RESIDENTS FROM SOWETO EAST MOVED TO DECANTING SITE.

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Ivy Winnie

Relocation of people from Soweto east was much of excitement as people were being moved from Soweto east to decanting site.Most of people saw it as a stepping stone from a lower life to a much advance level of life.

This being a three bed roomed house, a kitchen ,a toilet and a bathroom or rather a self contained house with a good living  environment.The challenge is that some people from the slum could not corp  up with the cost of the living standard  of the new environment.

Simon,who was one of the people that were relocated says that;To him being  moved from  soweto east where he pays 20 shillings to work he now pays more than that.He says life has been expensive from clothing, to food, and to other things like paying for the bills ie; electricity,water and rent. He also says that people would think that they have come to a better place but they also have their problems like since they moved there,they have not been having electricity for 7months.

With some people very excited with moving from soweto to decanting site,Magdaline was very happy as she says that the houses have water  and now she can wash her cloths and clean the house unlike  Soweto East where she had to walk a distance to fetch water that she could use for household purposes .She says some of her neighbours refused to move because the houses were  very expensive for them but some who wanted to move did not have the opportunity to .Despite all, she says that the living standard is quite expensive compared to Soweto East where she used to pay for 3 houses each at Ksh.  700 including electricity,  she now pays 3000 shillings for the 3 bed roomed house.

I also met Policup Ouko,who was also one of the residents who came to decanting site from  Soweto East. He says he has seen a big  change from bad to good and life is not the same again, He continued to say that they now have security and there has been an improvement despite the high living standard . He says that in Soweto East  he used to pay a rent of 1200 and pays 300 shillings for electricity that is a total of 1500 shillings.

The major disadvantage that they had was that, they had to remove their children from school, since it  was October and so their children had to stay out of school until January in order for them to join the new schools that are near by the houses they had moved to.

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HOUSES DEMOLITION IN SOWETO EAST

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Lee Ibrahim

Residents of Kibera, Soweto East region have been left homeless following the demolition that has been witnessed recently. The demolition was to pave way for the second phase of the slum upgrading project which had started early last year but caught many residents unaware. Some of the residents who were still at work received reports and came but it was all in vain as the bulldozer had destroyed many houses. There was no sufficient time to salvage property and residents households goods.

Hundreds of Soweto East woke up early morning on Thursday, 12th, January 2012 to watch in disbelieve as their houses were turned into rubbles in minutes. The residents had earlier been allocated to the new houses at Lang’ata area next to the Lan’gata Women Prison made by the government in collaboration with the UN-HABITAT in 2009. Some residents came back to Soweto East because of some reasons they encountered. Some of the reasons were:
-Residents claimed that the houses were expensive and many of them could not afford.
-Some residents said the life in the new houses was expensive compared to the life in Kibera.
-Some residents saw that as a source of revenue and rented their rooms and returned to the slums.
Many children from the affected families have now dropped school. “They have destroyed not only our houses but also the schools where our children go to.”, said an affected woman at the scene of demolision. Affected families said they are now putting up with relatives and freinds while some have no option but to go back to the rural area to start a new life.

Now the affected families are out requesting the government to show them alternative locations to move to. The demolition sanction by the state was to pave way for slum upgrading project in which the state says it had given people enough time to look for alternative premises. Some residents had a court order which they claimed that they were there legally and they were waiting for the second hearing of their case on 17th, January 2012 but the government came to demolish earlier before their hearing.

This was not the first time the government had made good its treat to mow down structures in Nairobi. It had earlier demolished multi-million shilling mansions in Syokimau, houses in East-Leigh near the Moi Airbase, Kyang’mbe and Maasai Village for allegedly being on the Kenya Airports Authority’s land.

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JITOLEE WOMEN

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Fred

Poverty is a lifestyle that one finds themselves adapted to either knowingly or unknowingly. The high rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence makes it even worse, not forgetting the high inflation rate that’s leading to the skyrocketing of prices of the basic commodities.

Here, no one seems to care about the other, you have to survive on your own! The marginalized areas are not spared either.

