Voice of Kibera

Sections of Kibera erupted with violence after the IEBC declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner of the controversial repeat Presidential elections that was boycotted by Opposition Coalition of Nasa which commands a large following from the area.

Youths from Olympic area in Kibera, who are die-hard followers of the main Opposition Leader Raila Odinga, started by lighting bonfires, and placing barricades on roads as a way to protest the move by IEBC,

The violence later turned into running battles with the police as the situation threatened to get out of hand. several shops went up in flames along Olympic road off Kibera Drive with the cause of the fire unclear.

Property worth of thousands of shillings was reduced to ashes in a matter of time with aa section of residents accusing the police of causing the fire and allegedly using excessive force to quell the protest.

A day to the repeat presidential election, Kibera was on tension and most people did not know what to expect especially after the Opposition leader Raila Odinga who commands a large following in the area had called for election boycott.

Youths believed to be from Olympic, Gatwekera and Kianda, had, on the eve of the 26th presidential election repeat, taken it upon themselves to make sure no election materials were to be brought to Ayany, Olympic and KAG poling stations by barricading the roads that led to the polling stations.

with the fear of the expected confrontations, business were closed early and everyone made sure they got to the safety of their homes but the electoral body didn’t bring the materials on that day as was expected.

On the Morning of 26th, The Election day, a group of youths believed to be Opposition supporters, placed barricades at Olympic Primary School, Ayany Primary school and KAG, in an effort to stop any voting happening in Kibera by any means possible. but later the police came and running battles ensued leaving a number of residents with injuries from the almost whole day long confrontations with the police.

Voting however took place in some areas within Kibera, such as Kibera Primary school, Parts of Makina and Laini saba where it is believed that there’s a few Jubilee party supporters.

As they day unfolded, the protests turned into destruction of property and looting where by it is believed that protesting youths may have participated in vandalising Olympic Primary School, Raila Educational centre and the Equity Bank Kibera branch in Ayany.

Map Kibera’s video team Kibera News Network has recruited new members to ease their work in the community.
The new members are currently undergoing training on different citizen media techniques such as Camera work, field reporting news/video editing and blogging.

The team largely made up of young people from Kibera slums have so far shown the passion to learn more about reporting for their community, and participate in telling their own stories as opposed to mainstream and foreign media telling it for them.
So far a good number of them, together with the seasoned Kibera News Network Team, have participated in coverage of the 2017 general election monitoring in Kibera.
They have so far captured, to the least, all the basic requirements for a good citizen media reporter and the stories they have participated in have been impressive.
KNN looks to empower more young people from the community to be able to tell their stories from their own perspective.

It was the first time since the supreme court ruling that Nasa coalition were having a their political campaign in Kibera’s famous Kamkunji ground.

The Nasa Presidential aspirant Raila Odinga was present accompanied by other Nasa leaders and Mps among them Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetangula and Kibra Mp Ken Okoth.

They used the time to critisize the President on what they termed as lack of respect for the constitution since the president was presiding over the official opening of 12th parliament, the leaders wondered why the 11th president was opening the 12th parliament ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for 17th of October.
The Nasa members of parliament had skipped the opening ceremony as a sign of protest and so used the opportunity to attend the campaign rally and together drum up support for their presidential candidate.
They also used the same opportunity to call on the Independent Election and Boundaries Commision CEO Ezra Chilloba to resign after accusing him of engaging in election mal-practises during the 8th August general election as they also threatened not to participate in 17th presidential election if the IEBC CEO refuse to resign.
Chants of ‘Chiloba must go’ could be heard all around as Kibera residents cheered on the Nasa leaders.

The leaders seemed to be calling on their Kibera supporters to join in on calling for the resignation of IEBC officials believed to have been tainted by the 8th August 2017.

Fire Sensor Pre-Mapping Training was conducted at the Boma Hotel Nairobi offices by Map Kibera Trust.
Day One kicked off with Introductions to the project and expectations from the participants, what they were looking forward to gain at the end of the training.
Their expectations included, Learning new things, Knowing more about the GPS gadgets, being empowered, meeting new people, learning, sharpening and sharing new skills.
The Attendance on day one was up to twenty mapping Volunteers.

