideas”. She has been teaching that skill to rural youth through the arts since 2007.

Calling her program a mobile arts school since her ‘school’ has no fixed abode. Ms Tkachuk started her painting project out of appreciation for the Kenyans who were so hospitable to her. Teaching art was the one thing she felt she could to give.

The response to her teaching was overwhelming, especially as the Kenyan school curriculum has no room for the arts. Teachers advised her how best to stir public awareness on the value of visual arts and creativity with a national art competition that offered cash prizes.

The success of her project was manifest last week when she and Dr Chandaria handed out awards to young people and rural schools, which had impressed the judges, with their paintings and videos.

The first prize of Sh50,000 went to 23-year-old Louis Nderi for his photograph inspired by Lupita Nyongo’s statement at the Oscars, “Your dreams are valid”. “I took her words to mean there are no boundaries, no limits to what we can do if we hold to our dreams,” said Nderi.

Nine-year-old orphan, Clement Murithi, who created a mixed media ‘painting’ of a fish made out of metal bottle tops took home the second prize of Sh30,000.

Onesmus Okamar, a 19-year-old, from Amagoro, Busia, took home the third prize of Sh25,000. A form two drop out due to lack of school fees Okmar said he’d been inspired by Michelangelo and Leonardo di Vinci to want to create art that would one day be in history books.

Two schools won Sh50,000, each, for their students producing innovative works of art. Darubini Talent Academy, which was started in 2011 in Kiserian by former GoDown artist Esther Makuhi, and Nyumbani Lawson Secondary.

Each winner had a touching story including 16-year-old Joel Gatua who dropped out of school due to lack of fees.

An opportunity to start painting with Tkuchur has seen him speak about creativity and entrepreneurship at UNESCO, in Paris.

With two successful businesses he is living proof of the value of teaching the youth about art and creativity. He also teaches art privately in Laikipia West and often talks to parents advocating teaching of art and creativity in schools.

The MASK awards this year introduced a new category of creative expression. The award called on people to send in videos with rappers Cr3w Teflon, dubbed The Children’s Anthem, being awarded Sh50,000. The rap group, made up of Ben Vic and Timmy Tim tells the of a little girl who’d lost both parents and had no one to look after her.

Kenyan Scriptwriters waking up to strong demand for their work.

Scriptwriters find voice in Kenyan theatre and screen, both TV and film

Martin Kigondu and Trizah Wahinga on a blind date in Duets. Photo/Margaretta wa Gacheru 

 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, May 29  2014 at  18:43

In Summary

• More Kenyans look for alternative to Latino novellas and Nollywood movies, offering writers an opportunity to come up with homegrown scripts.

There’s growing awareness of our crying need for good Kenyan scripts, both for stage and screen.

This view is gaining traction not only because Kenyans are tired of watching Latino novellas and Nollywood tales on TV and on stage, British and American scripts ‘indigenised’ with a few Kenyan names.

At the same time, there is increased evidence that more Kenyans are committed to changing the long-standing dependence on foreign scripts and sit-coms. One illustration of that trend took place last weekend when the Ubuni School of Media & Creative Arts conducted its first Screen Writing Workshop.

Run by the acting coordinator of the newly formed Kenya Scriptwriters Guild Keith Kinambuga, last Saturday’s well-attended workshop was the first of seven sessions which will cover everything from the art and science of screen writing to the logistics of directing and producing scripts especially for film and TV.

The need for Kenyan scripts was also discussed during this week’s AITEC’s Broadcast, Film and Music Africa conference where people spoke frankly about the reality that Kenyan writers have the capacity to meet (but haven’t yet met) the demand for fresh new screenplays and scripts fit to compete with the cheaper foreign ones.

The latest evidence of original works being scripted and staged by Kenyans is Saturday's night’s performance of Checkmate Mido’s Hero Ololosokuan (or The Place of the Buffalos in Maa).

A show first staged a year ago at the same location, a campsite at Savannah Sunset Resort near Ngong, it’s a combination of storytelling, poetry, song and dance based on Mido’s research on the many Maasai names still used to identify places all over Kenya (including Nairobi, Nanyuki).

Mido will perform under the stars together with Ogutu Muraya and the Yellow Light Machine band. The show starts at 8pm but Mido advises you to come early to catch the sunset which is spectacular out in Maasai-land.

Another unique theatre experience happened Thursday night when the Arts Canvas staged Missed Connections featuring five short plays (two comedies and three dramas) in between a sumptuous three course meal at the former One Degree South Hotel, now known as West House Hotel. A review will appear in Business Daily in a week.

