Nairobi National Museum Displays ‘Most Amazing Art’

By Kiara Nakalembe Konde, 13, Kampala, Uganda

When we walked out of Nairobi Safari Club and up the pedestrian crossing staircase across University Way on our way to our guided tour of Nairobi National Museum on Museum Hill as part of our Cinematography training at Lola Kenya Screen, it was nice to see a new side of Nairobi that I had not seen. We stopped briefly on the fly-over on Harry Thuku Road adjacent to the University of Nairobi for some quick introduction among ourselves. It was surprisingly sweet for me to discover that we were of various nationalities across the East African Community.

When we got to the Museum I asked Prof Emmanuel Emasealu, one of our mentors, if I could use his DSLR camera in taking photos and, surprisingly, he said yes. The tour was interesting and I took so many pictures. It was nice to understand another country’s history but that was not what really caught my attention.

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The most incredible thing about the whole tour was the art section. I saw the most amazing art pieces that made me feel bad and made me feel jealous of artists as I can’t draw though it’s something I have always wanted to do. I think the wildlife paintings made the whole tour come alive for me.

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After seeing all that art, we had to leave but I was exhausted; my feet were killing me. So the walk back to the hotel could have been stressful. But I didn’t think about that because I was busy going through all the pictures I had taken over the three hours the tour had taken. Though this was the first time I had taken pictures, I was surprised at the high quality of the photos I had taken as Prof Emasealu complimented me for what he said was a job well done. Hearing those words made me feel good about myself.