Bringing the Kenya Burning exhibition to the youth

The Kenya Burning exhibition was one of the most explicit and memorable accounts of the Post-Election Violence 2007/2008 after the General Elections in Kenya.


After the exhibition officially ended, youth and peace building organisations cooperated to bring this exposition to the youth as a learning experience. A total of 18 peace clubs from different secondary schools in Nairobi were targeted – coming from Huruma, Kibera, Dandora, Eastleigh, Jericho/ Jogoo Road and Parklands areas. These 18 peace clubs all originate from the COPA peace education program.

The event on 8 August 2009 started with viewing the Kenya Burning exhibition photos, including a short video of media clips by way of visual documentation. This confrontation with what happened was followed by guided debates and discussions amongst the audience. Panellists guiding the debates represented YIKE (Youth Initiatives Kenya), Chemi Chemi ya Ukweli and the Ministry of Education. They were sharing personal stories and perspectives in peace building, to engage with the audience around the issues the students were bringing up from the exhibition. The situations surfacing from the discussions were related to the ongoing issues Kenya is still facing, highlighting their own interventions as peace builders in their schools and communities.

One of the main aims of the Kenya Burning exhibition is to create awareness on the significance of peaceful coexistences amongst the young students, bearing in mind that they will be the voters in the 2012 and subsequent elections. The exposition provides a visual reminder of the painful past of Kenya that we all want to forget, yet not before we learn from it and work hard so that a similar outbreak of violence should not happen again.