Finally, Phoenix Players opened last weekend in Duets, Peter Quilter’s amusing script about four couples intimately involved in different stages of romantic love.

Duets starts off with the awkward ‘Blind Date’ between Jonathan (Martin Kigondu ) and Wendy (Trizah Wahinga), then shifts to the scene of unrequited love which Janet (Lucy Mwangi) has for her gay boss Barry (Gibson Ndaiga) in Act 1.

Then in Act 2, Trizah Wahinga comes back, this time as Shelley, the inebriated wife on the verge of divorcing Bobby (Gibson Ndaiga). Ranting by Shelley about her real feelings for and against her spouse could be therapeutic in the end, though we can’t be certain. The final scene is all about Angela (Lucy Mwangi) who’s twice divorced and about to get married again for a third time.

Duets is a romantic comedy that examines the foibles and fickle nature of the human heart and the cast under Nick Njache’s direction did an excellent job as each actor takes on two radically different characters and is convincing in both.

My preference was for Janet and Barry since Janet refuses to relent in her chase for her gay boss, and at the end of that scene, one can’t be sure if she’s failed or succeeded.

In all four duets, the scene ends on an ambiguous note with the audience left wondering whether the couple will work things out or not. The blind date between Jonathan and Wendy looks hopeless, but as both of them clearly want to find a life companion.

Even the drunken couple taking their last holiday together might decide not to divorce but in the meantime Shelley unleashes all her pent up frustrations on Bobby. He takes it like a trooper suggesting there may yet be hope for their marriage.

Duets is a sweet showcase of the human heart revealing how those governed by emotions are bound to be taking a roller coaster ride through life.

Boniface Maina & Michael Musyoka's exhibition opening 'Finding Voice' opened at Village Market

FINDING VOICE exhibition opening
Posted May 24, 2014
The visual art exhibition by Boniface Maina and Michael Musyoka with support from The Little Art Gallery's William Ndwiga opened Friday night, May 23, 2014 at the Village Market. It was a great opening.

Michael Musyoka, William Ndwiga and Boniface Maina at the Village Market just before the official opening of their joint exhibition. Pix by Margaretta wa Gacheru

Michael, Boniface (in dreads), me, Longinos Nagra and William of The Little Art Gallery moments before the opening of their Finding Voice exhibition, launched by the Venezuelan Ambassador.

Maina's 'Western Influence' is one of his politically 'incorrect' satiric pieces in the show. pix by Margaretta

Musyoka's Soul Ties is a deeply personal portrait of the artist's recent experience. Both artists use color masterfully, with Maina being more political and Mike reflecting on personal feelings.

DINNER THEATRE BY MUMBI KAIGWA & CO

Dinner theatre set to make entry into Kenya

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Jethii (right) waits on the family in Johari Five’s play Nyama Ndoge (Poison Meat). Photo/Margaretta wa Gacheru  

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, May 22  2014 at  17:40

inShareDinner theatre isn’t something often done in Nairobi unlike other global cities where it is common practice to combine a yummy meal with an entertaining show.

That is what Mumbi Kaigwa, of The Arts Canvas, and Katy Bingham have decided to do on Thursday May 29 night starting from 6:30pm at the Westhouse Hotel situated on the edge of Karura Forest.

The seasoned professional actors have assembled a great cast to perform five short plays, two comedies — 4am (Open all Night) and The Story of Cinderella — and three dramas — Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain, Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently and Early Blight — that they’ll present after the soup and main course of the meal.

Dessert and coffee will then come after the 45 minute showcase of local stars including Kaz Lucas (currently starring in Zuku TV’s new political drama State House), Gakunju Kaigwa, Steve Murua and Ms Kaigwa as well as Renaud Gautier, Djorf Amirouche and Ms Bingham.

It’s best to book early as the dining room at Westhouse comfortably seats around 70 and has just 15 tables.

If the public responds well to this first round of dinner theatre, The Arts Canvas promises to present more short snappy plays.

Meanwhile, Duets by Peter Quilter opens tonight at the Phoenix Theatre. The comedy directed by Nick Njache tells the stories of four couples all involved in radically different kinds of relationships.

Featuring only four in the cast —Lucy Mwangi, Trizah Wahinya, Gibson Ndaiga and Martin Kigondu — Duets will pose a challenge to the actors who are being double cast, but all four should be up for it as we shall see between tonight and June 8.

