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Ghetto MirrorReal life stories from slums
FREEDo not buyJuly 2015 Issue
Water ATMISSUE 19 Ghetto Mirror
[email protected]
Residents of Mathare trying the recently launched Water ATM at
Mashi-moni in Mathare. The ATM uses a swipe card and only costs 50
cents per every 20 litres water jerican. >>> Story page 3
Photo: Courtersy
Gender & Sexual violence
RELIEF | Residents now fill a 20 litre water jerican at 50 cents
as ATM opens up
............Referals
Rescue centrePsychosocial support services
Link to legal assistanceMedical assistance
SHOFCO Gender develOpment department
Call: - 0703 445 737 - KIBera - 0720 852 920 - matHare
Saving cultureNational Youth Services is not only
transforming slum communities through community cleans and
con-struction of washroom. It has also
introduced a SACCO that is meant at promoting residents saving
culture.
Story on page 5
Photography through thick and thin
>>Pg 6
Timber sales goes down due to deforestation
>>Pg 7
BusinessHustling
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TALKING POINT We welcome letters on topical issues on the
stories we publish and comments on
[email protected]. You can also drop them
in our offices at Gatwekera near PAG church.
A publication of Shining Hope For Communities
Editor Liz Mahiri
Illustrations Oscar Chitiavi
ContributorsJohnston Mutua, Michael Ogutu, Namayi Kefa,
Sylvester Oluoch, Vincent Baraza, Erick Ouma,
Dorothy Orinah, Eunice Otieno, Kevin Ochieng, Felix Omondi,
Ammbrose Pascal & Brian Okinda
Technical AssistanceAlbanous Gituru & Lily Bullitt
E-mail:[email protected]
Quote of the Month
Will Rogers
Youth are the most vulnerable and valuable to
politicians
The railway evictions
Send us your feedback by texting your name and where you are
reading from to 20308. The sms is free of charge. Start with Ghetto
Mirror Shujaaz or GM Shu-jaaz followed by your name and place.
Ghetto Mirror | 2 ISSUE:19 JULY 2015
In crafting their campaign strategy, politicians of-ten tend to
target slum youth, emphasizing that youth are future leaders and
key change agents of society.
However, this strategy is merely a calculated move for
politicians to come to power and gain votes, rath-er than a genuine
platform for supportive policies.
Despite the fact that youth often represent a sig-nificant
contingent of politicians voters, recent pat-terns have shown that
as politicians end their tenure of office, there are still little
to no policies in place to benefit the same youth who voted for
them in such large numbers.
Most politicians are aware that youth are the stron-gest part of
change and of political strength, which ex-plains why they take
advantage of these youth, especial-ly those who are poor. In
exchange for votes, politicians compensate youth with small amounts
of cash (enough to pur-chase a cup of tea) instead of opportunities
to earn their livelihood. Politicians should begin taking steps to
en-sure social and economic wellbeing for youth.
As it stands, on no occasion do politicians make the time to
inform youth about ways to engage in their communities and overcome
obstacles, such as join-ing the Kenya Youth Empowerment Program
(KYEP).
If elected leaders are concerned with bettering the future of
this country, they need to be aware of how to address needs of the
youth not simply by providing basic needs, but promot-ing
development in a truly comprehensive, and sustainable, way.
In the wake of nation-al insecurity, the situation is far much
worse in slums like Mathare, Dandora and Kibera.
In these informal settle-ments, almost everything is in the
hands of slum lords, cartels and gangs who seem to man and run the
streets.
These gangs and cartels control basic social amenities from
housing to electricity to water and even public toilets.
They have taken advan-tage of this situation to the point of
terrorizing the locals. In some sections of the slum, the gangs
have initiated a de- facto curfew by making it un-safe for one to
walk around as soon as night falls.
The gangs have also tak-en advantage of the slow re-sponse of
police to act in crim-inal activities that they have started to
rein havoc to the lo-cals. In specific areas, it is not an unusual
thing for one to be
attacked and robbed in broad daylight.
Thugs who are usual-ly armed with daggers and at times guns
pounce on their target and no matter how bad-ly one screams for
help, none comes by.
In fact, the locals seem to have become used to it and say that,
we all must eat.
At Mathares chiefs post, there is a list of all the crime
hotspots across the slum. This is meant to alert the locals to
avoid using these routes as soon as night falls due to the rampant
criminal activities that occur in these areas.
Crime prevention creates safer communities, its about time that
the police venture into these no-go zones in the slum, where the
rule of law is not applied, and uphold securi-ty for the
residents.
The government, through the police service, should in-
troduce community policing in which they assign the same one or
two policemen to a par-ticular area of the slum so that they become
familiar with the residents and the residents with them, as a way
of reducing crime.
More commonly known as walking the beat, com-munity police
officers patrol neighborhoods on foot. This al-lows them to become
acquaint-ed with their assigned neigh-borhoods and the individuals
who reside and work there.
The officers dedicated to a specific community have the
opportunity to come into di-rect contact with residents and
business owners repeatedly. This develops trust in law en-forcement
as the police officers form relationships with com-munity
members.
