Rebecca Miano, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade, and Industry, officially opened Nairobi’s Museum of Illusions on January 25, 2025, introducing a new attraction that blends tourism with interactive creative education.
According to kenyans.co.ke, The Museum of Illusions has exhibits that challenge human perceptions, expand imagination, and kindle the joy of curiosity and wonder. This new type of museum is gaining popularity in every jurisdiction it has been set up in because of its ability to fuse art, science, and technology into fascinating and indelible sensations and images. Such is the magnet tourism thrives on,” Miano noted during the launch.
Museum of Illusions Nairobi is located at Laxcon Court, Ground Floor on Swaminarayan Road. It joins over 50 locations across 25 countries spanning four continents globally. It is the first in the East African region and the third in Africa after Johannesburg and Cairo.
The museum, which is a walking distance away from the National Museums of Kenya, has three main attractions that visitors will be able to experience.
Guests will enjoy unique attractions such as illusion rooms, installations, and images that make up over 60 visual and educational exhibits that are designed to tease the senses and trick the mind.
In the illusion rooms, guests will have the chance to experience a tilted room where ‘nothing is quite as it seems’, a reversed room that promises a ‘change of perspective’, and a vortex tunnel that guarantees a ‘mind spinning illusion’.
Features in installations include a ‘cloning table’, ‘head on a platter’, and a ‘beuchet chair’ that all assure guests that anything is indeed possible. The major attractions in the “images” section are holograms and optical illusions.
It is open from 10:00am to 8:00pm on Monday to Wednesday. From Thursday to Sunday, it opens from 10:00am to 9:00pm.
To visit the museum, visitors will have to part with a fee that varies for adults, children, and students. Adults are required to pay Ksh1,500, students Ksh1,100 while children aged between 4-12 years will pay Ksh900. A family package that caters to two adults and two children goes for Ksh3,900. There is free entry for infants and children under four years.
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While guests can pay for the tickets upon arrival, the museum strongly advised interested visitors to book and pay for their tickets in advance through their website. Of importance is that the Museum of Illusions only operates on a cashless basis. Mobile money or card payments are the accepted modes of transaction.
The booking system works on a 20-minute time slot interval from the time the museum opens. However, the average time spent according to MOI is between 45 minutes to an hour. Guests can tour the museum at their own pace since the museum is self-guided.
Aside from being a tourist attraction site, MOI provides an avenue for being a corporate event hub, a team-building expedition, and an entertainment spot where one can host a birthday event.
