‘I Love Nairobi’ is a project and idea conceived of by the public space activists Urban Mirror. It was triggered by a local context which sees both a tight control of city spaces by the corrupt City Council and a dominant local and international image of a dangerous city.

The idea was to challenge this image in a provocative and entertaining way and probe an emerging urban identity based on a city rather than ethnicity. Urban Mirror created a public space superhero, Upendo Hero (the hero of love) who promotes the message of ‘No Public Space, No Love’ through his home-grown propaganda stickers, stencils and other miscellaneous merchandise bearing the ‘I heart NRB’ logo.

Urban Mirror was a collective of public space activists from Nairobi which developed as a response to the threat to public space that comes from both the private and the public sector. As a result bazes, and other grassroots community-organised spaces, are constantly being closed-down and moved on. Urban Mirror approached this contested issue both by commissioning artists to develop artworks in response to certain areas and by developing a participatory map to register active public and cultural spaces.

The online participatory map was built using Ushahidi, a Kenyan-developed, open-source web platform that was developed in the aftermath of the post-election violence of 2007-2008. Ushahidi enables users to annotate a map, to register an event in place and in time. This platform was ideal for Urban Mirror, allowing anyone (with internet connection) to register and represent active, public spaces. Spatial practices and community use of public spaces were then collectively represented and made visible for and to the wider city.

Thanks to: Urban Mirror Collective. Supported by: Goethe Institut Nairobifull project