When 21-year-old George Njenga, known as Tetra G, began collecting old jeans across Nairobi, few understood what he was doing. To most, the torn denim and broken zippers were useless waste. To him, they were the foundation of a message. Ten weeks later, those scraps became a striking portrait of the late Raila Odinga, merging creativity, memory, and sustainability.
Tetra G’s journey into recycled art began long before this project. As a child, he often drew and built things from discarded materials. In 2023, he began experimenting more seriously with waste, realizing that recycled materials carried emotion, texture, and history that paint could not express. He said he has always been fascinated by items people overlook because they already hold meaning.
When he decided to honour Raila Odinga, denim became his medium of choice. He saw in it strength, resilience, and familiarity. “Denim is grounded and familiar. The shades allowed me to form his features without using paint,” he said. The portrait also includes hundreds of zippers that add detail and texture while symbolizing connection and tension. For him, zippers tell a story of how things can come together, separate, or hold firm.
The Odinga portrait forms part of a growing collection of recycled tributes to African icons. Another of his pieces, a portrait of Nelson Mandela, was created entirely from plastic bottle caps. He said both figures represent endurance, courage, and freedom. Through his art, Tetra G transforms discarded materials into reflections of resistance and rebirth.
He described his work as a blend of environmental, personal, and political expression. His goal is not only to create beauty but to inspire people to think differently about waste and value. To him, sustainability is about more than recycling, it is about how people preserve their history and treat one another.
His process involves the community. He collects materials through children’s homes, friends, and local recyclers. Collaboration is central to his vision because it turns the creative process into a shared experience. He spent months collecting 250 jeans and ten weeks arranging them into the final image. The challenge, he said, was capturing human expression using rigid materials. Each piece had to be placed carefully until the image felt alive.
Some projects fail, but he sees those moments as lessons. Sometimes colors don’t match or structures collapse, yet he uses each setback to improve his craft. His persistence mirrors the message behind his art: transformation through endurance.
Tetra G plans to expand his work into larger installations that combine creativity with education. He believes art can inspire environmental responsibility when communities take part directly. From 250 discarded jeans and a vision of renewal, he has created more than a portrait. He has built a statement that Africa’s history and waste can both be reimagined into something powerful and lasting.
