Voice of Kibera

Community youth groups are always keen to make sure they represent their communities and this is not an exception here in Kibera. Whenever a youth group is out there doing something be it drama, sports or any community activity the community is always behind it for support. There is that bond which make the community support the youth group. this is a key thing which make the group feel at home and gain strength.

Accessing the issue here in Kibera where we have more than 100 youth groups we do not lie when we say that ‘The future is bright’ and indeed it is. The youth is the one ground that we can look for volunteers and community-conscious people who are prepared to work hard to bring about change. Take an example with the recent ODM elections or the election of the ward youth representatives, this is where you will hear the all the youth taking in one voice. This are elections which the youth came out and showed what they have to offer to the community. Involving the youth comes in with extra-ordinary benefits.The benefits will come not limited to energy, enthusiasm, creativity and time not forgetting they are able to embrace change within any organisation.

Going back to leadership this helps prepare the next generation of of leaders. The young will be able to come up with fresh new ideas which are worth if given the opportunity. Although some community elders are dubiuos about bringing young people into leadership loops fearing they will misuse the post or will not be able to bring about good leadership which is not the right thought.

Engaging the services and support of young people can go a long way to ensuring the future of the organisation. Failing to recruit new members in a team will likely cause the organisation to end when its members move on. An organisation can reach its peek here in Kibera if the young are treated with respect and as equal among the adults. Take an example of Dudubaya Youth Group in DC which deals with community development. Here you will find a mixer of old and young all seated and giving out their views. Each and every view is listened to and given the same weight as those of more experienced or older community members. Young people should have an equal say/equal vote on community issues.

Apart from anything you are mostly engaging the youth of the next generation with the local community:

The advantages of involving young people on board come included with :

– An injection of energy and to push the group.

– A great level to adapt with change and mew technologies.

– A bridge to the next genration of community leaders.

– Access to experties and new way to solve challenges concerning different issues.

– Access to new networks and growth among the commuity organisations.

Community development is facilitated by the ability of local people to mobilize resources to address local needs. Youth are in a position to be among the stable and long term contributors that help guide this process. Youth represent a vast and often untapped resource for immediate and long-term community development efforts. They also provide an invaluable resource for program planning and effective evaluation. As youth are brought into and connected with organizations and civic roles that they have traditionally been excluded from, they can participate in active and equal decision-making at multiple levels. As youth engage in more sustained positive relationships with adults, other youth, and community organizations, they will learn that they are valued citizens of their communities. Such collaborations will lead to skill enhancement and confidence building traits, which will help prepare them for navigating toward adulthood.

Child abuse is the sexual, emotional or physical mistreatment of a child. This is not only in the developed countries but also in the developing countries as well. Child abuse can occur in homes, schools or in the community were a child or children can be present. The four major categories of child abuse are neglect, physical abuse, emotioanl and sexual child abuse.

Here in Kibera the most evident child abuse is the physical child abuse. This mostly happens in home and school were children are mistreated by been beaten by their parents or teachers. We can say that now the physical mistreatment of children has now reduced since the President of the Republic of Kenya passed the child abuse prevention and treatment act. But there are some schools which continue to go against these law and are still abusing the children in schools. Like their is a case where a parent/teacher beat his child to death in date(Reasearch).

Causes:

Child abuse is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. According to reaserach Parents/ guardians who pysically abuse their spouses are more likely to abuse their children. Its the same case here in Kibera that many parents mistreat their spouses. some would come home drunk after a long day work and mistreat either their wives or children physically.

Children resulting to unintended pregnacies are more likely to be abused or neglected. Unintended pregnacies are more likely to be associated with abusive relationships hence leading to child abuse in the community.

Due to the fact that many people in Kibera are unemployed and finacially poor this is another reason which could cause child abuse. Increased rates of child abuse is more likely to be associated with economic ression as human needs go high when comodities prices rise day by day which has been experience not only here in Kibera but in Kenya at-large.

With the recent launch of Kibera gender based violence in the previous month the people of Kibera also got a chance to learn a little about child abuse. They were educated on different way to prevent child abuse which included:

-Reduce of uninteded conception which could greatly reduce the risk of child abuse due to the number of bi g families.

-Family planning inorder to reduce unwanted pregnancies which could lead to neglect and mistreatment of child abuse.

After slaughtering the cow,what next with the bones,you dump them away? That has been the case over a long period of time,and still exists in other areas.Initially,one would  come across bones lying okwardly on the ground not knowing that it would be turned to a source of income.

Thanks to victorious youth group that turns the bones to more  unique products that generate income.

Victorious Self Help Group are collecting bones and using them to make world class ornaments.

This has also opened doors for employment opportunities in the slum as most of the youth are in the market.

The commonly used bones are from cows,  goat and camel  as their basic material in the industry.

The project was initiated in 2006 after realizing the potential in the industry and are making a living out of it.They recruit youth to the industry when they get orders to produce large number of products,and are paid based on the sales per day.

So far the group has more than thirty people who have been employed and earn weekly wages for their labor in the industry.

Their source of market is through the slum tours done by different tour organizations in kibera.They also use middlemen to sale their products.

Jackson,one of the team says that,they face many challenges in the industry as it’s not easy to meet all the market requirements for their products and thus making them incompetent.

Even though they make high quality products their health is also at a greater risk .Frequent inhalation of the bone dust affects their respiratory systems. they cannot afford to have the high quality dust masks to use during the working period. The  low quality and worn out devices  used  are not effective enough.

The working environment is also not reliable at some point, for their work as its not efficient in terms of transportation of products and nearness to the raw material.