The immune system gets weaker and weaker to those who can’t afford to get food  to meet their nutrition requirements. Some end up feeding, not to strengthen their immune system but just to fill their stomachs.

There are widows and orphans, how do they survive in this competitive environment, where everyone is on their own? They are faced with stigma and are isolated from the rest of the community.

It is through these tough conditions that jitolee women crafts was borne!

Upon meeting in a support group for people with HIV/AIDS, in 2003 the 6 founding women of Jitolee Crafts acquired the skills and starting supplies to make traditional African crafts. That same year, Jitolee Crafts created an HIV/AIDS awareness pin that was worn by the Kenyan president.

Today, the group has expanded to 15 members and continues to innovate new designs.

Among the founding women is, Caroline Achieng Obuka was born in 1965 in Kanyadhi, the birthplace of Barack Obama Sr. She was orphaned as a baby and so was unable to attend primary education. After moving to Kibera, she began to take in laundry for a living. Unfortunately, when she discovered that she was HIV-positive, her clients did not return. Because of misunderstanding of how the HIV virus is transmitted, stigmatization against HIV-positive individuals is harsh. Desperate, she switched to beadwork, which constitutes her only source of income at present.

Carolyne Achieng.

Caroline is mother of three girls of 20, 17 and 15 years of age and a boy of 22 years of age; none of which have been infected. She also cares for two orphans. With her brother’s support she is able to afford primary education for two of her daughters. However, after the loss of her husband and her younger son to AIDS, times have become even tougher.

Despite her hardships, Caroline still believes in the power of laughter and has never lost hope for her children’s bright future.

Jitolee Crafts’ main goal is to provide HIV positive women with the means to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS within their community, build a support network that encourages healthy decisions, and generate income for themselves and their children.

The women at Jitolee Crafts aims to do this through making and selling traditional African crafts ranging from necklaces, bracelets, rings, pins, belts, bags, keychains, and various wire crafts. Some products are focused on Kenyan identity as well as HIV/AIDS awareness.

Jitolee Crafts has been operational since 2003. Since then the company has relied much on word of mouth to promote its business. The primary distribution channel is at the women’s homes which are accessed by customers through tours of Kibera and through personal networks. They are unable to find a selling place at the other African crafts market places because the charges of displaying their products are unaffordable to them.

Their profits are used to settling the bills i.e., rent, electricity and water, besides they have to buy food out of this and also have to cater for the education of the orphans under their care, which makes the burden more unbearable.

The group has been able to expand in its number of members but has not been able to achieve greater profits because of some major barriers, namely access to appropriate marketplaces and customer bases.

Jitolee Crafts intends to overcome these barriers with the use of a business loan that will provide the group with additional raw materials and marketing materials. Previously, the ideas of brand identity and additional product marketing have not been employed.

Posted in Art, Empowerment, Health, People | 3 Comments

We Have Faith Caravan on The Move

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Sande Wycliffe

Chitimba camp is in Malawi a country with 3 regions; The South, North and Central regions who all speak the Chichewa language while the South speaks Lomwe, Yao; Central maintains Chichewa and North speaks Tumbuga language.
It was about 7pm when we got at the camp with lots of expectations at hand, a nice place to pitch the tents, at least Wi-Fi for browsing and posting what we are doing and bath rooms that will accommodate everyone on the buses . This was not fully met even though it was an experience worth going through.
The morning came and we had to park and leave again so we could have a mini concert on the way mainly for helping us collect signatures in Malawi. Though not very many people were at Katoto Freedom Park in Zuzu city, we managed to go out of the way to get the petitions signed. After the whole exercise, we proceeded on with our journey for a while and stopped to have lunch on our way. I had left my bus no. 1 for bus no.3 so i was new here just trying to figure out what was on their menu, who was responsible for washing utensils afterwards, i enjoyed being in the company of guys on this bus though.
We did a bit of shopping at the local shop for drinks and we were ready to go. On our way, it was horrifying to see leave alone to talk about what we saw; a huge part of Chigangwa forest reduced to ashes, other trees cut and uprooted because the workers claimed they had not been paid their salaries so the solution according to them was to destroy the forest. Were this workers really aware of the adverse effects of climate change? Did they try to explore other ways to get the problem solved? Was burning the forest which attracts rainfall, acts as carbon sink for the already heavily polluted environment such a bold step to take? who will answer all this questions? who is responsible for this mess? is it Maliwi government ? or the workers or the people of Malawi?

