Rebel with a camera

BONIFACE MWANGI, 29, is a multiple award-winning freelance photo-activist who uses the power of the camera to influence social change. He spoke to NJOKI CHEGE

Walking into the Pawa 254 offices on State House Road, you are immediately awed by the casual nature that belies an office environment.

The staff, casually dressed and easy going seem at ease in their work, with some urban music playing in the background. On the walls, is graffiti, with radical messages on social change, leadership and human rights.

“What kind of person has graffiti all over their office?” I ask Boniface, popularly known as ‘Bonnie’.

“Myself!” he responds with a confident, mischievous chuckle that introduces you to the softer side of Bonnie, who once landed in jail for heckling President Kibaki during a public holiday celebrations.

In November 13 last year, a rather controversial website went live; www.mavultures.com. It is the most recent project by Bonnie, a project he describes as a platform that gives information about our leaders, particularly those in the presidential race.

Hard hitting

The website explicitly details the past wrong doings of the political leadership of this country. Going through the website, it is difficult to dismiss it, as it has sensitive and hard hitting information. 

“We are targeting the middle-class Kenyans whom we can reach through the Internet. It is important to know your candidate by their actions. We Kenyans never interrogate their pasts, we just vote by what we see today,” says Bonnie.

Such audacity has most certainly put him in the bad books with politicians, some of them who call him names, but interestingly, none of them has ever come forward to sue him.

But Bonnie’s story — which has been told many times — did not start with blowing the whistle on our politicians or  ‘vultures’ as he likes to call them.

Born the fourth of seven children to a single mother, Bonnie had to skip high school to be fend for his family at the age of 14 years. While his peers were mastering titration and trigonometry in high school, Bonnie was hawking books, teddy bears, petticoats, ice cream and magazines in Nairobi.

When he finally came of age, he joined the East African School of Journalism in Nairobi where he pursued a diploma in Print Media. In college, he was known as ‘the guy from Harvard’.

“Because I was smart. I read almost every single book and magazine I hawked in the street, and I was knowledgeable,” he recalls.

While in college, Bonnie would borrow a camera and take shots around town, some of which made it to The Standard.

Before long, he took a loan, bought his camera and as soon as he finished college, he was contributing to The Standard.  He soon moved from photographing celebrities and socialites for Pulse (our sister publication) to covering hard news.

“My turning point was the post-election violence,” says a sombre Bonnie. “We fought because we were fools. We fought for our leaders, the populace didn’t understand violence does not solve anything. Leaders in this country have continually used tribalism as a political tool to divide us,” he says.

The post-election period, Bonnie says in retrospect, was surreal, more like he was in a trance of sorts. But it was the trauma after the violence that jolted him into action.

Penniless and unemployed

“I had to document the violence. At some point, I got tired of covering politicians. I constantly found myself getting upset and worked up. So in December 2008, I resigned,” he says.

Without a single coin to his name, Bonnie had to face the much-dreaded month of January of 2009 penniless, but he was not about to give up.

“A few friends and I would gather in my house and question the leadership of this country. We wanted to start an underground movement.

So we planned that on Madaraka Day (2009), we would lead a protest,” he recalls. Turns out, Bonnie found himself alone as none of his friends showed up.

In the same year, he initiated Picha Mtaani, a photo exhibition that depicted the events of the post-election period.

 The UN-funded project achieved its aim as it pricked the conscience of the public even though police tried to silence him through intimidation.

In 2011, Kenyans began to see graffiti around town — on walls,  the ground, the streets — with a message about vultures, clearly depicting the nature of our leadership.

“They are like vultures, greedy and parasitical. They are more of ‘mis’-leaders than leaders. Besides, I think graffiti around the city breaks the monotony of billboards upon billboards,” he notes.

If you walk towards City Market in Nairobi, you will see a graffiti image of a man with a vulture head sitting on a throne, wearing a sly grin with a teacup in one hand, and the other handcuffed to a briefcase. The thought cloud above him reads: “They loot, rape, burn and kill in my defense. I steal their taxes, grab land, but the idiots will still vote for me.”

Recently, Bonnie began Pawa 254, a space for creatives, graffiti artists and poets who work for social change. The organisation also offers free writing and photography classes, besides teaching girls in Kibera photography.

Many who have seen and heard of Bonnie’s work would quickly dismiss him as just another public noisemaker on someone’s payroll, paid to do what he does, an assumption that he is quick to dismiss.

He explains: “Prior to starting Pawa 254, I sold one of my cars, a photo studio and got help from a few friends to start this organisation. I am on nobody’s payroll.”

As for the free photography classes offered by Pawa 254, the organisation is in partnership with the New York based Open Society Institution. Concerning the graffiti sponsor, Bonnie remains tight-lipped over the anonymous character.

So why does he do what he does, sometimes putting himself and probably his loved ones at risk?

“I love this country so much, I want my children to have a better life. I do this for my children,” he says.

Kenya, he reckons, is in dire need for political reform, which must be seen in the next leadership. Although he chooses to remain mum over his preferred presidential candidate, Bonnie  insists that Kenya’s fourth president should be and must be a progressive individual who will safeguard our new Constitution.

“Look at our new Constitution, it is by far the most progressive in Africa but Kenyans need to know that what they voted for in 2010, is not what we have now. Our Constitution has been watered down,” he says.