- Coming soon
- Presidential Art Challenge 2026
- Housing Creatives Support Programme
Transformingnational housinginto livingcanvases.
Tuzo ya Rais ya Sanaa ya Taifa
A civic art challenge bridging grassroots visual artists with public infrastructure. Finalists receive site commissions across national housing projects, closing with an exhibition and gala: A Night of Art.
- Submit your conceptOpens with the call
- Site briefs and wall locationsOpens with the call
- Partner and sponsor portalOpens with the call
Registering on Kuta Zetu gets you ready for the call. It does not enter you into the challenge, and it is not selection.
At launch
- Active county submissionsOpens with the call
- Designated housing wallsOpens with the call
- Commissioning fundOpens with the call
- Days to the galaOpens with the call
Challenge categories
Four ways into the walls of the nation.
The challenge channels artistic talent into national infrastructure across four categories.
Alama za Jamii
Monumental murals
- Medium and focus
- Large-scale exterior wall murals, trompe l'œil, community storytelling
- Where it goes
- Multi-storey housing façades, perimeter walls and water towers
- What you submit
- 2D scale concept, material longevity spec, community engagement plan
Sanaa ya Mazingira
Civic sculpture
- Medium and focus
- Eco-sculpture, recycled scrap metal, stone carving, functional public seating
- Where it goes
- Central courtyards, community playgrounds and public entryways
- What you submit
- 3D render or maquette photo, structural anchoring specs
Urithi Kidijitali
AR and digital heritage
- Medium and focus
- Augmented reality murals, projection mapping, interactive digital installations
- Where it goes
- Community social halls, commercial arcades and transit nodes
- What you submit
- Digital prototype, AR trigger target design, QR integration plan
Ustawi Wetu
Interior public murals
- Medium and focus
- Acrylics, mosaic tiling, textile hangings, bas-relief
- Where it goes
- Daycare centres, health hubs and housing administration offices
- What you submit
- Detailed colour elevation, non-toxic and anti-abrasion finishing plan
How it is judged
Four stages, from a blind call to the gala.
Stage 1
Blind open call
A digital portfolio, a sketch and a cultural statement. The jury sees only the concept and its dimensions: no name, age or county.
Jury 100%. Shortlist of 50 (proposed)
Stage 2
Estate charrette
Shortlisted concepts go on show at the estate. Each artist hosts a weekend co-design workshop with residents and adapts the concept to what they hear.
Community gate: pass, modify or veto
Stage 3
Public and technical jury
Scale mock-ups, material specs and a structural review.
Curatorial board 50%, structural engineers 25%, verified public vote on Kuta Zetu 25%. Final 20 (proposed)
Stage 4
Conferment
Completed murals and physical maquettes go to a final curatorial review before the gala. One laureate is chosen in each of the four categories.
Four category laureates
Built to outlast the event
Policy that keeps the walls coming.
A national challenge earns lasting credibility when policy outlives the event cycle. Three instruments are proposed.
A percent for art
A share of the construction cost of Affordable Housing Programme developments, proposed at 0.5% to 1%, set aside for visual works, monumental murals and site sculpture.
A pre-qualified list of public artists
Winners join a vetted national list of public artists for government architectural commissions over the following three years, without repeating procurement pre-qualification.
Fundi wa Sanaa apprentices
Every finalist working on a housing site employs at least two young residents of that estate as paid apprentices.
On Kuta Zetu
The challenge runs here.
The challenge section of Kuta Zetu is a working tool, not a poster.
The walls, in 3D
Elevation drawings, high-resolution ortho-photos and 3D models of real housing walls to download. Place your mural on the exact façade before you submit.
Matching artists to walls
Sites are matched to artists by material and structural suitability.
A fair jury room
Rubric-based scoring for originality, cultural relevance, structural durability and community resonance.
A plaque on every wall
Each finished wall carries a plaque with a QR code that opens its story on Kuta Zetu: the artist, the making of the work, and a way to tip the artist or order a print.
Prints that pay the artist
Limited-edition prints of finished works, with each sale split as proposed: 60% to the artist, 20% to the estate's residents' welfare committee and 20% to a revolving fund for materials.
A Night of Art
The gala.
An exhibition evening and philanthropic auction that brings the finished walls indoors.
The pavilion
Scale maquettes, full-size study canvases and projection walls showing the finished murals on their estates.
Tuzo ya Rais
Gold, silver and bronze medallions for the laureates, with an invitation to advise on the creative side of upcoming public infrastructure.
Adopt a wall
Businesses bid to sponsor the runner-up concepts on further housing sites across all 47 counties.
Who it brings together
- Executive patronage
- National and county government
- Developers, paint and building-materials companies, banks and telecoms
- Cultural centres, artist collectives and university fine-art departments
Partners are named here once each confirms in writing.
After the gala
Walls that last.
A preservation fund
A share of every commission and sponsorship, proposed at 20%, held in an independent maintenance trust run with the estate's residents' association.
Surfaces made to last
Water-repellent primer on every wall, lightfast pigments, and a clear anti-graffiti and UV topcoat.
Site Art Stewards
Apprentices are certified to look after the walls: quarterly washing, inspection, and reporting damage through Kuta Zetu.
The call opens soon.
Every Affordable Housing home is getting original Kenyan art. Register on Kuta Zetu today, and you will hear first when the challenge opens.
Proposed figures from the Presidential Art Challenge blueprint, draft of 18 October 2026. Details may change before the call opens.