• She died under unclear circumstances in her house in Lavington, Nairobi. She was 34.
• Her body was found on Tuesday last week after the caretaker discovered a stench emanating from her house
Image: / COURTESY
Artist and queer activist Kawiria Mwirichia was laid to rest on Tuesday at Lang'ata cemetery in a sombre ceremony attended by her family and the LGBTQ+ community.
She died under unclear circumstances in her house in Lavington, Nairobi. She was 34.
Her body was found on Tuesday last week after the caretaker discovered a stench emanating from her house. Police broke the door and collected the body.
It was clear from the outpouring of grief on social media how powerful Kawiria's work and art among the LGBTQ+ community had been.
Kawiria's most talked-about work was her kanga series "To Revolutionary Type Love".
The project celebrated queer love, individuals, history and culture using the kanga material.
She told Kuchu Times, an online publication, that her work was an attempt to claim the kanga for queer people, the way families spread the colourful cloth for brides during weddings.
“Perhaps we can use this gesture amongst ourselves — to lay down our own kangas, filled with our own histories — in celebration of ourselves,” she said in the interview published on February 13 last year.
She featured the faces of David Kato, Uganda’s LGBTQ activist who was murdered at his home on January 26, 2011 and Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera a pioneer of the movement in the country.
The work involved a lot of research and personal investment. The civil engineer used her resources often, and got grants for some projects.
When listed as one of the 100 influential African women by Okay Africa, she told the publication, “I've been very intentional about creating a life with no regrets, so if I had a chance to do this all over again I'm pretty sure I'd be pursuing the same interests I'm pursuing now.”
The project held an exhibition at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi in 2017, and she told Okay Africa she had plans of showcasing again in 2020.
The publisher described her as a fighter who lives her life to the fullest. But it is the end of her journey that was celebrated on Tuesday.
At the cemetery, it appeared her family did not welcome the presence of her associates from the LGBTQ+ community who thronged the graveside. Many wore face masks in pride colours.
Her family tightly seized the control of the brief programme as some of her friends huddled together aloof and unrecognised.
"It is as if they are working so hard to obscure the lesbian part of Kawi," one of her friends was heard whispering.
When the Star tried to speak to Kawira's father lawyer Gerald Kithinji, a woman, presumably part of her family rushed to pull him away.
"We do not want to associate with those people. Let the family mourn in peace," she said.
"Just let them be. Don't bother about them. Just clear them from the graveside and have the fundis cement it. When we finish, we go," the Star heard another relative say.
The tensions did not dampen the spirits of the activists who were there to celebrate an ally.
They sang songs around Kawira's grave, invoking the revolutionary spirit to go with her on her next journey.
(edited by o. owino)