Kenya Neighborhood Reputedly One Of World's Worst Slums

26 February 2011

The slum of Kibera, a neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, is shown from above with a pristine village adjacent. About 170,000 people live in Kibera.
                                                                                                                                         Courtesy Photo

By Raymond Billy
ResonateNews.com

Stand in the center of Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, and you'll literally be standing in the center of a cesspool, some who have visited the neighborhood say. An area whose population is said by the government to be about 170,000 people as of 2009 — though some observers believe that number is drastically understated — Kibera is bereft of infrastructure and services that others in the country would consider necessary for basic sanitation.

Plastic bags filled with human excrement dot the roofs of many homes in Kibera, a place where modern waste disposal methods are not easily accessible. Pedestrians there are forced to wade through piles of insect-infested rotting garbage and animal carcasses on many roads. Goats and other livestock that feast upon the street-level trash are the most efficient means of waste removal.

American Anna Jones, who has been making missionary trips to Kibera since 2006, said the difference between the neighborhood and other parts of Nairobi is stark. She said most of the city is relatively modern, but not long after entering Kibera, a clear picture of the Third World emerges.

“The smell is what immediately hits you,” said Jones, 26, a Christian studies graduate of The College at Southeastern in Wake Forest, N.C. Her visits to Kenya include a nine-month stint with a team from Adventures in Missions, a Christian missionary organization headquartered in Gainesville, Ga.

Jones said residents of Kibera have had to endure a policy of neglect and inhumane treatment by Nairobi officials. She said it is not uncommon for power and water to be shut off without warning — perhaps for conservation purposes — in Kibera whenever a major event is staged in the city.

Municipal mismanagement isn't the only accusation against Nairobi officials. In 2009, the United Nations issued a report accusing police officers of habitually using excessive force while subduing Kibera protestors of the 2007 presidential election results. U.N. reports the previous two years have spotlighted alleged rapes in Kibera by policemen against women seeking refuge amid post-election chaos that gripped the country for months.

During her first trip to Nairobi, Jones said she witnessed physical and verbal abuse against boys at a Kibera orphanage.

“The national government basically turned its back on Kibera,” Jones said Friday from her North Carolina residence. “It's a pretty shameful situation and the powers that be have gone out of their way to ignore it.”

Human rights advocates from organizations such as Voice of Kibera, Carolina for Kibera and Faces of Kibera are hoping that at least living conditions will improve in the Nairobi neighborhood soon. At their urging, Kenya is participating in the Slum Upgrading Project. The initiative is being subsidized by the United Nations and the nonprofit Cities Alliance and aims to dramatically upgrade utilities and housing in Kibera. Kenyan authorities began moving residents from the neighborhood into temporary housing 18 months ago. They will remain in the units until the improvements are complete. Kenya has reportedly spent close to $30 million moving residents from Kibera.

New settlements aside, humanitarians will be watching to see if Kibera residents are accorded a higher level of dignity. In order for that to happen, officials in Nairobi — one of Africa's most prominent cultural, economic and political centers — will need to change what Jones described as their elitist attitudes toward the neighborhood's residents.

“People in Nairobi want to be thought of as culturally sophisticated — they want to impress Westerners,” said Jones, who hopes to return to Kenya this summer. “They dissociate themselves from people who live in the slums — they don't acknowledge 'slum-dwellers.'”

Change might also depend upon Kibera residents demanding respectful treatment — no guarantee considering they've apparently consigned themselves to squalor.

“Conditions in Kibera are considered normal for people who live there,” Jones said. “They know other Kenyans aren't living under such lousy conditions, but they don't know how much worse off they are.”