Kenyans on Twitter spent the better part of Wednesday circulating an image which eerily looked like a human face, but was essentially a backdrop of a contaminated swamp running through a slum and whose banks were littered with trash.
The image quickly gained traction after it was posted by Twitter user Henry Kabogo who tagged budding online environmentalist Hanifa Adam saying, “Only @Honeyfarsafi has the passion to change the face of Nairobi. How do you imagine Nairobi in 10 years?”
Quickly, the image went viral, with many people saying that it uncannily looked like a human face – with the shanties in the background appearing to mimic the human eyes, nose and mouth.
Only @Honeyfarsafi has the passion to change the face of Nairobi..How do you imagine Nairobi in 10yrs? pic.twitter.com/jbOgzbujXY
— Henry Kabogo 💧 ❄ 🇰🇪 (@Kabogo_Henry) August 16, 2023
Twitter user @BrayoGM said, “Ghetto hukua tu full of art. Thats a face if you look at it from a distance!”
Hanifa Adan, who has made a name for herself as an indefatigable Twitter crusader for a cleaner Nairobi, especially Pipeline, and who has, over the months, had numerous exchanges with the Nairobi Governor Johnston Sakaja over his handling of Nairobi’s dirty neighbourhoods, also jumped in, sharing the image herself and further propelling it’s popularity.
Resharing the photo, she wrote, “The face of Nairobi” and tagged the Nairobi Governor.
Twitter bigwig @_CrazyNairobian also chimed in, juxtaposing Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign photo alongside the Nairobi ‘face’ image. While comparing the two, he wrote, ‘Yes We Can’ vs ‘Lazima iWork’.
Governor Sakaja’s ‘Lazima iWork’ slogan has seen him dragged on Twitter with many accusing him of romanticising service delivery online and actually doing very little in reality.
On August 9th, Hanifa shared photos and videos of the filth in Pipeline, writing, “If you see this, tag @SakajaJohnson show him some love for the place he lied he’d fix!”
In a quick rejoinder, the Governor wrote, “I told you this is being contracted. There’s a procurement process. No quick fix. Tweets don’t hasten legal timelines. Lazima iWork.”
