When entering the gallery you are struck by the extinct African artifacts as presented by the works of the renowned Nigerian Muraina Oyelami, as he presents in a mono print titled ‘Young Girl’ the Ejiri carvings credited to Ijo artists, which reflect traces of ancient Cubism as a prevalent art form in the Niger Delta.

The gallery is situated on the ground floor of the historic Kenya National Archives building, it  now has become the largest Pan-African art gallery on the African continent with ancient art collections.

Also part of the collection are Yatenge masks and clay pots styled in human form common among the Bobo community from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast’s Baoule and Senoufo masks, Nimba masks from Guinea, female masks from Sierra Leone used by the Mende during young girls’ initiation rites – one of the few ceremonies in which women were allowed to wear masks.

The gallery is named after Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi who was Kenya's second Vice-President from May 1965 to August 31, 1966 and he later died on June 22 1990, after suffering a heart attack.

George Muoria, a Senior Archivist at the Kenya National Archives explains that Murumbi had left behind over 50,000 books and sheafs of official correspondence from which, the Kenya National Archives department has set up a library containing some of the 8,000 "rare books" (published before 1900 or which are not reprinted) entrusted to them upon the  death of Murumbi. His passion for art and culture is traced from his Goan father who was a trader married to a  Maasai woman.

“The man was a patriot who turned down several huge offers to buy his collections from overseas bidders, but he chose to entrust them to the government at a concessionary arrangement that allowed the government to purchase the artifacts’’, said Muoria.