The difference be-tween the activities of patrol officers and
walking the beat
is the level of involvement within a community.
Patrol officers drive through and scan for criminal activity
while community po-lice officers are personally in-volved with
citizens who com-prise a specific community.
This increases public support for law enforcement as they become
a known part of the community and place the police in a better
position to fight and avert crime with in-formation from
citizens.
Community policing utilizes problem solving tech-niques to
respond and correct potential weaknesses rather than responding to
a crime af-ter it has taken place.
The emphasis shifts from crime fighting to crime
preven-tion.
Informal settlements insecurity cases on the rise
Even if youre on the right track,
youll get run over if you just sit there
Felix Omondi
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one on oneMaMMitto
By Andy Wanga
Who is Mammitto?My real name is Eunice
Wanjiku. I was born and raised in Kibera, Laini Saba area and I
am still living in Kibera.
I believe I am a strong come-dian with rib-cracking jokes.
When were you born and how was your upbringing?
I was born on September 18, 1993 and raised by my single
mother.
I went to school in Kibera but I moved from school to school. I
did my K.C.P.E at Loy Academy in Laini Saba then proceeded to
P.C.E.A Luvagu in Kakamega where I did my K.C.S.E.
My mother has struggled with me so much to be where I am
now.
I dont think I would be where I am today if it was not for my
mother.
Is it a challenge being a woman in the comedy industry?
Yes, its a big challenge because people believe that men are
superior.
I also find it difficult to ex-press my jokes because I think
that the fans outside there have their own one artist that they
like. But as for me, Mammito, I am always
myself, I will not change myself to imitate other people.
As I know, I have so many artists and fans that would really
love to be like me but the problem is that they just cant be
me.
How did you find yourself in churchill show?
Auditions are announced on television each time the Churchill
show is on. The auditions take place at Carnivore grounds on
Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The first time I went there, I did not have a joke, but instead
did a play and a poem.
Although the judges did not let me perform these, one judge kept
on telling me that I have a talent that I am hindering.
He encouraged me until I cracked a joke and with few minutes the
hall was filled with laughter.
They just took me straight away and thats how I got into
Churchill show.
Whats the worst experience youve ever had at churchill?
I have a lot. The worst one was when I
was on stage cracking jokes, but there was no reciprocation from
the audience, they were just looking at me without laughing or
blinking.
I realised that I was boring, so
I just left the microphone and went backstage. In my experience,
Ken-yans can be really hard to please, especially when it comes
comedy.
Do you have any advice to the youth and girls that aspire to be
like you?
I will start by saying that if you are a girl and you have that
talent, just come out and explore your talent.
You can start by auditioning at Carnivore grounds for the
Churchill show.
Ladies, dont sleep on your talents, believe in yourself because
you can achieve what you want if you just start somewhere.
As for the youth, believe in your passion and yourself,
re-member to put God first always in everything you do.
Lastly, remember that you have to know the game so you can break
the rules.
Mammitto, a young girl from Kibera believes
she has grown with her stand-up comedy on
Churchill show. Ghetto Mirror reporter
Andy Wanga, caught up with her for this months
One on One.
Ghetto Mirror | 3ISSUE:19 JULY 2015
By Ambrose Amayo
Mathare residents are now enjoying clean and cheap water at
50cents per 20 liter jerry cans thanks to the recently opened
Automated Tell-er Machine (ATM) water dispenser.
The initiative, which was offi-cially opened on July 22 by His
Excel-lency Governor of Nairobi, Dr. Evans Kidero, is the result of
the combined effort of Nairobi City County Gov-ernment, Nairobi
Water and Sewer-age Company and the Government of Denmark through
the Danish Wa-ter Engineering Company, Grundfos.
So far, the initiative has two fully operational water ATMs
al-ready open and two others which are still under construction and
should be ready by August.
Pre-paid cards
Before one can use the wa-ter ATM, one must have pur-chased a
pre-paid swipe card at the ATM for a one-time fee of Ksh.50.
The swipe card allows users to then purchase to-kens to access
the water.
Front view of the water ATM in Mathares Mashimoni village.
Residents pay 50 cents to fill a 20 litre water jerican.
Photo: Courtersy
22 year old, Mary Odianga a health officer at one of the
dispensaries in Mathare who had usually receives patients
complaining of stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhea said, This
sit-uation is a health hazard since it can lead to the spread
water-borne and sometimes very dangerous diseases.
The initiative should also be able to curb cartels who
acquire
form of providing clean and cheap water to people living in poor
ar-eas around the world after it was tested and proven in India
last year.
The County Government also says that the dispensed water will
help in curbing water-borne diseas-es. This comes after the most
re-cent cholera outbreak claimed many lives and left scores
hospitalized.
There are no charges incurred if one losses the card, it is
replaced free of charge with all remaining tokens intact.
A customer at one of the ATMs says that The project has really
benefitted us, water is now less expensive and the problem of water
shortages is decreasing.
Dispensing water through ATMs has proven to be an ideal
water illegally and make a liv-ing by selling water at high
prices.