Despite the experience of the forest being destroyed, we had a lot of fun in bus no.3 where we had a lot of music and dancing as the driver did what he knew best. It was not too long before we arrived at our next camp; Mabuyu in Lilongwe the Capital city of Malawi. I had to wait for my bus no.1 to arrive so i could take my tent and pitch it. Mabuyu is a nice place to be especially for me because we had a swimming pool which i could use to learn swimming for i was told i could never learn it in ocean/sea waters but too bad i did not have the time to do so instead i chose to make use of internet but not for too long before my laptop failed to connect forcing me to go and sleep even though i had not completed my work.The following day we had a big concert In Civo Stadium.

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The Road To Durban Finally Begins

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Sande Wycliffe

Our first day was of great importance to the youth and rest of people participating in the ” We have Faith Campaign”; that is heading to South Africa through other countries. With the theme: ‘We have faith act now for climate justice’, youth from faith-based organization have decided to approach the up-coming cop17 in Durban with a totally different strategy. A strategy to collect a million signatures from people with a view of petitioning world leaders to act now for climate justice even as the Kyoto protocol 1 enters its last stage.
Our journey started this morning after a briefing from organizers and a prayer for safe journey from one of our own. Since I was looking for comfort, I was the first one to get in the bus (Bus..Ted) so I would find myself and my beautiful friend a more comfortable place.
We left Multimedia University for Galleria Supermarket so we could do the last shopping for our trip, but for those of us who did not have the opportunity, we were just hanging around in the buses as we waited.
On our way, we stopped at… to have lunch, for the first time ever, i was moved by the team work exhibited by everyone getting involved at every stage of the lunch preparation. We had lunch, washed our utensils and continued with our journey. It did not take us long though to arrive at the border to start with the formalities of getting the necessary documents done at the immigration offices. The long lines, the many people in there, you can imagine how long it took us to process our documents so we could proceed on in Tanzania. I journey from the border of Namanga was smooth and we arrived in Arusha; Snake park at around 9pm and went straight to have our dinner.
Being my first camping experience, i had a lot to learn so that i can comfortably be part/identify with the putting up the tent was such a task for me to learn. I did manage and what happened till morning is history.
Our morning was characterised by a bit of confusion because of rains that poured as we prepared to leave early in the morning. On our way, one of our buses had a flat tire thus they had to repair it.

It was a very long journey from Arusha to Dar es Salaam but we tried and made it a bit early so we could have enough time to rest. everyone had to put up their tents first before going to have dinner and finally i had to make use of the available WIFI to make this story heard from every corner of the world. The energy, zeal and ego exhibited from the caravan participants is undoubtedly incredible; Africa, “we will do you proud in Durban South Africa”

 

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Climate Change Conference At The Multemedia University

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Sande Wycliffe

 