Phoenix has a new policy in that they’ll perform Saturdays and Sundays, which should be a popular decision once the public catches on.

Finally, Johari Five’s Nyama Ndoge (Poisoned Meat) is so much more than a mere comedy. It is a flaming social commentary that shines a spotlight on many of our current ills, from cop corruption to husband beaters who abuse their men both physically and psychologically to ‘Countryman’ booze that kills without regard for gender or age.

Even the grave robbers who steal jewellery and clothes as well as coffins and body parts are exposed in Nyama Ndoge.

Yet Johari Five doesn’t just mirror these flagrant social ills; they twist them (as when the grave robbers are actually ‘dead’) revealing just how much impunity has taken hold not only among the police (who bully the public for bribes) but even in the home where Jethii (Lawrence Murage) is badly beaten regularly by his wife (Ann Kamau) and ridiculed by his children.

Scripted collectively by the cast, including producer Josephine Gacheru and director Trizah Kabue (who’s so versatile she plays a daughter, an old mama and a dead woman who was stabbed to death by her spouse), I watched Nyama Ndoge in the Little Theatre of the Kenya Cultural Centre last weekend.

The story itself revolves around Jethii, a humble father of six, long-suffering spouse and posho mill worker who’s cruelly brow-beaten by everyone in his family, including his children whose nasty behaviour mirrors the meanness of their mom.

After being driven to drink, Jethii dies after imbibing the lethal brew Countryman, but he’s vindicated after he leaves all his wealth (where it came from we don’t know) to a rehab centre and a children’s home.
 When his wife comes to his grave, she confesses she ‘never loved him’ and only married him (for 25 painful) years for his money. Now a pauper having expected to get a fat inheritance from Jethii, she’s filled with self-pity, not remorse.

From the grave Jethii is finally able to tell her what he never could in his lifetime. He’s unapologetic about leaving her nothing and nobody blames him.

But Nyama Ndoge doesn’t end on a sober note. Instead, the dead are just as funny as the living, like when the graveyard occupants have to cope with ‘the General’ who steals body parts and ‘sells’ them to the dead who need a limb or internal organ.

It sounds absurd but Johari Five have worked together long enough to have mastered the art of witty improvisation and this is a talent they employ well in this play.

One of the sweetest surprises of Nyama Ndoge was the acappella singing by the cast whose soprano Wangari Gioche has an exquisite voice. The other musicians who dazzled were the curtain raisers, H_art the Band.

But by far, the most outrageous scene in the show was when the three posho millers, including Jethii, danced shirtless and sweaty for the women, emulating the notorious new music video by Sauti Sol.

MUSYOKA AND MAINA AT VILLAGE MARKET WHILE EXPATS' ART AT MUSEUM

Art mirrors many perspectives on Kenyan society

Irish artist Clinton Kirkpatrick with his painting ‘A Ghost in a Crowd’. His paintings depict his experiences in Kenya. Photos by Margaretta wa Gachueru

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, May 22  2014 at  17:49

In Summary

• Munoz and Kirkpatrick are exhibiting their work inspired by their travels in Kenya. So are Boniface Maina and Michael Musyoka

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Soul Ties 1 by Michael Musyoka is a companion piece to another painting by the same name. Both reflect the problematic nature of romantic love. Pix by Margaretta
The month of May has produced a plethora of mostly amazing visual art exhibitions as restaurants, private clubs, museums and galleries as well as personal homes have been humming with vibrant activity.

The Village Market and the Nairobi National Museum have been two of the busiest art centres this month.

Village has had several shows including Kepha Mosoti’s sculptures paired with Pascal Chuma’s painting and the joint exhibition of paintings that opens today featuring Michael Musyoka and Boniface Maina presenting ‘Finding Voice…Maisha, Mitush, Music & other Matters’ with support from The Little Art Gallery.

Both Maina and Musyoka have mostly been involved in group shows since graduating from art schools, Maina from the YMCA National Training Institute and Musyoka from Buru Buru Institute of Art.

Last year the two got together to do theatre backdrops and set designs for Kenya Schools Drama Festivals and have been working together from their studio in Buru Buru ever since.

National Museum

Both clearly appreciate colour and paint with a sensitivity to social relevance. Beyond that, they are quite different. Maina’s art tends to be more surreal and steeped in cryptic social commentary while Musyoka’s work is more culturally sensitive and only occasionally political.

But both create paintings that are striking and the sort of art I wouldn’t mind having in my home. The National Museum has just mounted a new set of East African art works, some of which are from its permanent collection.

