ADVENTURE-THE NAIROBI GALLERY

Hello good people.

Kenya is one of the world’s favourite tourist destinations. We have attractive beaches, game parks, museums and more. How often do we visit these places? Foreigners travel all the way to Kenya to see our beautiful country. The rate at which locals tour the country is wanting. I assume the reason we do not visit these places is due to lack of information (cost, location) about them and believe that tourism is a luxury for the rich. Oftenly I will be profiling different places that we should all visit. Let us embrace our country and talk more about its tourism, culture and history.


On Monday morning my team and I visited The Nairobi Gallery and we were briefed about the place by Beatrice Wangeci, she in charge of art at the museum and an artist.

The Nairobi Gallery is located at the intersection of Kenyatta venue and Uhuru highway in Nairobi, Kenya. The entrance fee is Ksh.150 for citizens. It is where distance was measured from, 0.0 (the centre of the world as far as Kenya is concerned) .The building was built in 1913 by the colonial government and designed by Ovary C who also designed Macmillan and Kipande house. It was used as a native ministry, where registrations of marriage, birth and death were done. Afterwards the place became the Provincial Commissioner’s office until 1983 when PC’s office moved to Nyayo house. The building was then taken up by KANU regime as their Nairobi branch until 1999 when they moved to KICC. In 1993 it was gazetted as a monument. Declared as a National Monument in 1995 and handed over to museum for preservation purpose in 1997. Recently in the year 2005 it was used as a temporary exhibition .

Joseph Murumbi’s art collections were displayed at  the museum in 2013. Murumbi was Kenya's  second Vice president for a period of six months between May-December 1966. Murumbi also happens to be Kenya's first Foreign Affairs Minister and also first Member of Parliament for Lang’ata. He was born in 1911 by a Goan father and Maasai mother. Joseph went to India when he was 7 years old and came back at 21, got the best education. Murumbi worked as a clerk in different institutions in Kenya and Somalia. Upon coming back to Kenya Murumbi met Pio Gama Pinto and he invited to join KANU. After state of emergence in 1952 he went into exile in India then United Kingdom. It was while in exile that Joseph began to collect art. The first piece he collected was an ivory tusk from Congo. His collections can also be found in other museums and archives. Joseph met his wife Sheila, she was a librarian and book and stamp collector (died in 2000).  He met Kenyatta, and when they came back to Kenya he became Kenyatta’s Personal Assistant. Murumbi sold part of his collections to the Kenyan government in 1976.  He died on 22nd June 1990.


Be sure to enjoy the artistic and iconic view and history of this place.



TODAY’S OUTFIT
Black and Navy blue dress and red wedges.

 My gratitude goes to the Nairobi Gallery-Murumbi collection for allowing us to shoot and profile the museum.
Photography by Tony &Amara.

Feel free to share your adventure experiences.

                   

                                  FUN.LEARN.SHARE