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| Researcher Maurice Otieno speaks during the launch of a study on access to cultural and creative spaces in Nairobi at Mageuzi Hub, Metropolitan Court, Nairobi, on Thursday, August 20, 2026. |
Nairobi is sitting on millions of square feet of vacant commercial space at a time when artists, musicians, dancers and other cultural practitioners are struggling to find affordable places to work, perform and exhibit their work.
The apparent contradiction is at the centre of a new study commissioned by the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH), which says the problem facing Nairobi’s creative sector is not the absence of space, but the difficulty of accessing and using the space that already exists.
The study, conducted by researcher Maurice Otieno, found that Nairobi had an estimated 5.7 million square feet of office oversupply in 2024, reducing to 3.4 million square feet in 2025.
At the same time, 47 per cent of the 86 cultural practitioners surveyed said they primarily work from home, while 35 per cent considered their current workspaces inadequate.
Presenting the findings during the “A Space for Culture” forum in Nairobi on Thursday, Otieno said the first step towards solving the problem was understanding where the available spaces are and how they can be accessed.
“One of the biggest challenges is just access to information — where these spaces are accessible, who are the owners of these spaces and whether these spaces are relevant for them to be able to do their work well,” he said.
The study found that 78 per cent of practitioners consider rent too high, while 69 per cent cited rigid lease terms as a barrier. Another 65 per cent said available premises were not designed for cultural activities, with 62 per cent citing lack of information on available spaces.
For practitioners, getting an empty building does not necessarily mean getting a usable creative space.
A dance group, for example, may need specialised flooring, while musicians require sound treatment and visual artists may need adequate lighting and exhibition facilities.
Otieno said this gap was forcing creatives to spend heavily modifying spaces before they could use them.
The research found that event organisers can spend as much as 80 per cent of their event budgets on flooring, soundproofing, staging, lighting and electricity.
“We do not need to build more. We might need to basically retrofit the ones that we have to serve the purpose that we need,” Otieno said.
The challenge of finding suitable space was also highlighted by TICAH Arts Programme Curator Eric Manya, who recalled the organisation’s experience while preparing a major exhibition in Nairobi last year.
Manya said it took almost eight months to secure a suitable venue.
The experience, he said, raised questions about why cultural practitioners were struggling to access premises despite the number of vacant properties across the city.
“There is a need for all these spaces that we are seeing that are empty and yet we, the cultural practitioners, are actually in need of these spaces,” Manya said.
But there is another side to the problem — landlords are also wary of leasing their properties to creatives.
Manya said cultural practitioners often have irregular incomes, making conventional long-term commercial leases difficult to sustain.
“There’s that mistrust with the landlords that yes, I’ll give you a space, you bring me the people but at the end of the day, maybe you’ll be able to pay for the next three, four months,” he said.
This has created a cycle in which landlords consider creatives risky tenants, while creatives are unable to demonstrate their commercial viability because they cannot access suitable premises.
TICAH is now exploring whether intermediary organisations could bridge the gap by negotiating with property owners and managing spaces on behalf of cultural practitioners.
Manya said one possibility would be to secure vacant premises for shorter periods and bring different practitioners together to activate them.
“Even if it’s something like, for six months, we come in, let’s activate these spaces,” he said.
The idea could allow property owners to generate income from buildings that would otherwise remain vacant while giving creatives access to spaces without committing to conventional five- or six-year commercial leases.
TICAH Senior Programme Manager of the Art Programme Suzanne Mieko said the organisation was developing a pilot that would create what she described as safe third spaces for cultural practitioners.
The spaces would provide areas where creatives can meet, experiment, organise workshops, hold exhibitions, sell their work and develop new projects.
Mieko said the model could eventually create a pathway for practitioners to grow from small community spaces to larger commercial opportunities.
TICAH is also considering a cultural-space toolkit to help practitioners understand and navigate permits, environmental requirements and county regulations when using commercial premises for cultural activities.
The research recommends master leases, structured trust pilots, a directory of available cultural spaces and more flexible leasing arrangements.
It also calls for government to simplify licensing requirements and provide incentives that could encourage property owners to make vacant buildings available for cultural use.
Otieno said national and county governments were among the key players capable of unlocking the unused spaces.
He argued that Kenya should not focus entirely on building new cultural infrastructure when existing buildings can be refurbished and adapted.
“Spaces for creatives will not be new; they will be old refurbished spaces that focus on building community and focus on bringing people together,” he said.
Potential areas identified by the study include upper floors of CBD buildings, pension fund-owned properties, secondary malls and industrial areas.
The CBD and Mombasa Road corridor could provide relatively affordable spaces, while Ngara, Ruaraka and Eastlands could support production, rehearsal and maker spaces.
For TICAH and the researchers, unlocking these spaces could go beyond solving a problem for artists.
It could provide a new source of employment, business opportunities and economic activity for a country increasingly looking to its creative sector as a driver of growth.
The challenge now is whether Nairobi can turn its empty buildings into places where the city’s creative talent can thrive.
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