The cartels control over provid-ing water is also dangerous
because most water pipes leading to their selling points are not
safe as they are almost always vandalized by fellow cartels and
some pipes run across ditches and sewages making the water easily
susceptible to contamination.
It has not always been mys-terious to see dirty water in dark
color running from the taps, Mary Akinyi, a Mathare resident said.
This usually meant that we would-have to wait till the water
cleared before we could fetch, she added.
But, even as residents of Mathare are now enjoying cheap and
clean water, cartels in most oth-er slums of Nairobi are still
extorting money from residents as a 20 litre jer-ry can generally
go for up to Ksh. 50.
Water ATM opens to relieve residents
50CentsThe total amount it costs to fill a 20 liter
water jerican
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Ghetto Mirror | 4 ISSUE:19 JULY 2015Pic Speak A full page of
pictures storiesfrom slum areas.
As our national philosophy states, a working nation, this
picture is a perfect example of just
how hard we work towards this goal.Photo: Joseph Kinyua
It is not only humans who look at themselves in the mirror to
fix themselves. As it appears, even birds do this. Photo: Adan
Ibrahim
A lady crossing the Gitathuru River in Mathare after fetching
water from a stone-throw distance away.
Photo: Courtersy
A resident of Mathare loading garbage unto a truck to be dumped
at the Dandora dumpsite. Garbage has reduced since NYS started
operating in Mathare.
Photo: Joseph Kinyua
The talking walls of Mukuru. Let us maintain peace and
brotherhood, is the massage put across by the graffiti artist on
this wall.
Photo: Courtersy
Mathare by night. Mathare shines since Kenya Power launched the
Adopt-a-light system. This has also helped in reducing
insecurity.
Photo: Joseph Kinyua
SHOFCO C.E.O., Kennedy Odede, shaking hands with players at the
final match of the SHOFCO tournament played at Vision Grounds in
Muku-ru kwa Njenga. The tournaments objective was to mark the
launch of SHOFCO in Mukuru as the organisation seeks to extend it
services.
Photo: Adan Ibrahim
Due to increased numbers of unreported gender violance cases,
SHOF-COs Gender Department set up suggestion boxes across all the
villages of Kibera to help those that are unable report their cases
feel represent-ed. One can fill their info in a provided form and
drop it in the box.
Photo: Emily Akoth.
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Ghetto Mirror | 5ISSUE:19 JULY 2015Love doctor makes money
through his talent
By Eunice Otieno
29-year-old Wilson Otieno, known in Kawangware as Awilo, runs a
dating service in Kawangware stage 2 through which he connects men
and women looking for a re-lationship. Thus far, he has been so
successful that most of his connec-tions have ended up getting
married.
He has always been a nat-ural talent as a mediator in
rela-tionships for his fellow students.
When I was in school, my fel-low students used to ask me to talk
to their boyfriends or girlfriends af-ter they had disagreed and I
used to help solve their problems and get them back together said
Awilo.
Although he had put his tal-ent to rest after high school, his
former school mate called LoiVoi, re-invigorated his talent when
Voirefered another friend to Otieno.
Voi introduced him to a man
called Victor Macharia who had been dating women but had not
found one to settle down with de-spite him being gainfully
employed.
At the time, Otieno was roast-ing maize for sell to make a
living. Macharia asked him if he could hire him to find him a woman
from Kitui and who is ready for marriage. Mach-aria was willing to
pay for everything, including investigation costs. Otie-no
successfully did everything that was asked of him and thats when he
realized the potential for his talent.
I realized that I can still do what I used to do in school and
earn money to make a living, said Awilo.
He then started to do research on his unique field by
interacting with as many single people as possi-ble to try and find
out their problems and reasons behind being single.
His research showed that a lot of people had the same problems
when it came to relationships, wheth-er in marriage or otherwise.
Specif-
ically, he found that a lot of people wanted to get into a
relationship or get married, but could not find the right partner,
or could not reconcile the problems in their relationships.
He noticed that women tended to focus a lot of their energy in a
relation-ship on emotions, rather than reason.
He explains that, When wom-en find someone they love, they
de-cide to settle down without thinking about the type of person
they may be or the long term consequences.
On the other hand, he found that the main problem with men is
that they dont place value in the importance of the effort and
commu-nication required in a relationship.
Men pretend to be busy all the time, sometimes ignore calls, and
of-ten answer with what do you want? They fail to realize that
their partners may be simply missing them and call-ing just to hear
their voice said Otieno.
According to Otieno, these two main differences between
men and women within rela-tionships cause disagreements.
He also discovered some-thing that was specific to slums that
causes relationship problems and the high number of single
parents.
I noticed that a lot of peo-ple in relationships within the
slums grew up together and know too much about their partners past,
he said.
This probably allows for disre-spect which for instance may
cause the woman might not obey his man and the man might fail to
pay the dowry.
This problem also extends to in-laws who might not respect each
other based on their knowl-edge of their extended familys past.
His research and gift of di-plomacy has so far granted him
another six successful match-es in both slums and estates.
