Voice of Kibera

It’s barely 3 weeks to the general elections and the political temperatures are rising day in day out. As these events unfold, Map Kibera Trust has embarked on doing different activities in readiness for the big task just around the corner.

Recently we actively participated in the Party primaries nominations and updated what was going on the ground.  The exercise that was characterized by confusion by late arrival of voting materials, voting places so very many citizens wait for longer hours until later in the afternoon when the exercise started.

A few days after, there were riots witnessed in Kibera starting from Olympic where the Road leading to Ayany, Kianda and on was barricaded with burning tires. The bone of contention was that, one of the contestants was to be given a certificate but it later was given to a different contender. This sparked the violence that saw the Red Rose School in Olympic destroyed with angry protestors.

A few days later we organized a VOK presentation that targeted 30 people but 27 people showed up as 11 out of those, showed interest to actively participate in the Voice of Kibera activities as far as covering the events after, during and after the elections.  The presentation was interactive as the attendees asked questions, commented and agreed to participate in the citizen journalism activities.

“Voice of Kibera should make use of social network and beware of its exploitations where it can be tagged and sensor hate-speech from its followers”, said Otieno one of the attendees at the forum.

With this in mind, the Voice of Kibera bid to monitor and cover the elections was gaining momentum as we seek to do the same presantation in areas of Olympic,Katwekera, Kisumu Ndogo and Kambi Muru

Why the Community Presentations

These are done mainly to bring the community onboard in terms of monitoring and reporting on what is happening in village’s across Kibera, community engagements and to do away with other mainstream media propaganda which has in the past tarnished Kibera name. It is also done to sensitize the masses of the existence of the Voice of Kibera platform and its works in the community.

We also successfully managed to carry out the posters and fliers distribution displaying the number and what people can report about before, during and after the general elections. The process is still on-going in order to cover a wider part of Kibera with plarking posters in strategic areas remaining but to be completed soon.

The Voice of Kibera together with the other Map Kibera Trust programs also managed to carry out the Stakeholder mapping process last year whose aim was to engage Organizations in Kibera on participation and linking up with local media houses which included Pamoja FM, Kibera Mirror, Kibera Journal and KiberaTV.

We trust that before the elections date, we shall have done awareness enough to enable as many people as possible to contribute to reporting of the happenings during this time that a lot of monitoring is needed so as to present Kibera to Kenya and the world as it is/ will be at that time of elections.

1. Fire

In the recent past Kibera has witnessed fire incidences in various locations within the slums. Most recent fires have been reported in Laini Saba, Olympic, Bombolulu, Toi market and Gatwekera villages.

But what is the major cause of these fires?

Looking at the infrastructure of Kibera a larger part is an informal settlement where many people cannot comfortably afford the basic necessity in life. Due to the fact that electricity pass by their homes they are forced to do illegal electricity connections by tapping the live wire and improvising the ground wire, which in turn lead to electricity fallout. This causes over consumption which over powers the transformers hence explosion which cause fire.

Other causes are stoves, gas explosions, lanterns and candles which are often left unattended hence cause fire.

Remedies.

The government to enforce strict laws to govern the electricity distribution and a way to monitor the consumption of fire in the informal settlement. People should get the knowledge to handle electricity gadgets and gas cylinders to ensure safety of the people.

Guardians and parents should be more extra-cautious when leaving their children when the electricity is on in the house.

2. Poor Infrastructure

Most informal settlement have poor infrastructure because they have been ignored for too long. This has retarded the development of the area, for instance inaccessible roads. During fire outbreaks it is not easy to maneuver to tragedy scenes. It is not easy to get to patients during emergencies and police are unable to do patrols during criminal incidences in different locations.

Poor drainage systems especially during the rainy season cause disasters such as houses being swept away, impassable roads, loss of property and sometimes loss of lives.

Falling of Building in the informal settlement is caused by:

•  Poor survey of construction land
• Unqualified engineers and unskilled contractors
• Heavy rains/bad weather
• Poor/Low quality materials for construction
• Low wages to workers hence low motivation
• Hurry to finish the construction

Remedies

Infrastructure should be improved to ensure good drainage systems to do away disasters caused during heavy rains. Good qualified surveys and constructors should be call up for the task during construction.

VOK Team

On the dawn of 23rd December 2011 I had My Dream of The Year 2011 but this one comes four days earlier, I don’t know why.  The world has been presumed to end on Friday the 21st this year two days from now and if this is something to go by then I hand over every reason to Mother Nature. I have had a couple of dreams this year but there is a fact about dreams and going by a recent study; that a normal man can have up to seven different dreams a single night but can wake up the following morning not to recall any of them completely. But this dream I had almost at the dawn of this day the 19th of December 2012 will go along in mind for the rest of my life. The only difference between this dream and the previous ones is the fact that after meditating upon it, leaves me with a message that I believe is going to turn my world around.

The dream: I was at a neighbors homestead in Kibera slums that I assume I had passed by or merely gone to visit, on my way home. I was amazed at how they were practicing some poultry farming in their small home and had a very good number of ducks and chicken well protected in a temporary structure. I could visualize the number of eggs that they were harvesting and the amount of profit they most probably had been making at that time.
On my way home I had the notion to introduce that kind of an idea to my family and I was so excited. On reaching home I was astonished after I discovered that my home had a taken a different look and something almost similar to what I saw in my neighborhood was going on! There were structures that were meant for chicken rearing and a few of the chicken already in place although not as many as those in the neighborhood but I had the feeling that that was a good start.

While taking a walk across the compound, I was noticing some enormous changes in it and some of the land that was grabbed and built on during the 2007-2008 post election aggression by the enemies then had already been returned to us. The unfamiliar houses were demolished and my mother was trying to put a bamboo fence across the boundary, trying to bring back the shape of the homestead almost similar to what it used to be. I was so amazed.
There was also a very huge water tank raised a few meters high the ground on the compound that was supplying the area with enough water but it was owned by one of the culprits who had stormed into the foreign land. His house did not exist anymore and when I asked why, my mum told me that he had disappeared under unclear circumstances. My mum was then trying to find a way to fix our own tank. I missed this home and the feel to be home again was overwhelming, but something was still eating up my mind and that was where I had been all that time that the native home was taking back to its original shape. I even had thought of asking my mum a simple question like where I was the previous day, but she wasn’t next to me at that moment. I was beginning to get a bit confused! But an answer inside my mind told me; that all that time of change I must have been in the dream land. No sooner had I thought of having been in the dream land than I turned my body only to find myself on my current bed! So the joy of being at home again with my family was all but a Dream? I could not resist a tear drop. I was so grieved because first I woke up before the dream was over and second I wish it gave me a chance to meet my dad and siblings too and third; I miss the joy, the fun, the pets, the poultry and the family bond that was brought about by the family while staying together and more so the initial home.

Joe Gathecha KNN