Kaa Rada (Stay Ready)

by Primoz Kovacic

doi: 10.18278/aia.3.3.4.1.7

Born and raised in Slovenia, Primoz Kovacic is an entrepreneur and geodetic engineer who lives in Nairobi, Kenya. Primoz is the founder and director of Spatial Collective, an enterprise that supports communities and organizations in adopting available technologies to collect data that is important to them. A PopTech Social Innovations Fellow (class of 2015) and former teaching and research assistant at the School of Media and Public Affairs, the George Washington University, Primoz has more than ten years of professional experience in land surveying and GIS, technology training, community organizing and participatory development, establishing collective action initiatives, and research. He has significant field experience in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland, South Africa, Nigeria, and the USA.

Editor’s Note: Primoz Kovacic is a geodetic engineer and an amateur photographer in Nairobi.  AIA approached him for permission to publish a few of his pictures.

In Nairobi, you never let your guard down. This city eats the weak. You must put up a front, a face that tells everyone you are not to be messed with, you are strong, you are aware. To let go is a sign of weakness; it is a sign of intimacy and truth. This city is made of people. Vulnerability is private, but is there to find for those who know what it really means to be vulnerable.

These are my friends.

Thank you friends, for gifting me this.

Figure 1a. Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Nairobi.

 

Figure 1b. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 2a. A man in a leather jacket with band Rancid and anarchy sign drawn in the back. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 2b. “Katoto Kel Askofu” or “Child of a Bishop” written on the back of the man’s jacket. Viwandani, Nairobi.

 

Figure 3a. Isaac “Kaka” during a group meeting. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 3b. Isaac “Kaka” sitting next to a peace graffiti. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 4a.  Eddy during a boxing match in Kibera. Kibera, Nairobi.

 

Figure 4b. Eddy sitting in the street. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 5a. The house door with a beautiful sheet. Viwandani, Nairobi.

 

Figure 5b. Vacant room available. Viwandani, Nairobi.

 

Figure 6a. Joe. Kibera, Nairobi.

 

Figure 6b. Joe with Kibera in the background. Kibera, Nairobi.

 

Figure 7a. Members of Mathare Empire hip-hop group freestyling. Mathare, Nairobi.

 

Figure 7b. Ebu. Mathare, Nairobi.