These relationships have been so successful that most the
partners he has worked with are now married.
However, he says that he has
only been successful when a man requests him for his services
be-cause for him, womens requests are far more challenging to
fulfill.
He says that a lot of wom-en will request him for a man who can
take them out to bars but still be ready for marriage, which
ac-cording to him, shows that the woman is not ready to be a
wife.
Otienos dating service requires clients to cater for research,
labor and transport because not only does it take a lot of
searching to find the right per-son, but his work also requires
travel-ling to different parts of the country and at times, even
outside of the country.
His parting advice is that men and women should realize that the
most important thing in any relation-ship is to value the other
person. He adds that men should treat women equally if they want
their women to respect them as their husbands, say-ing that this is
the most important thing that women need from men.
By Brian Okinda
The National Youth Ser-vice (NYS) recently rolled out an
initiative to have their youth workers save money through their own
Sav-ings and Credit Society (Sacco).
NYS is a slum upgrading ini-tiative under the Ministry of
Devo-lution and National Planning that operates in Nairobi slums by
hiring slum youth to engage in development activities such as
cleaning of drain-age systems, sewer lines, garbage collection and
construction of toilets and clinics among other activities.
The youth workers form co-horts in their respective communi-
ties and save together in a group. The Sacco initiative, which
has been positively welcomed by most of the youth workers, was
official-ly launched in Kibera where the slum upgrading project
started.
NYS has also extend-ed its initiatives to other slums such as
Mathare, Korogocho and Mukuru Kwa Njenga offering the same
opportunities to youth.
The youth are paid ksh.471 daily and the money is sent to them
at the end of every week through mo-bile banking. From this pay,
ksh.141 is remitted to their individual Sacco.
The youth workers, who are generally in a group of ten, will
soon be able to access loans from the Sacco and perhaps start
businesses or use that money for other needs.
Since the initiation of the NYS project, youth from Nairobi
slums have benefited from NYSs initiatives in more than one
way.
Wycliffe Otieno, one of the youth deployed, attests to the fact
that NYS has given him a reason to wake up in the morning and
smile."
Most youth, including me, were on the verge of getting into
drugs but the project keeps us busy and as-sures us of weekly
income, he said.
"I hope the contract will be re-newed so that I can start and
run my own business within my residential area from my savings," he
added.
Crime has also been reduced and most youth have stopped tak-ing
drugs saying they have now left it for their elders in the
village.
The youths who have signed
a second three-month-contract will earn a minimum of sh39600
each at the end of the contract when working on official days
only.
However most of the youths, more so the young women en-gage in
extra duties during week-ends to boost their earnings.
The launch of the project has not only positively impacted slum
youth, but has also created huge prof-its to mobile money companies
and to mobile money dealers within the slums as all NYS cohorts
receive their wages through the mobile phones.
"I am always sure of my mon-ey at the end of every Friday and
latest Saturday morning," said Mau-reen Omollo, a NYS youth
worker.
The initiation of the project has also educated the youth on
sev-
eral values that can enhance them as individuals in society, and
increase their work-related skills. After regular working hours
that end at 4:00pm dai-ly, the participants are trained on val-ues
of obedience, discipline, patrio-tism, positive thinking and
teamwork.
Most youth have also been trained on skills such as construction
of police posts, residential houses, toilets and clinics. This has
opened up more op-portunities for young and unemployed.
Michael Otieno, a youth lead-er in Kibera, says that loans will
only be advanced to people who have clear objectives and those
pin-dividuals who can demonstrate their ability to repay back the
loan.
NYS introduces SACCO for slum Youth
By Felix Omondi
On June 19th, representatives from youth groups across Mathare
met at the Shining Hope for Commu-nitys (SHOFCO) hall for a
landmark meeting to create a new network, The Mathare Slum Network
(MSN).
The initiatives objective is to bring together groups from
diverse geographical locations of Mathare to mobilize resources
collectively and share ideas. MSN will also form a much needed link
to promote pru-dent and sustainable management of the communitys
economic, en-vironmental and human resources.
MSN comes at a much need-ed time when most youth groups in
Mathare are experiencing problems ranging from leadership wrangles
to lack of member participation to failure in receiving youth funds
and loans.
Kevin Ashihundu, the youth coordinator at SHOFCO in Mathare, who
is also MSNs manager said
that there is a greater need for youth groups in Mathare to come
together to foster greater economic growth. "I believe that we
should create a networking platform among the lo-cal groups that is
going to initiate greater economic growth and pro-mote social
responsibility among the groups, said Ashihundu.
Sustaining the network
During the meeting, the pres-ent members raised concern about
the sustainability of MSN since oth-er youth networking groups had
been formed in the past but failed soon af-terwards. It was
therefore agreed that an oversight committee be formed to oversee
the running of the network.
There was also another heat-ed debate on what the components of
the groups leadership would en-tail. As a solution, they agreed on
an organizational structure consisting
of a chairman at the top, followed by an assistant chairman, a
coordi-nator and a secretary. Elections for these positions have
been sched-uled for the next meeting which will take place sometime
in mid-August.
