NAIROBI, KENYA — As Kenya positions its creative economy as a pillar of national growth, new research being presented this week argues that the country’s cultural practitioners are not short of physical space in Nairobi; they are locked out of the space that already exists.

The research, commissioned by the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH) and conducted by researcher Maurice Otieno, surveyed 86 cultural practitioners and drew on focus groups and interviews with venue operators, cultural institutions, and property-market actors. Findings will be presented at “A Space for Culture,” a public forum taking place on Thursday, 20 August 2026, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Mageuzi Hub, Metropolitan Court, off Argwings Kodhek Road, Nairobi.

“Nairobi has the space. The challenge is making it accessible.” —Central finding of the research

 

“There’s a persistent assumption that Nairobi’s cultural practitioners can’t find space because there isn’t enough of it,” said a TICAH spokesperson. “Our research tells a different story. The commercial property sector has significant unused capacity. What’s missing is a working relationship between that capacity and the people who most need it.”

A Market Mismatch, Not a Shortage

According to the 2024–2025 commercial property data reviewed by the study, Nairobi’s office market carried an estimated 5.7 million square feet of oversupply in 2024, falling to 3.4 million square feet in 2025, with some CBD buildings reporting vacancy of up to 70% on upper floors and peripheral malls holding significant empty space. Set against this, the study found:

47% of practitioners work primarily from home

35% consider their current workspace inadequate

• 78% say rent is too high
• 69% say lease terms are too rigid
• 65% say available spaces simply aren’t designed for cultural work
• 62% cite a lack of information about what space is even available

 

The research frames this as a structural mismatch, a disconnect in how commercial landlords price, lease, and think about their space, versus how cultural practitioners are able to use and pay for it, rather than a genuine scarcity of square footage.

The Hidden Cost of “Making Do”

80% of event budgets spent modifying space

11–12% believe landlords trust them as tenants

3.4M sq ft vacant, per 2024–25 data reviewed

 

The study finds that practitioners absorb costs that never show up in a lease agreement. Artists and event organisers reported spending up to 80% of their event budgets on flooring, soundproofing, staging, lighting and electricity just to convert bare offices, warehouses and retail units into usable venues — often stripping it all back down once the booking ends. In effect, practitioners pay twice: once for the space, and again to make it usable.

Trust between the two sides is similarly thin. Only 11–12% of cultural practitioners surveyed said they believed landlords understood their needs or trusted them as tenants. Landlords, for their part, cite irregular income, property damage, noise and neighbour complaints as their own reasons for hesitation. The research identifies this as a self-reinforcing cycle: artists can’t access space because landlords see them as risky, and landlords can’t see them as viable tenants because nothing yet exists to demonstrate that viability.

Five Interconnected Barriers

1. Affordability — low and irregular incomes can’t sustain conventional commercial rents.
2. Rigid leases — standard commercial terms don’t fit project-based cultural work.
3. Poor physical fit — generic offices rarely suit dance, music, film, visual arts or production needs.
4. Regulatory barriers — licensing and compliance make cultural use expensive and unpredictable.
5. Trust and information gaps — with little visibility on either side, landlords and practitioners default to caution rather than opportunity.

 

 

A Practical Opportunity

Rather than call for new construction, the research points to a faster, lower-cost path: converting Nairobi’s existing underused commercial property into viable cultural infrastructure. It identifies the strongest prospects as upper floors of CBD buildings with high vacancy and strong transport access, pension fund-owned buildings where institutional guarantees could reduce landlord risk, peripheral and secondary malls with existing security and parking, industrial and former-industrial stock in areas like Ngara, Ruaraka and South B, and underused private residential compounds.

The study proposes three priority zones for cultural-space development: Westlands/Upper Hill for established cultural hubs, the CBD and Mombasa Road corridor for affordable space, and Ngara, Ruaraka and Eastlands for production, rehearsal and maker space.

To close the gap, the research recommends moving away from individual artists negotiating alone with landlords, toward intermediary-led models where trusted organisations aggregate demand and manage the landlord relationship — including master leases, structured trust pilots, a cultural-space directory, flexible lease mechanisms, simplified NEMA and county licensing, and longer-term cultural land trusts that take cultural assets out of speculative property markets.

“This is not a call to build our way out of the problem. It’s a call to unlock what’s already standing empty, and to build the trust and mechanisms that let cultural practitioners actually use it.” — TICAH Spokesperson

 

Key Messages

1. It’s a market mismatch, not a shortage. According to the 2024–2025 commercial property data reviewed by the study, substantial vacant commercial space exists across Nairobi — the barrier is access, not availability.
2. Creatives are paying a hidden tax. Cultural practitioners report spending up to 80% of event budgets adapting unsuitable spaces, and only 11–12% believe landlords trust them as tenants.
3. There is a practical, near-term opportunity. Converting existing commercial property — CBD upper floors, pension fund buildings, malls, and industrial stock — through intermediary-led models offers a faster, lower-cost route to closing the gap than new development.