Also exhibiting are two expatriate artists, each having brought unique perspectives to the local art scene.

One of the exhibitors is a Chilean artist, Josefina Munoz’, whose Transient, inspired by Turkana, work is a mixed media chronicling of her journey on foot through Turkana-land. She uses photography, painting, drawing and sculpture to tell her story.

Also used is crafting with two separate installations—one by making light boxes out of metal suitcases, the other by using tree branches to shape temporary 3D structures similar to the ones she saw Turkana women construct during her days trekking through the Lorionotom and Lokwanamoru Mountains with the local people.

Munoz, a glass artist, who previously worked primarily with architects, got curious about the lifestyles of people living in impermanent rather than permanent abodes. She particularly got intrigued with migratory people like the Maasai and Turkana.

That curiosity eventually led her to get a small grant from her art school in Rhode Island, USA, to come work and do research with the Turkana.

She meet Loyaniae who became her translator, travel guide and host as she stay with his family as they journeyed together for several weeks.

Their meeting is inspired by art, all of which she’s produced during her art residencies in the region, first at Kuona Trust, then at Nasafi in Tanzania and finally at Tafaria Castle in Nyahururu.
 Still at the Museum, upstairs, the Irish artist Clinton Kirkpatrick also explores everyday lives of Kenyans but from a completely different perspective.

It’s one that is more self-reflective as he explores what it feels like to be a conspicuous pale-faced male living and moving among Kenyans.

There is a painting called ‘Ghost in a Crowd which could easily be about himself since the ghost is white yet quite nondescript compared to the African faces that have distinct facial features.

‘All Eyes on You’ is most definitely about his experience on the streets of Naivasha where he’s worked on and off in the last two and a half years first as a volunteer, then as a full-time artist and art teacher.

A Kenyan journey

Being in Kenya has clearly had a profound impact on both Munoz and Kirkpatrick, who in their own individual ways have immersed themselves in different aspects of Kenyan cultur.

As they are both gifted, sensitive and open-minded artists, that immersion has generated fascinating results.

Both reflect their personal journeys across the country and their exhibitions are instructive and full of rich insights: Munoz gives us first-hand information about one Kenyan community whose rich culture is not well known until she collected data on everything from their architectural styles and techniques of construction to their patterns of migration and day-to-day practices of living, all of which she conveys through her multifaceted exhibition.

On the other hand, Kirkpatrick shares his personal journey, his own experience of being in Kenya, as an outsider, and whose art tells the story of how that feels.

On the one hand, it’s been wonderful as depicted in ‘Balancing on the edge of the world’ but also it’s been difficult to at times as shown in ‘Ghost in a Crowd.’

NAIROBI THROBBING WITH VIBRANT VISUAL ART SHOWS

IMAGES OF ARTWORKS SHOWCASED IN NAIROBI IN MAY

 Kepha Mosoti's Elephant sculpture in wood is made from a piece of wood Kepha was given by fellow artist Mary Collis. Kepha's artworks are currently at Banana Hill Art Gallery All pix by margaretta

Last Light is lovely landscape by Kenya born painter Timothy Brooke whose work is up at One Off Gallery till end of May

Clinton Kirkpatrik's Green Lake (Victoria in 2012) is up at the Nairobi National Gallery till end of May.

Clinton Kirkpatrick's Dancing on the Edge of the World is also up at the Nairobi National Museum

Boniface Maina will have something to say about almost everything and everyone at his exhibition 'Finding Voice' which he's having jointly with Michael Musyoka at  Village Market from this coming Friday.

Michael Musyoka's Maua (Flower) is sadly on its side in this image but it's still striking and u can see  more when he and Boni open at Village Market this friday assisted by The Little art Gallery.

Who's missing from this week's showcase is Kyalo Justus, Chuma Pascal, Onyis Martin, Anthony Russell, Xavier Verhorst, Dale Webster, the visiting Nigerian artist at Kuona, the graffiti artists led by Uhuru B and several others I cant  quite recall at this moment...But all of these artists named are exhibiting somewhere around the town such that Nairobi is becoming a serious art venue that is an exciting place to be. Welcome!

SITAWA'S REVISED 'SILENCE IS A WOMAN' AND HEARTSTRINGS KENYA INSPIRE NAIROBI AUDIENCES

Heartstrings’ humour shines as Sitawa recites memorable poems

 Bruno (Timothy Ndisi) with his dad (Chipukeezy Muasya), Martina ((Bernice Nthenya) with her dad (Johnstone Chege) as Martha (Triza Kabwe) the maid looks on. Photo/MARGARETTA WA GACHERU 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru

Posted  Thursday, May 15  2014 at  19:14

Heartstrings Kenya may not be experts in titling their plays. For instance, there isn’t one bridegroom in Bridegrooms for Sale, their latest show that ran last weekend at Alliance Francaise, Nairobi.