The proposed responsibilities of the committee entail making
sure that unregistered groups are registered and issued with
certificates, helping groups attain the required standards to
qualify for youth loans and funds and training members on
leadership, financial in-formation and management. The com-mittee
will also have the task of trying to solve or act as mediators for
some of the problems that groups may face.
In addition, the commit-tee, through its duties, should en-sure
the evaluation of groups performance and follow up on
im-plementation of feedback. Over-all, MSN is expected to create
one voice for youth groups in Mathare.
Mathare Slum Network links diverse groups in Mathare
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Topical stories ondaily happeningsin our society.Society
Ghetto Mirror | 6 ISSUE:18 JULY 2015
By Winnie Otieno
They say necessity is the mother of invention and no oth-er
person understands this say-ing better than Andy Wanga, a
20-year-old boy from Kibera slum.
Wanga has innovated a pre-exist-ing technology by sensitizing it
to local needs, and specifically to slum needs.
A lot of people in Ken-ya use a coil water heater to heat water,
but it is not safe.
Because the coil is exposed, it is a strong safety hazard and
does, in fact, end up electrocuting a lot of people.
Additionally, since electrici-ty lines are dangerous in the
slum, the coil also has a high chance of exploding and causing
fires.
Wanga has tackled this prob-lem through his innovation. Using
a
By Vincent Oreje
Rosemary Odinga launched a campaign to ensure that her father,
the former Prime Minister Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga, secures his
chances of becoming Kenyas fifth president.
The campaigns mission is to encourage all residents above 18
years to get their National Iden-tification cards to be eligible to
come 2017 general elections.
Odinga is also believed to be preparing to vie for the Kibra
Con-stituency seat in the 2017 general elections. This was after
she hint-
conventional jerican, he has enclosed the coil into the water
can. Much like electric kettles, the improved and en-closed water
heat-er greatly reduces the risk of the coil electrocuting its user
or exploding.
His idea was born while he was still in high school in response
a science and engineering fairthat was run-ning a competition to
have students de-velop a solution to a problem that could benefit
the society.
After talking to his friends and do-ing research on the
internet, he realized that it was something that had not been
done before and that it was feasible.I decided to pursue my
idea
after I realized how cheap and easy it is to get the nec-essary
raw mate-rials, right from the slum he said.
However, it was not easy getting started as he had to deal with
a lot of doubt from his peers, school mates and even some of his
teachers who downplayed the practicality and fea-sibility of his
idea.
He wasnt discouraged though and begancollecting his materials
which include a jerican,
a coil heater,glue, screws, and a lid.
His breakthroughcame through when he finally created his design
from scratch and it functioned properly.
Wangas innovation put him in the best category at the national
level for the science and engineering competition.
The process
Wanga explains the process, After collecting the materials, wash
the jerican thoroughly and cut a small hole at the bottom with
enough space for the coil to enter.
Once the heater is inside, take the lid and the grey glue,
cov-er the hole with the cans top, then spread the glue and let it
dry in the sun for about 10 to 20 minutes and you are done with the
heater.
Wanga is proud that he fol-
lowed through with his idea because it has solved an important
prob-lem in society and that it is cheap and affordable to make and
to buy.
He attests to its usability in saying, I personally must admit
that I have benefited from this in-novation because I boil my bath
water and also make tea with it.
Wanga now challenges his fel-low youth and other unemployed
people to be creative in life and try to follow through on their
ideas.
I believe there are several in-ventions, innovations and
success-ful businesses waiting to be discov-ered. People should not
just sit and wait for government jobs when they can create their
own he advises.
He is optimistic that with his contribution, he will help people
to cut on fuel consumption, especially the slum residents who
depend largely on stoves, wood, and charcoal to cook.
Slum boy develops a problem-solving innovation
Odingas daughter helps women and youth register for national
IDs
I believe there are several inventions,
innovations and suc-cessful businesses
waiting to be discov-ered. People should not just sit and wait
for government jobs when they can cre-
ate their own
Andy Wanga
ed at the possibility of her candida-ture on June 14 when she
accom-panied her father at a fundraiser held in Kiberas Kamkunji
grounds.
It was also during the fund-raiser that she asked local chiefs
to recommend to their constit-uents that they register for IDs.
For a long time, applying for the ID cards had been hectic.
Res-idents who lacked basic education were, in the past, not
getting their IDs. Dennis Mugara who lost his parents while still
in class two has applied for national IDs twice but failed for lack
of documents, but is optimistic he might get his ID this time
round.
I have visited DC since last year from to apply for my ID card
but every time I came they de-clined, demanding for my parents
death certificates, Mugara said. I am hopeful that this time round
I might get my ID, he added.
Speaking to residents during the fundraiser, Odinga said that
she had already held talks with the Registrations of Persons office
on behalf of Kibra and Langata Con-stituencies and they had agreed
to ignore some of the strict rules that have, for a long time,
hindered res-idents from getting theirID cards.
She also added that she will
monitor the registration process in person since there are
individ-uals at Nyayo House who have refused to register the
residents.
