Two weeks ago, at the New Wave exhibition at One Off Contemporary Art Gallery, a quiet young artist stood out. With a gentle demeanour, rugged hair, and a soft voice, Yusuf Mirumbe captured attention not through theatrics, but through his art that is minimalistic, and emotionally charged, telling aching stories from the streets. His brush spoke volumes.
A few years into his painting journey, Yusuf already paints like a seasoned hand. His journey began not at an art school, but at Alfajiri Street Kids Art Gallery, an initiative that empowers children and youth from the streets through the transformative power of art.
Alfajiri sits modestly behind a church on Thika Road. It looks like a typical homestead, but the iron-sheet structures are alive with colour, covered in expressive murals.
“The Marsh,” an oil on canvas painting by Yusuf Mirumbe, displayed at the Alfajiri Street Kids Art Gallery in Nairobi on July 16, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
Its main office is an old building bearing the weight of murals on its walls. Its gallery is a galvanised iron shed where piles of paintings are decked on each other, each one a tell-tale sign of a child trying to find their space in the world.
When Yusuf completed high school, higher education seemed out of reach. “I had hopes of getting an A which would guarantee a sponsorship,” he recalls. “When I didn’t, I thought it was the end of the road.”
Then one day, while listening to the radio, he heard about a place teaching art to street children. He was living in Kiambio, a low-income neighbourhood between Eastleigh and Bamboo, with his grandmother. “It’s a ghetto,” he says matter-of-factly. He called Lenore Ann, the founder of Alfajiri. “She said yes.”
“The Burden,” an oil on canvas painting by Yusuf Mirumbe, displayed at the Alfajiri Street Kids Art Gallery in Nairobi on July 16, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
His first attempt didn’t stick.
“I came and painted but left after two weeks because it wasn’t giving itself,” he says. But something called him back. This time, he stayed. Within months, he was painting prolifically, and in August 2022, just three months after fully committing to art, he held his first exhibition at the National Museums of Kenya.
Today, Yusuf is in his fourth year at Kenyatta University studying Statistics and Programming, sponsored through Alfajiri.
“Alfajiri has changed me a lot,” he reflects. “You come to this place, and the people you interact with are different from out there. These are children from the streets that have seen and lived through horror all their lives. This place takes you in and gives you a chance at life. That small thing that you are willing to do, they support you and amplify the best in you.”
“Chamcha,” an oil on canvas painting by Yusuf Mirumbe, displayed at the Alfajiri Street Kids Art Gallery in Nairobi on July 16, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
Yusuf started with pencil and crayon sketches, gradually refining his style through workshops with veteran artists, some local, others international. Lenore Boyd, an artist herself and founder of Alfajiri, mentored Yusuf and many others personally.
“I had so much hunger for art that needed feeding, and Alfajiri was the perfect place to brood,” he says.
His early paintings were heavy-handed block landscapes. His colour palette was unrefined. But he learned, listened, and improved by watching YouTube tutorials, attending workshops, and soaking up every tip Lenore shared.
“I had never painted my whole life. I started painting landscapes with acrylic, listened to workshops here, and online. It was all learning.”
Over time, Yusuf’s style has evolved into a fluid blend of playfulness and precision. His human figures, often painted in watercolour, are bold yet restrained, loud yet introspective. Whether working with acrylics, ink, or even tea on paper, his range is astonishing.
Determined to grow, Yusuf began making rounds in galleries across Nairobi. “Most of the galleries didn’t say no, they simply said: not yet,” he says. “Depending on one’s mindset it could be discouraging, but I found it encouraging. It showed my work had potential.”
Regular visits to Red Hill Art Gallery gave him a sense of the evolution of Kenyan contemporary art, through the lens of gallerists and collectors like Hellmuth Rossler and his wife.
That journey eventually led him to veteran visual artist Thom Ogonga, who was curating One Off Gallery’s New Wave exhibition for emerging artists.
“Conversation,” an oil on canvas painting by Yusuf Mirumbe, displayed at the Alfajiri Street Kids Art Gallery in Nairobi on July 16, 2025.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
Yusuf had once visited One Off and promised himself he would exhibit there someday. “I remember telling myself that I would one day exhibit there in the peak of my art career. Exhibiting during the New Wave exhibition was simply a dream come true—a little earlier than anticipated.”
His first painting sold through Alfajiri told a surreal tale: a red tree beneath a red moon against a black backdrop. It went for Sh25,000.
It was the first of many. Some of his recent pieces have sold for as much as Sh100,000. But money, he insists, is not the driving force.
For Yusuf, art is a lifeline. “The desire to be free,” he says simply, “is what inspires me to create.”
He remains deeply connected to Alfajiri. Part of his time is spent mentoring and teaching street children, just as he once was. Now he offers others the same hand that pulled him up.
What inspires Yusuf to create? “The desire to be free,” he says.
