By PETER KARANJA
Over 4000 Kenyans died on the road in 2021 alone. It is true – and a painful one that Kenya loses over 3500 lives every year.
Many children have been left orphaned, man and women widowed and families robbed of breadwinners.
Stephen Mule is one such Kenya who lost his parents in a road accidents – and he remembers every bit of that day quite vividly.
To push for change, Stephen Mule, a graffiti artist has been writing the words ‘Flossin Mauwano’ on virtually every dangerous roads.
“In 1997, I watched my parents got knocked down on the highway (along Langata Road) while escaping an irate crowd of youths following the election violence that had erupted.”
“The vivid picture of their lifeless bodies has forever been embedded in my head since then,” he had the Standard.
You will see the words ‘Flossin Mauwano’ written on building and expansive walls in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD).
One such art is sitting on the Ksh 65 billion Nairobi Expressway next to the Capital Centre – and it has gotten Kenyans talking.
Mule said: “I thought of how I could help, road signs were present but no one cared about them. As an artist, I thought of how to combat the menace and came up with the slogan.”
“It sounds mysterious but if you check, most of the signings are around black spots. This is something I took upon myself and I never explain it to anyone. I mark the place and move on.”
He said: “I am not a vandal. I am simply misunderstood. I personally have sat down with the relevant authorities in charge of the highways but they mostly put me off as a young person on drugs. My drug of choice is music.”
Interestingly, he does not make money – to him it’s priceless.
“Artists should do art with an aim of creating a generation and to unite people. My graffiti has never paid anything in form of cash. It is priceless.”
DID YOU KNOW:
1. Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) fines those found defacing road infrastructure some Ksh85,000.
2. Graffiti is also called spray can art, subway art or aerosol art.
3. The famous Kibera Walls for Peace are graffiti community art initiative that encourage unity.