Democracy & Governance

Diaper Mentality

The Diaper Mentality project aimed to provide a mirror reflection of the bad habits often done by both the public and those in leadership in spite of 50 years post-independence. It creatively sought to do this visually via video and photography by recruiting a talented cast and production crew. The overall objective was to increase awareness of the need for responsible and accountable citizenship.

Mavulture

Since early 2012, PAWA initiated several street graffiti projects whose purpose was to draw Kenyans’ attention to the endemic issues of bad governance, corruption, and abuse of office perpetrated by the political class. We used the image of a vulture to characterise and satirise the Kenyan politician in street graffiti, while calling on Kenyans to stand up and fight for their rights and hold their leaders to account. The graffiti also chronicled political scandals over the last decade.

Occupy Parliament I/II

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M-Pigs

M-pigs was a public campaign that culminated into a public protest aimed at shaming our Members of Parliament who in 2013 attempted to increase their salaries at a time when the Kenyan economy was on its knees.

Ni Yetu Walk

Ni Yetu Walk was a 2-week walk, from Kisumu to Nairobi, in commemoration of the 6th anniversary of the promulgation of the Kenyan Constitution. Together with artists and musicians across the country, the walk saw performances and discussions forums held at different stopovers along the way. The walk consisted of a core team of 100 artists and activists including a technical team of 20.

Form Ni Gani?

Heroism & Courage

The Heroism and Courage Project was an advocacy project that used innovative and bold approaches to catalyze public interest and action in governance to ensure public transparency and accountability, defeat of the culture of impunity and the rampant abuse of human rights in Kenya. The project aimed at inspiring large-scale civic consciousness and engagement among Kenyan youth on governance issues using the stories and examples of Kenya’s heroes and heroines as a primer.

Knockout Corruption

This was a peaceful demonstration in support of government action against corruption. Knock out Corruption was carried out in December 2015 and involved over 300 activists. The activists marched from Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner to State House to petition the President to take a personal stand against corruption following numerous reports about corruption in government.

Sauti Tetezi

Sauti Tetezi was an integrated arts and budget-tracking project implemented by PAWA254 that aimed at enhancing the participation of Kenyan youth in accountability and governance processes. The project’s goal was to “Contribute to a behavioural shift among the youth from being hapless participants of development/governance processes to active and frontline players in matters Accountability and Governance”.

The project focused on implementing activities that would lead to the achievement of the following key objectives:

Mobilise artivists in Nairobi to develop poetry/spoken word and graphic design content across different online and offline platforms to conscientize the public while addressing issues of accountability, public participation, and corruption culminating in an Accountability Festival.
Empower the communities through training in budget formulation, implementation, and tracking in the target wards, to demonstrate how lack of accountability impacts a nation’s state of health, economic prosperity, and democratic space and in so doing, help the target audience to recognize their power, authority and strategic positioning in championing accountability.
Create, implement, and analyse an interactive personal/collective responsibility accountability campaign sharing information about the role of youth in cultivating, nurturing, and celebrating a culture of accountability, ultimately, contributing towards a behavioural shift from passivity towards active and knowledgeable participants in governance processes.

PAWA partnered with community members and activists from the social justice centres of Kiamaiko and Githurai wards in Nairobi County to successfully implement the project.

Some of the notable successes that the project achieved included;

Reclamation of grabbed public lands in Githurai and Kiamaiko wards as a result of sustained citizen pressure.
A Notable increase in the number of citizens in both wards taking part in Social Accountability processes in the two wards.
Empowered citizens actively taking part in public processes and exerting pressure on state officers to be accountable as seen from the many public memos and even protests held to demand for good governance.
The production and dissemination of the Sauti Tetezi Poetry album; a youth-centric avenue through which the youth were and will still be engaged in advocating for social justice.

Wajibu Wetu

The Wajibu Wetu Programme sought to contribute towards respect for and fulfilment of human rights, deepening democracy and realization of gender equality in Kenya. The programme, under FORUMCIV, worked with CSOs vested in media, arts and culture and other innovative approaches to foster democratic culture, respect for and fulfillment of human rights, and gender equality.

Rights, Inclusion, and Transparency For Accountable Institutions (RITAI)

The project seeks to address the various issues facing Kenya’s governance and democratic space, and is being implemented in 3 counties across Kenya and these are Nairobi, Kajiado and Nakuru counties. Namely, the project seeks to enhance transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in public affairs. Furthermore, the project aims to strengthen capacities and support systems for human rights defenders.

In our quest to strengthen the support systems for the Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), PAWA established a vibrant youth-led HRD network engaged in collective action & advocacy for human rights through organising training workshops to equip the young human rights defenders and activists with knowledge on Human rights principles, advocacy strategies, and digital activism in three counties of Nairobi, Nakuru and Kajiado.

PAWA254 is implementing the RITAI project alongside URAI Trust, Haki Yetu, Friends of Lake Turkana (FOLT) and Muslim Women Advancement of Rights and Protection (MWARP). The project is supported by Norwegian Aid (NORAD).