It is to my notice that some of-ficials at the Nyayo house could
not register Kibera residents and I prom-ise to personally monitor
the process for the youth to have the national IDs, she saidduring
the launch of ID regis-tration at Kamkunji grounds Kibera.
Odinga believes that giving Kenyans a chance to participate in
nation building will help youth feel they are important to their
country and keep them from turning to desperate measures, such as
agents of terrorism.
The ID deficiency is damaging to the country, making it
difficult for youth to contribute to the economy. Without an ID
they cannot access government funds such as the Uwezo; money meant
for youth and women.
As a way of building the youth effort for change, Odingas move
has been welcomed among both residents and local leaders. It is
viewed as a step towards changing national leadership.
Regardless of her intention to run in the 2017 elections, her
reg-istration campaign has been a posi-tive step for the country,
encourag-ing Kibera residents to participate equally in the
democratic process.
By Sylvester Oluoch
When Peter Warieda started door-to-door photography in May, 2004
while still a high school stu-dent, he had no idea that a decade
later, he would become the inspi-ration and role model to the young
generation coming up in the infor-mal settlement of Soweto in
Kayole.
When he started, he would make about Ksh. 300 per month, but he
was driven more by his passion for photography, not the meager
profits he was making.
Warieda has now found suc-cess in the Photo and Printing
busi-ness, and is the proud owner of Rossy Photo Studios, in
Kayole. He offers services inphotography, pho-to framing, branding
(t-shirts, caps, business cards among others), and large format
printing like banners. His shop is strategically located within
Soweto slum, a five minute walk from the main road, and serves the
entire population of Kayole.
Warieda, who comes from a humble religious background, was
persuaded by his mother to get in-volved in an income generating
activ-ity to keep him busy and prevent him from falling into the
vices that come from idleness in a slum. A former student of
Chulaimbo Boys (two km
from Maseno School, along the Kisu-mu-Busia highway), he is now
a men-tor and a friend to many youth who benefit from him in
different ways.
The first rule in the rule book of good management is learning
the art of knowing how and when to del-egate. You can do anything,
but not everything. If you want your busi-ness to grow, you need to
start dele-gating. If you have to do it right, you dont have to do
it yourself and thats
why I have team of three employ-ees with me, said Warieda
smiling.
Warieda holds a one year Cer-tificate in Machine Printing and
three years Diploma in Printing Technolo-gy from Kenya Polytechnic
Univer-sity. Before getting his formal edu-cation in printing, he
ventured into the business with a family owned camera and now has
his own ma-chines. From the little savings that he made, he was
able to purchase a
bicycle which he would use to move around when his business was
mobile.
He continued to save more mon-ey and secured a small room for
his business and later relocated to a bigger building where he is
operating today.
Customer relations
The business, which is open from 8:00 am 8:00 pm on a daily
ba-sis, enjoys a good customer relation-ship as he put it, There is
no greater satisfaction that an entrepreneur can enjoy more than
when a customer tells you they love your services and they cant
hesitate to refer new clients. He attributes the loyalty he now
gets from these very same clients. The business booms during
weekends and holidays but the super sales come in December.
Although the business has good returns, he still faces
chal-lenges. The biggest one is insecuri-ty, which he has had to
deal with a number of times. Another challenge is that of
uncollected photos when customers leave their already print-ed
photos behind and never return for them which causes some
losses.
To this, he says, Entrepre-neurship is all about risking,
trip-
ping and picking yourself up. One should not fear failure though
you should not seek it out either.
The business benefits the in-formal residents of Soweto slum as
Warieda charges subsidized prices, making his services more
accessible and affordable to the poor communi-ty. Although
competition is stiff in the market, Warieda enjoys a competitive
advantage as most of the competi-tors are his trainees, I train
them, so they cant beat the trainer, he says while laughing, as
most of them still come for technical assistance.
I am willing to train young minds who want to venture in this
industry, says Warieda. Youth should be passionate and deter-mined
in what they do and love it.
The entrepreneur is deter-mined to keep growing and says that,
In five years, I want to estab-lish a leading out-door advertising
firm in East Africa, which will be aided by the skills I have
acquired in this field of printing technology.
He is also passionate about giving back to the community that
raised him by participating in charitable activi-ties like
distributing sanitary towels to schools within Kayole as well as
orga-nizing and sponsoring beauty contests within the slum to
encourage youth know and exploit their hidden talents.
Photographer makes it through thick and thin
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A once mobile clinic offers free treatments
Timber sales is fast growing despite global warming
Health
Business
Ghetto Mirror | 7ISSUE:19 JULY 2015
Deforestation effects on timber businesses
Free health services uplift Soweto residents
By Sylvester Oluoch
The Nairobi Evangelical Medical Centre is giv-ing the hope of
health for residents of Soweto slum in Kayole, and as a result to
the whole
of Kayole and its surroundings.According to the current
admin-
istrator, Francis Ngaruiya, the cen-tre started back in 2012
with a small team whose slogan was Preach-ing Peace, Healing
Humanity.
