City Cotton residents William Musembi & Abishag Wambeti looking at their images at the opening of the expo

In June 2017, RxAxLxF was invited to take part in the Sensing Nairobi expo. The initial expo was at the British Institute of East-Africa (BIEA) and the final big expo at the National Museum of Kenya, both in Nairobi.

As part of the Sensing Nairobi expo, RxAxLxF built in one of the halls of the Kenyan National Museum a ‘Kenyan Nightmare Chamber’ as a monument to commemorate the destruction of the City Cotton village. City Cotton is the story of the destruction of a small slum village in the middle of Nairobi in 2013.
It was attacked by gangsters and corrupted police officers, paid for by former Kenyan president Moi. The survivors fight up to today for justice. A battle of epic proportions between the most powerful and the most powerless.

RxAxLxF documented the initial destruction and injustices done to the community and kept after that documenting their struggle for justice. Part of his work has also been used as evidence in the court cases against the Government of Kenya and Moi.

The expo after 1 week with visitors’ writings on the walls

At the same time that his Gods of Money artworks where still confiscated by the Kenyan Government, rumours reached RxAxLxF that also this exhibition would be closed down for reasons of ‘painting a negative picture of Kenya and the Kenyan Government’. As much as the National Museum of Kenya is also Government institution, courageous Kenyan Government officials working for the Museum, as people from outside the Museum defended the work.

With the permission of the Museum, RxAxLxF put charcoal along the walls and invited on the opening night all visitors to express their feelings on the walls. This resulted in countless layers of writings, drawings and all kind of graffiti. The first couplet of the Kenyan National Anthem which he had initially written on the walls, was hardly visible any more.

Already when the walls were almost full, people kept writing and writing. RxAxLxF had invited as Guests of Honour a delegation of the City Cotton residents, who hold a speech for more than half an hour (while only 5 minutes were initially allowed) and talked at length about the situation in City Cotton and Kenya.

Kenyan girls in school uniforms writing their thoughts on the walls

With the overwhelming support of ordinary Kenyans for this exhibit, the Government did not dare any more to close it down.
Though the pressure remained and RxAxLxF received also after the opening all kind of threats.