The national Youth Conference on Climate Change that began on the 2nd November 2011 at the Multimedia University started with registration of participants as they were checking in ready to go.
I came in at about 10am the 2nd day feeling abit confused where to put my luggage but thanks for good communication from one of our team leaders who got me soughted pap! I had only settled for a few minutes when the time keeper reminded us that it was time for our tea break. There was a deep sigh of relieve for i was very angry and really waiting for that moment. After we had taken our breakfast we proceeded to the conference hall, everything was calm but things began getting big and better when it was time to get insights from the panelists as well as the audience. First we had the 2 panelists presenting about climate change, which was applauded by all to be as presentations well done; why should we care about climate change? Can we make a difference? Are we ready? We need to be proactive in dealing with issues that concern our environment so that we can reduce the effects of climate change, here are some of the things YOU can do; replace your lighting system with energy saving bulbs, drive less or use public transport, try as much as you can to recycle at least half of what you use at home, use less hot water, avoid products with a lot of packaging and above all be part of the solution and not the problem. From what attendants gathered, it was crystal clear that if we can be able to do the above and even more, if we could share information, talk about and against climate change with our fellow youth and initiate projects that seek to save our biodiversity, we will be well placed in reducing co2 emission by a huge percentage. Time is now! Let’s act then for we have faith in our brothers and sisters devoted to work together to this course.
During the question and answer time, questions focusing on pertinent issues as regards climate change were raised and in their responses the panelists stressed on the need to work together to help rally our troops during policy making so that we can have good policies (practical ones) on renewable energy sources, plastic bags menace among other related fields even as we seek alternative ways of reducing/combating climate change that is/has been the topic world over attracting different views and position of countries.
In the end I learnt that media is sometimes to blame e.g a couple of months ago, farmers from the Rift wanted to sue the Metrological department for giving them false information about when to expect rains. This was entirely ballooned up by the media for, from what the evening presenter shared, they reported from a point of no information, no research had been carried out thus it is the one to blame.
We therefore need;
• Media houses that can balance its programs like giving climate change issues airplay.
• We have to develop an interest in writing and reading, give your opinion and share the climate change stories with the world. We are not getting the African stories taught and heard. We are not getting good contend on Climate change from the media but we can work towards generating the content.
Just before we were to rap-up the business for the day, we had to celebrate a birthday for one of us; Hellen from Norway. The Luyhans in the house were invited to sing and dance for her after which we had song from her fellow Norwegians that I enjoyed listening to but never understood what it meant but to top it all up, there was this good Kenyan friend of mine in this Norwegian team claiming that he is also a from Norway (half-cast per say) hahahaaa! I must say he really made some to at least afford to put a smile on their faces.
I will leave you with this “We came in Nairobi on our bicycles, (cyclists for environment/climate change) and everywhere we were the media people were following us, they were talking to us and I personally had a chance to be interviewed live by them?” one of the cyclists recounting his fast experience with the Media”. It is indeed true that climate change can present us with lots of opportunities. ACT. The Ymca team on board will keep you posted.

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RAILWAY TRANSPORT

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Fred

The railway line links Nairobi city centre to other various parts of the country,besides the East African community.

With the planned railway system upgrade,it means people close to the system have to shift.This has brought mixed feelings among residents,some of whom are not ready to vacate. Seemingly, its either they don’t see the danger of being close to the railway line or is it just ignorance!

Already  the railway line linking the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and its subsidiary stations will begin operations in June next year.
Construction work on the line was over 70 percent complete,as it is from the Kenya Railways corporation management news desk.

The other area,syokimau service station,that is already under construction,which will  link to JKIA,will begin operations in February 2012.

The line linking the city centre to JKIA is expected to start operations in June, as KRC moves to improve the railway network.

There are also plans to put the corporation idle land to more useful way.

With this in place,although its been lagged behind,the issue of traffic congestion in Nairobi and other major cities are set to be reduced.This is also cost effective as compared to the normal commuter means.

The main reason for the increase in traffic problems is because of the rise in the rural Urban migration,of people in search for jobs and business opportunities.

Consequently, there has become an increase in the demand for housing and transport facilities,of which currently the supply of these services do not meet the demand of the people.

Already a master plan for a high-speed railway network that will service all parts of the country to accelerate faster movement of people and goods has been developed.

The proposed rails include Lamu to Juba, Rongai to Kisumu, Nairobi to Addis Ababa, Mombasa to Malaba, and Kisumu to Kigali lines.

KRC expect to construct a completely new line, which will link Nairobi city centre to Embakasi and then JKIA.

The Sh40 billion ultra-modern railway line linking Kisumu to the hinterland and East African countries is to be rolled out next year.

The KRC will roll out the project once it is through with thorough feasibility studies, which will factor socio-economic and political interests.

The work is expected to start by late next year,all in the aim of improving the railway system.The move will see more goods being transported by rail than road,paving way to more savings on roads repair cost.