Day two of the training, The Trainees were introduced to Open Street Map and JOSM. Of which they were taken through the editing features, data collection and the requirements of all these.
The attendance dropped on day two with seventeen trainees present.

Day Three of the training, the trainees reflected on their expectations, Most of them felt their expectations had been met.
They then did practical mapping of the Red Cross compound and the environs, on which they dived into 3 groups and mapped different areas in and around the red cross, in a way of putting into practice what they had learnt on day two.
Douglas From Map Kibera led them through reviewing what they had done in all the three days.

Evelyn, who is the management representative of the whole project did the closing remarks.

The first public security meeting was held at Kamkunji grounds, Kibera. The meeting was organized by the office of the Sarangombe ward representative and the office of the Deputy County commissioner. However, the Deputy County Commissioner did not attend as he was attending to other duties elsewhere. Hence, in attendance were the Member of County Assembly for Sarangombe, Sarangombe area chief, the ward Police inspector and the local leaders.

The area member of County Assembly, Mr. Owino Kotieno, narrated how Sarangombe and Kibera in general has been afflicted with insecurity issues which he compared to a recurring skin infection that refuses to go away.
He also said, Contrary to what most people think, that insecurity is not always brought about by lack of employment, and even cited a few examples of people who are Jobless but are good members of the community.
He also stated that respect for human rights is like an hacksaw that cuts from both sides, so the respect for human rights apply in both situation as far as dealing with human rights is concerned.

The Inspector, in his part,told the residents that security starts with them, he also addressed the issue of girls dropping out of school.
He condemned the criminal activities in the area and warned youths engaging in crime that their time is up and the police is soon catching up with them. He also warned the public against taking law into their own hands and walking around with machetes.
The Sarangombe area Chief apologized on behalf of the Deputy County Commissioner who did not attend due to being caught up on duty elsewhere.

The chief said that the area administration, together with the MCA’s office is looking to have the meetings happen often to always address emerging issues as far as insecurity is concerned.
He went ahead to condemn playing loud music late into the night by saying that criminals use such places to plan their bad missions, and also school-going children don’t get time to study due the same loud music.

Stephene Oduor.

So much has been said and done, almost in each and every slum in Nairobi, with the sole purpose of preventing any violence that might occur, or re-occur in this context.

The civil society has come up with many different initiatives, over the years since the 2007/8 post-election violence, to help promote peace & togetherness within the ethnic communities that live in the informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

To some extent, this has worked and we cannot deny that. however, every small trigger of violence or protest always reminds us that there’s a little more homework to be done.

I do agree with you, that the last general election, 2012/13, was relatively peaceful in comparison to the 2007/8 elections. but it still wasn’t spared a protest, or two here and there.

And just a few days ago, after what was considered a peaceful march by those working with NYS (National Youth Service)-Driven slum upgrading projects to allegedly demand for an extension to the project which was expected to end this June, and will eventually come to an end in the long run.

(Photo by Joshua Owino)

there erupted a follow-up protest by youths from Kibera who felt that the NYS workers had wrongly accused the former area mp of meddling in their affairs, and even went ahead to burn a toilet built by the NYS.

Photo by Joshua Owino

Kibera News Network accompanied the marching NYS workers and from what could be gathered, it was clear that most of these workers didn’t even understand why they were marching, some had it that they were demanding for time extension to the project, yet some knew that they were protesting over what they termed as unnecessary interference by the former prime minister, who has in the recent past pointed out alleged corrupt practices at the ministry of devolution, or both. most of them were vague about it. but at the city centre, politics took centre stage with most of the workers chanting anti-Raila slogans, obviously leaving the vague workers showing there confusions openly.

It was funny when some workers interviewed during the match admitted that they are paid less and wanted the money increased, and time line extended.

 (Photo by Joshua Owino)

My point is drawn from here, are protests, and more so violent protests, that include burning of property,  the effective way to put issues across? especially in informal settlements. if not, what are other channels that can be explored and how well we explore them.

Stephene ‘Steve Banner’ Oduor

Map Kibera