Most of the work is manual,hence lots of energy used.The use of manual machines means constant breakdown,hence waste of time, during repairs,meaning they cant reach their set target  as per the given time.

As they train and empower youth with different skills in bone curving,they appeal to the Government to help in small loans to boast their business.The group has received a major boost from donors  and tourists who have visited the slum,they also market their products.

A hobby is what one loves or likes to do most of his/hers free time.  Children on the other hand develop certain interest in so many things, football being one of them.

In Kibera young stars with big aspirations in life yearn to be the best footballers like the like of African Footballer of the year Samuel E’too, Brazilian footballer Ronaldhino and Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast, not to mention but a few who are known to be the best in football.

Boys who are young and energetic and live here in Kibera would also like to follow their footsteps. They have a lot of interest in football in that some have formed groups in which they meet and play in the evening after school. 

In most cases one will find them at DC’s sports grounds and Kamkunji grounds playing everyday. Ochieng a resident who lives in Kibera says, “I like to watch them play as it is one way of keeping them busy and off drugs, also by doing so they are nurturing their God given talent”.

In Kibera it has improved in that footballers are awarded after tournaments which are held every after every few months. These has seen the likes of Celtic a European based football club in the Scottish league set up a football team here in Kibera. The team known as ‘Kibera Celtic FC’ which plays in the Super 8 football league is one example to show that football in Kibera is far much improving than the past has been.

On the other hand ladies are not left behind in that we have ladies football clubs here in Kibera. The Girls Soccer and Carolina for Kibera being some of the teams which have ladies active teams. With the Ksh. 50 million grant from FIFA to the Kenyan Football Federation the youth of Kibera do not want to be left behind and are up to show the Country what they can do by producing talent in great heights.

Apart from all these there are some challenges the young and talented face. Poor playing grounds and training facilities are not available to the players. These causes the players to get hurt during training and games. Most of them do not get steepens during games for motivation which causes many of them to hang up their boots and start looking alternative ways to get money for their daily needs.

Corruption within the bigger heads is the key thing to unimprovement of football in the past. Kibera and Kenya at large  are waiting to see what is in place for the youth given that there is a new football governing body in Kenya after the previous election made earlier these month.

We are yet to see if Kenyans can be able to fulfill the aspirations of the ambitious young footballers.

There are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in the various informal settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, occupying about 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 Million of these people,although there are  controversy about the exact population of kibera,different entities have there own figures . Kibera is on 2.5 sq kilometer area and the biggest slum in East  Africa.

The Government owns all the land.About  10% of people are shack owners and  sub-let them to other residents as  tenants.

Arguments come up that the reason behind undevelopment in Kibera is that, according to the Government records of history,it’s believed that kibera is a forest hence no human inhabitants,therefore emphasis for growth and development has not been take into consideration at a great magnitude.

The conditions of the houses are very low. The houses are in various categories and therefore the monthly rate depends on the size,location and the condition of the houses. Average size of a shack in this area is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, screened with concrete, a corrugated tin roof, dirt or concrete floor.Others are purely permanent and well furbished. The cost for rent is from Ksh 900 per Month. These shacks often house up to 3 or more people, squeezed and sleep on the floor, or seats are turned to bedding at night

The original settlers of kibera were the Nubian community from the Sudan. These is a marginalized community and occupy about 15% of Kibera, are mostly Muslims and own most of the shacks or are the Landlords. The word  Kibra comes from then Nubian community which  refers to a forest, as initially kibera was a forest. Kenya has 42 different tribes and kibera  has a unique charm among the 42 tribes and various religions that peacefully co-exist in the 2.5 sq. km. area. The Nubian makes it the 43^rd language/tribe.Most of this tribes are represented in the 13 villages of kibera,meaning the tenants  who live in kibera are from this different tribes.

About 20% of Kibera has electricity.Electricity is supplied by the Kenya power and lighting company to almost every part of kibera.However,there is illegal connection of power that later puts the residents at a great danger.For instance,some lanloards tap only the live wires to their tenants,then,they have to improvise the other one.The consumption becomes high hence overloading the transformers leading to explosions. There has been several cases of electricity related fires causing massive damages.

The streets of kibera are equipped with street lights that operate all night.

Water is supplied through pipes to kibera residents from various stakeholders including the Nairobi water company,It  is then stored in tanks and later sold to residents,at shs 5 per 20 liter Can,However some houses are well equipped and are connected with underground water pipes.

Toilet facilities are limited,and hence most of the  available ones are shared by tenants,as provided for  by the landlords.There are also public and self help toilet services  for income generating,that serves the community.There are also NGO based sponsored  toilet projects,like the UN HABITAT.

There are few government health centres in Kibera.The most dorminating health clinics are; charity,NGO,Missionary and Religious health centres among others.Most of the health services are offered freely or at a relatively low cost.

Majority of the kibera dwellers are the young generation.Due to rural- urban migration,kibera is filled by this gerenation,that consist of low level  educated people,Its more worse because of the high rate of unemployment,this poses a great danger of insecurity because of the idleness.

Most of the  available jobs are the casual ones, which are not sustaining,and are scarce too.Kibera is few kilometres to the Industrial area,and therefore the workforce to the industries rely on the semi- skilled people from kibera who walk to the industrial area daily to make ends meet.

Kibera is a business hub of itself in a unique way.As one walks around the streets in kibera,you are able to spot busy shops selling  and offering different services,hardware,furniture,shops,electronic goods and many more.This goods are brought by suppliers and later stoked in their respective shops or stores and later consumed by the residents.

Kibera has been portrayed negatively outside the world as a place of violence,and all sorts of evil ! Exploring  this friendly and hospitable place and seeing, is the only way to get rid of the negative mentality.