But they are experts in eliciting laughs, although a few observers felt some laughs were ‘‘cheap shots’’ stereotyping local communities with ‘‘tribal’’ slurs.

Nonetheless, the show’s stand-up comic cum narrator Wilfred Olwenya was hilarious, coming out in between each act with a wickedly funny interlude, convincing us he’s a genius of physical comedy and rapid-fire joke-telling as well.

The story proper was unusual for Heartstrings as it came originally from the UK and then got indigenised by director Sammy Mwangi and his cast.

All about a successful female novelist and single mother of three, Dorothy (Aimee Ongeso) is shamelessly independent.

However, when two of her three children announce they want to marry into the same Warida family, she finally admits to her children (Bernice Nthengya as Martina, Nick Kwach as Walter and Timothy Ndisi as Bruno) she is not a widow, has never been married and all three have different fathers.

Vowing to marry now so as not to shame her children in Mrs Warida’s eyes, she calls all three fathers (Lawrence Murage, Johnstone Chege and Vincent Chipukeezy) to ask them to decide among themselves who she should wed.

Chaos ensue since Dorothy is still lovely and all three men want to marry her.

Ultimately, she decides to go back to being ‘‘a widow’’ since it’s easier than dealing with these wildly jealous men.

As I expect Heartstrings to re-stage this show, I won’t be a spoiler by telling how it ends except to say there’s a hilarious punch-line once Mrs Warida (Maria Wambui) arrives on the scene.

This was one of the tamest Heartstrings shows that I’ve ever seen but it still worked for me and Alliance audiences who have come to expect slightly more raucous performances from the cast.

I especially liked the character of Dorothy, whose independent agency was surprisingly expressive of any number of Kenyan women I know, women who adore their children but adore their freedom just as much if not a little more.

Meanwhile, next door at Goethe Institute, I watched Sitawa Nambalie’s Silence is a Woman for the third time and vowed to watch this ingenious production the next time it’s staged since all three performances were very different, each one fresh and new.

It’s true all three shows are based on Sitawa’s poetry which is performed powerfully by a cast of three and accompanied by two musicians; Willy Rama on drums and Giriama flute, and Boas Otieno on the orutu, the single-string Luo harp. But that’s just the basics.

The biggest difference in shows came after the first performance at the Michael Joseph Centre when Alice Karunditu came on board to direct and she made sweeping changes both in the structure and the ambience of the script.

Most importantly, she brought the musicians from the periphery onto centre stage at pivotal moments when they became as integral to the story as were the actors, Sitawa, Aleya Kassam and Melvin Alusa.

Alice also enlivened the stage with lyrical movement and rousing dance that engaged all five performing artistes whose moods shifted from joy to melancholy to downright tragedy and back to levity depending on which one of Sitawa’s poems the cast was performing.

And while there were several memorable poems that were constants in every show, there were subtle shifts in the sequencing of the poetry; plus there were new poems added and others removed as new insights struck the director and poet on ways to make the stanzas flow more like a theatrical script with a clear storyline.

Cutting edge

The other big change in the show was the departure of Mumbi Kaigwa (who had another production), and the arrival of Kassam, a relative new-comer to the stage but an actress who wow-ed audiences when she first appeared in Vagina Monologues late last year. She had the same effect in Silence.

Ultimately, it was Sitawa and her powerful poems that gave the show its cutting edge. The most moving for me was the title poem, based on the tragic true story of the silencing of the brilliant female freedom fighter Chelagat Mutai.

Her story made me weep every time I heard it, Sitawa’s genius being her ability to transcribe the emotional content of Chelagat’s sad story into heart-rending poetry.

In the final analysis, it’s not the silence but the voice of the woman that I most admire about this show, the voice heard most poignantly when Sitawa wrote and staged Silence is Broken, another one of my favourites.

Lastly, the Kikuyu comedy Nyama Ndoge is being staged by Johari Five at Kenya National Theatre and runs through the weekend.