On average,eight percent of goods are transported by rail compared to 92 percent by road within the region.The conceded railway network in kenya comprises of a total track  lenght of 1920 kilometres,which runs from Kenya’s Indian ocean port of mombasa to malaba while the conceded railway network in Uganda has a total track lenght of 1771 kilometres,made up of the malaba-kampala main line.RVR operates a total network of 1920 kilometres.The main line runs  from mombasa at the coast to malaba in the west.

Despite the requirement to have a railway reserve free for the railway operations and safety,parts of the railway reserve have been encroached upon.

The railway reserve in both Kibera and Mukuru within Nairobi  city have been encroached by large numbers of people who reside and do their business along the railway line.

Market centers have been established on either sides of the railway line.When implemented this initiative is expected to create significance economic and social benefits to both Kenya and the East A frican community,and will contribute to regional efforts to accelerate economic growth.

It is also expected to play a major role in poverty alleviation.



 

 

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ELECTRICITY IN THE SLUMS.

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Lee Ibrahim

We are heading for the festive season where everyone is happy and waiting ansiously for the day to come. But you wake up having limited things to do due to lack of electricity. I tried to contact the landlord as to why their were no lights some days back but he told me they were going to sort it out and all will be fine. Its the fourth day now and still there is no electricity in site hence one has to use kerosene lamps and ‘korobois’ – a small lamp which burns heavily with alot of sooth.

A neighbour said that someone had used a heater and the power voltage became short hence causing the lights to go off. In kibera it is very different like the other parts of the city because people connect the electricity for themselves. When power goes off you will notice people on top of the electricity post trying to recconnect back the power. These causes these pros as the community or as they could call themseleves to get into business with the electricity.

 

You will come across a electricity dealers distributing power to more than 500 houses. Whenever the lights go off they would go up there to fix it so that he can continue getting money from his/her customers. These people have gone to an extend of having their own KPLC(Kenya Power and Lightening Company) uniforms which they use whenever at work. They never returned uniforms they were given when they were hired to dig holes for the posts nor the gears and shields they use to climb the post with during that time. They are using the knowledge they learned then and some of their general knowledge to fix the power which at most times brings many problems.

 

Many a times you will find there is no power in Kibera due to many issues. The main one being many people using one line of power which causes a low voltage at the main transformer. A dealer will agree to provide you with power for a small amount of fee but he will warn you against using strong electrical equipments such as heaters, gas cookers and fridges. These will consume alot of power hence causing the power to dim when plugged in.

The Kenya Power and Lightening Company has done very little to stop this and the people of Kibera have found an alternate way to get their own power. These has become more than a business as many people in the business use the money to raise there families and to take their children to school.

 

According to a research made in Kibera it has been found that many people are using power from the local dealers instead of the power provided by the Kenya Power and Lightening Company claiming that the company power is expensive and goes out anytime time unexpectedly. Because of these the people prefer to buy power from the local dealers which is goes for Ksh. 250 to a maximum of Ksh. 300 monthly. The dealer has more than 2 lines of power, incase one line of power goes out in a certain location he can change the line and the residents will not have a power break out. I guess this is the reason many people prefer this power to the one provided by the company.

 

This is how electricity is distributed around many parts of Kibera and it is you to decide which electricity you want to use.

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ENTERPRENUERSHIP AMONG DWELLERS.

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Lee Ibrahim

If you visit Kibera you will see the shantties, the dirt, the broken pipes, the street children which are vivid in one of the biggest slums in Africa. Apart from all these you will not fail to spot bussiness minded enterprenuers. You will not fail to spot the kiosks’, the shops and a supermarket in Kibera. Yes, a SUPERMARKET if you are shocked, its locates in Laini Saba ward. And these brings us to our todays topic which the residents have not turned their backs on – Enterprenuership.

Enterprenuership is the process of discovering new ways and combining resorces inorder to make profit.

-Take an example here in Kibera a shopkeeper will buy 5 grams sugar packets which he sells at 5 Ksh/packet.

-Calculating this after selling 200 packets which is equivalent to 1 Kilogram he will be able to get Ksh. 1000 which is Ksh. 900 profit than if he sold the 1 Kilogram packet at Ksh. 100.

