He has struck again -- that heart-shaped headed dude in a blue jump suit, this time without warning. Nairobi’s Love Hero and a bunch of his loyal followers launched a love parade and public space action in Kibera, 27 November 201l. Their mission? To occupy a public space lost to fire in the election violence aftermath. Upendo sat down with us once again and explained his recent movement.

My name is Upendo Hero. I’m not a journalist, so please forgive me if my style is not professional and I’m not a totally objective observer. Forgive me if my words will sound revolutionary. I think most of you know me by now. Big love to all my supporters here in Nairobi: Maasai Mbili (big up to these cats, some of the original love warriors locally), and the Urban Mirrors folks, of course, who got this thing really moving in the first place.

Maybe you’ve seen my documentary “Twende Berlin”, featuring Ukoo Flani (check out YouTube). And, of course, my props to UP magazine, these guys Myrobi, and many other volunteers who simply show random acts of love in times of need. If you haven’t heard of me, then look me up on the web. Google “Nairobi Super Heroes”. Check me out on Facebook, or whatever. I’m the voice of Nairobi’s public space activism and, in general, the voice of the urban voiceless from all over the world.

Recently, these boys from Denmark contacted me and the team in Nairobi. I mean, most people don’t know this, but I was born in Freedom Park…yeah, freakin’ Uhuru Park , can you believe that? Well, Nairobi is my home. (What’s up, Westside!) There’s a lot of love here, but we need a lot more. So yeah, these Danish dudes made a plea to the love army: “Let’s march in Kibera, reclaim public space and spread the message, ya know?” I was like, yeah, I know. My brothers and sisters are in Kibera, most of them know me. I know there’s been a lot of press and whatnot about “Occupy Wall Street”. We get it, and those guys are doing a good job. We’re doing our own form of occupation. We call it “No Public Space, No Love”.

Dear Nairobians and revolutionary fellows coming from abroad, it’s time to react, it’s time to reclaim our public space. We have to do it now before it’s too late. I mean, we’re not here to deny anything to anyone, especially love. But look, we need to start somewhere, right? I don’t have any huge message beyond the power of love. The only way we can have love in these big modern cities of ours is to have public spaces where we can gather, peacefully, freely and to build a community. Without these things, what do we have, really?

So I’m in Kibera today with my love army. It is a march to create new public land from the ashes of destruction. Kibera is in desperate need of more space for children and community to come together in positive ways. Our target is a building (next to the Kibera House of Prayer) that was owned by the government and destroyed during the post-election violence. Since then it has been abandoned and my soldiers are taking it over. Kibera needs help reclaiming this important community building.

My fellows have so many ideas on what to do with it. They want to convert the place into a space for the youths of Kibera, a place where they can develop their talent and avoid bad company, a venue for visual street artists and a place where Kibera people can come and heal the wounds of the poll violence. Among my fellow soldiers, Victor and Gigi are two of the most intelligent and pro-active ones. I told them that this should not be only their struggle, but the struggle of all Nairobians. We need to support them and to make the government understand that it’s time to give space to these youths, and then they will show us the way forward.

I also told them that it’s time to occupy the building. Other people have already moved in to open their private businesses and more will follow. Then, who knows? I said to them, take the building now to show that you are doing the right thing for the community, and then it will be impossible to take it away from you. We stand on your side, kazi iendelee, soldiers. Upendo kote