KENYAN ART AND ARTISTS COME IN ALL GENRES AND COLORS

Nairobi art world alive with veteran and visiting artists

Pascal Chuma's painting 'The Career Women' was shown last week at Village Market with sculpture by Kepha Mosoti Photos/MARGARETTA WA GACHERU 

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, May 15  2014 at  17:36

In Summary

• It has been an art filled week with both new and old artists exhibiting their works across city

inShar

Timothy Brooke is a veteran on the Nairobi art scene. While still a student at St. Mary’s Secondary School, in the early sixties, he figured he would be a painter.

 Timothy Brooke at One Off Gallery with poster display of his Norfolk series of prints based on original oil paintings made during filming of Out of Africa where he acted as a horseman and extra.

After secondary school he went to the UK, the Farnham School of Art, to further his education and had his first professional show in 1967 in Surrey.

He returned to Kenya in 1980 to take his place in what is considered ‘the early days’ of contemporary Kenyan art, although those ‘early days’ actually began decades before.

 Lampseda by Timothy Brooke based on image the artist saw of illegal immigrants reaching the southern tip of Europe in the Guardian. pix by Margaretta wa Gacheru

His current exhibition at One Off Gallery is untitled but if I could, I’d name it ‘Beyond the Demons’.

He once wrote an essay entitled ‘Why I paint’ where he confessed that since his return to Kenya, his art had been haunted by his childhood ‘demons’.

Those demons were his vivid memories of exquisitely colorful skies, expansive landscapes, city streets filled with multi-hued people and creatures both wild and domestic that he’d felt compelled to paint as a way of clearing his mind.

Last Light by Timothy Brooke by at One Off Gallery through end of May. Pix by Margaretta

Most of his exhibition is inspired by these beautiful demons. He also has some work inspired by contemporary events that expose a whole other side of Timothy Brooke.

For instance, in Lampseda he paints a striking portrait of four veiled women who are illegal immigrants arriving at the most southern side of Europe.

The painting is inspired by a scene he saw in a press clipping and he wanted to give color and immortality to these otherwise nameless women.

Before the Acid is another anomalous image inspired from the media and moved him to recreate the ephemeral image of the Bolshoi Ballet director just moments before he had acid thrown in his face, leaving him disfigured for life.

After the Acid by Timothy Brooke based to the true story of the revenge attack on Bolshoi Ballet director 

Having two sisters who are professional ballerinas made Brooke especially sensitive to such a violent attack on a fellow artist.

The other post-demon painting commemorates the 2014 centenary of the First World War, however, which in a sense is haunted by the memory of his grandfather who served in the war and whom he knew when a young boy.

Yet one hopes Brooke hasn’t dispensed with all his demons as they have appealed to a wide range of art lovers for decades. What’s more, some of the most beautiful paintings at One Off are luscious landscapes that capture the brilliant rainbow colours of Kenya’s skies.

National Museum

Meanwhile, Nairobi’s thriving contemporary art scene is almost too much to talk about in one story. There’s Justus Kyalo’s abstract art exhibition entitled Portals and Trails at Alliance Francaise in which the artist has arrived at the open portal leading into his people’s history and has just begun to peer into their past.

Justus Kyalo's abstract art exhibition 'Portals and Trails' is up at Alliance Francaise through May

 At Banana Hill Art Gallery, the paintings of Kepha Mosoti, the Kuona artist best known for his sculpture, are currently on display while the works of Pascal Chuma, of Bobea Gallery, is being showcased at Dari Restaurant,Karen. Both shows will go on through the end of May.

Kepha Mosoti's elephant wood sculpture came out of a piece of wood the artist was given by artist Mary Collis. His sculpture was shown at Village Market. his paintings are now at Banana Hill Gallery

 At the National Museum, Chilean artist Josefina Munoz has an eclectic exhibition of entitled Transient which was inspired by her time staying with the Turkana.

Kuona Trust is exhibiting British artist Catherine Morland on-going series of artworks entitled From Fossils to 4x4s.

Anthony Russell has just exhibited his one-of-a-kind photographs at the exclusive Capital Club in Westlands.

A specialist in shooting the Big Five, beautiful women and African exotica, Russell learned his craft from his father who successfully switched from shooting big game to shooting iconic images of Africa.

Avatar tje ragged-eard old bull elephant taken by Anthony Russell is now owned by Anne Stanglund (both pictured) Pix by Margaretta wa Gacheru

What makes his photography unique is his ability to transform a high resolution image into a mixed media work of art by fixing everything from feathers, copper trade beads, old coins and kitangi cloth onto his image, and then possibly splattering several drops of paint strategically to add the final effect.