An enterprenuers cost of production are determined by the prices required to bid the necessary resources away from alternative uses. Any enterprenuer who wants to excell and do well in Kibera should be well prepared because of the competition around. One should always have another stock ready whenever the first goes out of stock. This has caused these business minded people come together and form their local micro-finances which are known as ‘Chammas’.

 

A good example what happens in Laini saba. The enterprenuers come together and form groups of 10 or 20 people, they would then be keeping money lets say Ksh. 1000 every week and one person in the group will be receiving Ksh. 20 000 very week from the group in a rotational basis. These helps them very much that they can get new stock of their products with their own cash. This Chama thing is widely spread here in Kibera with the most active members being women and girls. It has really helped women set up businesses and shop which is their source of income.

 

With the cropping of technology the enterprenuers are coming up with new ideas. In Laini Saba, Makina, Karanja, Olympic and the DC you will come across Cyber Cafes where people can access the internet. These has really helped a lot as it did not use to exist 2 – 3 years ago. Now you will find Kibera enterprenuers setting up new shops and kiosks according to the time time and need of the commodity putting into considerations they will face a tough competition from their fellow enterprenuers. These encourages the enterprenuers to offers the best services inorder to get more customers.

When it comes to entertainment the enterprenuers are not always left behind. You will come across more than 50 entertainment spots ranging from pubs, sports halls and small cinema where many people go to entertain themselves during weekends and their freetime. A small video show is guaranteed to give the owner more than Ksh. 1000 per day and Ksh. 3000 during weekends from sports halls which mostly air the English Premier League live.

Enterprenuership is something which has really helped many families in Kibera and we see it growing each day. Although these people have not been able to get education on enterprenuership they have been able to watch and learn and in the long run to come up with something productive. With some organisations cropping up to teach the people of Kibera community some enterprenuership skills we cannot lie when we say that ‘The future is bright in Kibera’.

 

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Sack Gardens.

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Fred

 

You don’t need  a big  farm to  produce for yourself,as its been disaproved by a number of kibera residents.As people complain of the sky rocketing prices of basic commodities,you will be saving a big deal on that.

In almost every corner of kibera, you will find the door steps flanked by earth-filled sacks,and any other free space, sacks squeezed  with kales, spinach, onions, tomatoes and other vegetables, in the sacks. Thanks to a small-scale urban agriculture project funded by the French government and run by a French NGO.

To the beneficiaries,urban agriculture has  become a source of income as well as food. Those with more sacks sell the surplus vegetables.Mrs Zainabu, who has six sacks,  harvests from the sacks consumes a little with the family and sells the rest.sukuma wiki “kales” and spinach is the widely consumed vegetable and therefore her family of four feeds on a sack of sukuma wiki for two days upon harvest

 

Sack garden is an initiative of Solidarites, a French non-governmental organisation, the project is part of the French government’s response to the humanitarian crisis and violence in  Kibera slums and other areas affected by the  December 2007 post  election violence.

The project is about  raising seedlings in a nursery bed ,and planting the  vegetable seedlings on the sides of earth filled sacks that are placed on rooftops or doorsteps. Each family receives one to three sacks filled with earth and depending on the available space. 6,000 families are now cropping tomatoes, onions, kales or spinach. One sack can contain hold up to 50 seedlings of kales or spinach and 20 tomato plants.

sack garden.

A nursery has been established in several places where people can collect seedlings and see a demonstration site in action. Vegetables are used directly and indirectly by the household to obtain food.

This project seeks to do away with idleness among women and creates a source of income to the women.Since the inception of the project, Women are busy tending their sack gardens, replacing dead seedlings or watering them.

The  project has so far reached to eight villages in kibera,Trainings have been undertaken and around 3ooo seedlings distributed,the demand is however growing big.

This project has boosted food security in this area as compared to the past,as attests Mrs.Zainabu.

The challenge is however that,some  young idle people tend to steal the vegetables late night,and destroying them too.

Solidarites strongly believe that urban agriculture should be one of the pillars of the food security strategy in the coming years. When the main limiting factor is the lack of land, to have a garden in a sack is a great opportunity. Solidarites is currently looking for possibilities to replicate the same kind of projects in others slums in Nairobi and also in other countries.

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