PICHA MTAANI HITS MOMBASA

Picha Mtaani, Swahili for ‘street exhibition’, is a youth led peace initiative that uses images taken during Kenya’s 2007/2008-post election violence to create space for young people to reconcile.

This is an initiative started by the recipient of the 2010 CNN African Journalist Of The Year in The Mohammed Amin Photographic Award - Boniface Mwangi who runs it as the Project Director.

"Picha Mtaani's purpose is peace building, violence prevention, and mitigation, creation of livelihoods and for promoting peaceful co-existence among Young people in conflict affected centers in Kenya in both rural and informal settlements – in urban centers," he tells us.

Picha Mtaani was at the Mama Ngina Drive, Mombasa from the 2nd to the 4th of July and attracted a healthy crowd who were ready to forgive and heal the nation. Their theme that weekend was to promote peace and reconciliation.

The picha mtaani tour has gone through various parts of the country including Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and now Mombasa.

"We had a successful two days at the Picha Mtaani exhibition on Mama Ngina Drive in Mombasa, yesterday was our last day in this coastal city and it marks the end of the first tour of Picha Mtaani. We will be releasing a documentary and a book of the testimony from the victims and perpetrators we met during the tour online via www.pichamtaani.org," Boniface told our reporter.