Russell also loves layering his images so that one may find a beautiful woman juxtaposed with a lion or a female’s eye artfully overlaid with images of leopard and zebra.

Eye of the Storm by Anthony Russell features eye of Gillian Anderson overlaid with images of zebra and leopard. 

And while the photo-shop process may sound surreal, the effect has allowed Russell to mount successful shows in London and New York as well as in Kenya where his images can be found at www.anthonyrussellart.com or at Lisa Christoffersen’s gallery in Runda.

WIGOT GARDENS HOTEL HIGH ATOP KAJULU HILL OFFERS FABULOUS VIEW OF LAKE & KISUMU

Panoramic view of Kisumu from new boutique hotel

The terrace and garden at Wigot Hotel. The hotel has a good view of the city. Photo/MARGARETTA wa GACHERU 

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, May 8   2014 at  16:44

In Summary

• The Wigot Gardens boutique hotel sits on one of the hills in Kisumu, offering guests an unobstructed view of the city

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Atop the highest peak of Kajulu Hills is Wigot Gardens Hotel. Wigot literally means ‘from the top of the hill’ in Dhuluo and it’s an area of Mambo Leo in Kisumu that has recently been recognised as having some of the most desirable properties in town.

Kajulu Hills is the name locals gave to that end of the Nandi Hills.

This is one of Kisumu’s newest boutique hotels having opened its doors on October 2013 and its quickly becoming among the most appreciated parts of Kisumu County.

It’s the view!

The Wigot Gardens’ has got a spectacular view on the terrain around Lake Victoria and beyond. From the front entrance of the Hotel, one can easily see beyond Kisumu’s city centre, out onto the lake.

Towards the north are the Nandi Hills and on the northwest, you will see the lush green sugar belt district.

In fact, one can take a 360 degree turn and get a panoramic view. It reminds one of any number of picturesque capital cities in the world that also sit atop a high hill.

The only obstruction to the view is the five story construction that will transform Wigot Gardens from being a boutique hotel with just ten rooms, three of which are deluxe, into a 34 roomed hotel with a high-rise building that will further enable guests to get a better view of the county and Lake.

Wigot Gardens boasts a homey atmosphere with friendly staff. The room service is also quick and accommodating.

If one calls ahead to let the hotel know your time of arrival, transport straight to the hotel can be provided, a good thing is given the current road construction that is under way in the town.

In fact, the timing of Wigot Gardens’ opening and concurrent expansion, including its own outdoor swimming pool, could hardly be more fortuitous, given the degree of growth currently taking place in Kisumu, from its international airport to the railway and the roads that are sure to enhance trade and tourism in the region.

There is even talk of developing a boating services between Kisumu and Entebbe, a move that would increase the demand for accommodation.

A standard room at Wigot goes for Sh4,000 a night while a deluxe room, which comes with its own spacious sitting room and full bath, is Sh6,500 and the deluxe room. The water in the hotel is solar heated and each room comes with a flat screen TV and free Wi-Fi.

What also makes Wigot Gardens special is that the homey atmosphere. It’s largely due to the fact that the hotel’s owner, Mrs Mary Claire Kidenda, grew up on the five acre compound and also raised her family here up until her children were big and her husband got a better job in Nairobi.

Despite her having a successful dairy farm and butchery in Kisumu, Mrs Kidenda also moved to Nairobi where she now teaches at the Technical University of Kenya and is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Nairobi in the Department of Architecture and Design.
It was during her move she decided to transform her family home into a boutique hotel with a remarkable view.

But when she realised her cosy accommodation wouldn’t meet the growing demand for guest rooms, she decided to add on another wing, which is nearly complete.

The new side will have 24 rooms, a restaurant, bar and an additional conference hall. Seven of the rooms will be suites with a complete lounge and sitting area as well as a kitchenette.

“We have been fortunate to attract a number of conferences and capacity-building workshops since we opened,” said Wigot’s Operations Manager Joshua Agango.

“We’ve had both international and local clients who like our being away from the allure of the town,” he added.

Mrs Kidenda, who was a scientist before she got interested in fine art and design, is keenly aware that Kenyans may be more cosmopolitan by the day, “but we are losing our indigenous culture,” she said in a phone interview with BDLife.

She plans to construct a cultural village on the hill below the hotel to help preserve the local culture.

“We’ll feature traditional architecture and artifacts as well as other aspects of Kenyan history,” said Mrs Kidenda who wants to include every community in the country.

“It will be a challenge, but we owe it to our children since they need to know about their culture and their history.”