It started by helping the Post-Election Violence (PEV)
victims
Medical practioners from the Nairobi Evangelical Medical Centre
pause for a photo out-side the dispensary in SOWETO slum in Kayole.
The dispensary was founded to provide free health services to
residents after the 2007/08 Post Election Violence.
Photo: Sylvester Oluoch
who were struggling by providing them with tents, water, food,
med-icines, blankets and offering coun-seling to the peers, says
Ngaruiya
The centres strategic location in the heart of Kayole gives it a
compet-itive advantage against other medical facilities within the
area. Also situat-
ed on the side of the road, it is espe-cially accessible in
emergency cases.
When it was first launched, the centre was mobile: it moved from
place to place, serving slums as far as Muku-ru Kayaba, Mathare and
even Kibera.
At present, the centre primarily serves the residents of Kayole
with outpatient records showing a high of up to 85 patients per day
due to the amazing free services it offers.
The institution employs qual-ified practitioners and nurses, and
offers free family planning, counsel-ing, immunization, deworming
for children below the age seven, and free treatment for diagnosed
diseases.
Patients from Soweto slums benefit as their charges are waived
and we also offer referrals to Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and
Kenyat-ta National Hospital for cases that we cannot handle, adds
Ngaruiya.
We are praying that Nai-robi Evangelical Medical Centre lasts
long and grows big to offer us more services, expresses Jan-et
Kerubo, a resident from Soweto,
Improved medication
She also added that the massive services offered by the centre
have not only improved the health standards of the residents, but
have also cut down their overall cost of living as they pay
absolutely nothing for healthcare.
The centre, in an effort to extend
its services to the community, has incorporated the Baraka
Childrens Home and Flomina Childrens Home, offering free treatment
to the children and the entire staff of each entity.
Loyce Nduta, the centres di-rector, reports that they have
extend-ed their services to the community to first ensure that the
health of ev-ery child is attended to and also to provide casual
jobs to residents to help reduce the number of idlers.
True to their slogan Preaching Peace, Healing Community, the
cen-tre gives casual labor work to youth within the community, with
an aim to reduce the crime level. Youth also at-tend morning
devotion, which is con-ducted at the centre each morning to give
them an opportunity to reform.
The centre is a beneficiary of the Mission for Essential Drugs
(MEDs). Thus, it gets drugs at a subsidized price, allowing it to
be fully stocked and ready to meet the needs of patients.
We would like to reach as many people as possible as we are
ready to serve them [] We believe service to humanity is a service
to God as success is not based on what you have but how many
peoples lives you have impacted, says Ngarui-ya. The little we have
we share with the community, Nduta added.
Ngaruiya shares that mov-ing forward, the centre plans to extend
its services to other slums around Nairobi, with Kibera and
Korogocho units in the pipeline.
By Erick Ouma
An estimated 1.8 million acres (7.3 million hect-ares) of forest
are cut down each year. These forests, that are roughly the size of
Panama, (a country in Central Amer-ica) are lost each year, reports
the United Nations, Food and Agri-culture Organiza-tions
(UNFAO).
Mary Wam-bui (not her real name) ventured into the
tim-ber-selling busi-ness in the year 1999 as a way of earning a
living for herself and her six children.
For years, she was able to make a decent profit from her sales,
but de-forestation and industry chang-es have been making it more
difficult to survive.
Working in the timber industry requires large amounts of
investment. Wambui was able to save 100,000
from her previous job, which she used to order her first load of
timber.
Her stock is typically brought from the Rift Valley, Nyahururu,
and Kisii, making it relatively easy to transport her goods to
Nairobi.
But the declining forest cover in Kenya has forced Wambui to
look fur-
ther afield to fill her c u s t o m -ers de-m a n d s .
S h e has started to order her stock f r o m M a l a w i , where
is it more ex-pensive to purchase and trans-port. In M a l a w i ,
8 tones of timber goes for Ksh.300, 000 and a trailer for
trans-port costs
over one million shillings.Once the 8 tones is sold, Wambui
expects to make around Ksh. 40,000 of profit. But with higher
input costs,
A worker at Njokis Timber Yard in Kawangware removes wood
purchased by a customer from the timber yard. Tim-ber businesses
are threatened by massive deforestation
Photo: Erick Ouma.
Mary is making less than she used to. She adds that she faces
other
stresses such as payment of value added tax, failure of payment
after delivery, renewal of business license yearly which costs
Ksh.15, 000.
Along with deforestation, these factors make it more and more
difficult to run a timber busi-ness. The business has deteriorated
over the past year, says Wambui.
Wambuis business is not the only one suffering from rapid
de-forestation. Globally, over half of the worlds forests have been
de-stroyed in the last 10,000 or so years.
The majority of the loss has occurred in just the last 50 years,
due to a massive in-crease in the human population.
The incredible scale of this loss has led to significant
ecologi-cal changes including; large scale extinction events,
desertification, climatic changes, and erosion of top soil,
flooding, famine, dis-ease outbreak and insect plagues.