KISUMU-BASED ARTIST ONDULA RESTORES SIKH SCULPTURE

Controversial Kisumu Sikh sculpture restored

Ondula reconstructed sculpture at stone quarry in Kisiani. File Photo 

 

By MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

Posted  Thursday, May 8   2014 at  17:07

Oshoto Ondula had heard about the so called ‘prophesy’ made by one outspoken Bishop that an evil idol would come to Kisumu, brought by ‘devil worshippers’. But he paid no heed to the rumor.

The seasoned sculptor (who President Moi commissioned to create a Carrera marble eagle for Queen Elizabeth who came to Kenya in the 1980s) had been busy sculpting the peace monument commissioned by Kisumu’s Sikh community to commemorate the centenary of their Siri Guru Singh Sabha Temple.

 Oshoto Luke Ondula stands with his restored cement and steel Peace sculpture in Kisiani, Kisumu at a stone quarry owned by Sikh Temple chairman SCS Hayer. Pix by Margaretta wa Gacheru

“We also wanted to play our part in celebrating Kenya at 50,” said S.C.S.  Hayer, Chairman of Kisumu’s Siri Guru Singh Sabha and the man who commissioned Ondula.  “We also wanted the monument to signify the unity of all Kenyans, irrespective of their faith.”

It was Ondula’s design to make the five meter cement and reinforced steel sculpture in the shape of someone with their head bowed in prayer.

“It was meant to be a universal image,” said Ondula who was stunned upon hearing that a mob came one night in early February and demolished the statue.

But for the Kisumu-based sculptor who created the bronze statue of Tom Mboya that now stands erect in Nairobi’s CBD across from the Hilton Hotel, the mob’s response to his art was a blow.

At the same time, the artist seemed philosophical when we met him last weekend at the opening in Kisumu of The Little Art Gallery.

“I can understand how people with slight knowledge of [contemporary visual] art could misunderstand a figure having no eyes, nose or mouth,” Ondula said who had intentionally made  the  sculpture in a smooth, modernist semi-abstract style so as to symbolize the universality of devotional prayer.

The artist believes some members of the mob must have believed the sculpture was made out of bronze due to its golden hue and sandpaper-smoothed shape.

“I think they thought the peace monument was made out of metal which they could then sell as scrap,” he said. “There was also a rumor that the Sikhs had buried treasure deep inside the monument which gave them added incentive to destroy it,” he added.

Fortunately, Ondula didn’t have to mourn the demise of the monument for long.

The Sikhs re-commissioned him to reconstruct his sculpture and also finish work on the two life-sized cement lions that are also part of the installation.

“We hadn’t even completed installing the peace monument when it was vandalized,” said Mr Hayer who was and still is committed to completing the work. He’s so committed, in fact, that he transported the remains of the sculpture to his company’s stone quarry in Kisiani outside Kisumu where Ondula has been working steadily since then.

“The place is like an artist’s sanctuary,” he said, referring to the fact that much of the quarry has been reclaimed after the stone was removed. Then it was planted with beautiful trees of all types which now blanket the land and create what Onduka called a ‘heavenly’ ever-green garden.

Traveling to Kisiani last weekend with Ondula and Mr Hayer’s cousin, Mohinder Nagra, we saw how exquisitely the artist had reclaimed his artwork.

”It was mainly the head and hands that were damaged,” he said, having restored the statue which he hopes to put it back at the roundabout next to the Sikh Temple along with his lions.

“But before I even think of re-installing the peace monument, I want to complete my sculpture of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga,” he said. “My hope is that it will give the people a better grasp of what public art can mean for the community.”

Nonetheless, there are locals who sincerely doubt the Sikhs’ peace monument will ever be accepted by the public in Kisumu.

“The monument will remain a symbol of Asians’ economic dominance in the town, and as such, it may never serve as a symbol of unity as the Sikhs would wish,” said one life-long Kisumu resident. “And if it isn’t destroyed again, it will simply stand as a divisive symbol of inequality between the Asians and African communities.”

Ondula, who has been sculpting since he was ten years old, isn’t nearly as negative as the critics. “Kisumu is changing rapidly and so are the people,” he said, confident that once they see a monument dedicated to Jaramogi their minds will be opened and accepting of other communities’ desire to beautify their city.

In the meantime, the one redeeming feature of the mob assault on a remarkable work of contemporary Kenyan art is that it’s drawn attention to one of Kenya’s finest sculptors whose first Nairobi exhibition was back in 1979 at African Heritage Pan African Gallery.