Forests are usually cleared to make the land more available for
housing, construction and urban-ization, while the harvested timber
is used to create commercial items such as paper, furniture, and
palm oil.
While this practice of clearing and cutting down forests is
harm-ful to the environment, Wambuis business, as well as her six
children and four employees, depend on it.
Effects of Deforestation
Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing
factors to global climate change.
The number one effect of defor-estation is its impact on the
global carbon cycle. Deforestation is the second largest
human-caused source of carbon dioxide as which causes nearly a
billion tons of carbon to be releases into the atmosphere
yearly.
This represents between 6-17% of total carbon dioxide gas
released each year.
Other effects of deforestation include: loss of spieces,
especially those that live in forests, soil erosion; tree roots
anchor the soil, without which the soil can easily be blown or
washed away causing problems to vegetation growth.
Water cycles will also be affected. When it rains, trees absorb
water and release vapour during dry times that cause it to
rain.
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Ghetto Mirror | 8 ISSUE:19 JULY 2015
The Ghetto Mirror is a monthly publication published and
distributed for free by Shining Hope for Communities as part of its
programs aimed at empowering the youth through developing their
media skills and also to bring attention to the issues affecting
the residents of the informal settlements. All the work that goes
into production of this newspaper is done by youths from the slums.
Correspondence should be addressed to
[email protected]. You can also visit our
facebook page www.facebook.com/ghettomirror for constant news
updates, photos, and videos. News and advertising 0722 550 024
GhettoMirror
Slum youth earn through garbage collection
By Eunice Otieno
In the village of Lindi, Kibera, a group of youth now commonly
known as Mashujaa group, has decided to eke out a living as garbage
collec-tors. The initiative was established with the aim of
engaging youth in useful activities and to prevent them
from being idle and getting involved in dangerous irresponsible
behavior.
Hamisi Mwaka, one of the gar-bage collectors said that he
gathered the group of young men who had fin-ished school, but had
no jobs. Togeth-er, they started to collect garbage from house to
house to make some money.
The group distributes poly-thene garbage bags to residents
who
are willing to pay them money to collect and dump their trash,
hence making the environment clean.
We walk door to door giving out the bags to interested people
who then pay us Ksh.30 for the bags and Ksh.70 when we go back to
collect the bags full of garbage, said Peter Njug-una one of the
garbage collectors.
To make some extra money, the
group members sort out the garbage at a central point to look
for valu-able things they can sell before they dump the garbage at
the collection centre at DC grounds in Kibera from where it is
finally transported by the city authorities to Dandora dump
site.
They have regular meetings every Saturdays at 4 p.m. at
StaraDa-rajani in Kibera. So far, the budding enterprise has five
sub-groups in Ki-anda, Gatwekera, Lindi, Mashimoni and Laini Saba
within Kibera. Each of the five groups contributes 100 Ken-ya
shillings every week on Saturday to pay for the DC ground where the
garbage is temporarily stored. In addi-tion to making a living for
themselves, Mashujaa group has also provided a much needed service
to the community.
Mildred Akinyi, a resident of Kisumu Ndogo village attests to
this saying, Before Mashujaa group start-ed collecting garbage, it
was a diffi-cult task for me to dispose the garbage as I had to
travel long distances.
Akinyi adds that, There was litter everywhere making the area
filthy for living. Visitors too were scared to visit. The group has
enabled us have a clean environment. They deserve even more than we
give.
Mwaka explains how the group
works, We make sure that we go round to every house that has our
bags and if anyone is not able to pay for that round, he or she has
to pay double next time.
According to Mwaka, every Sat-urday each member collects
Ksh.1000 and pays Ksh. 200 to the group. Of this money, Ksh.100
goes to savings, Ksh.50 is set aside for emergency and the
remaining Ksh.50 is for buy-ing bags. Each group member gets to
keep Ksh.800 for their own use.
Mashujaa group faces some problems in this line of work. One of
this problems is that some residents are not willing to pay for the
garbage collection service yet they use oth-er peoples bags and
when the time comes for collection they refuse to pay or help those
who ordered the bags.
Another problem is that some places in slums are so squeezed
that if we push the carts towards them the garbage spills to the
ground and we have to pick it up again. Some-times we conflict with
street boys who might pick up some of the good things we wanted to
sell, says Mwaka.
Despite these challenges, Mashujaa group sets a good exam-ple of
how youth in the slum can help themselves while doing some-thing
good for their community.
By Kevin Ochieng
It is 10:30 on a Monday morn-ing in Raila village in Kibera
slum, residents are going about with their daily life activities.
The National Youth Service (NYS) workers are burning garbage near
the roadside while some men are relaxing on the
rail guards of the busy southern by-pass that divides the
village in half.
Rush hours
During rush hour, the bypass is a bee of activities as motorists
fill
the road making it one of the busi-est newly created highways in
Nai-robi County. Crossing it is akin to crossing the insanely busy
Jogoo Road, which can amount to suicide.
Residents lifestyle have changed since the completion of the
bypass as accidents are becom-ing a reality for many dwellers.
The road was constructed by the Kenyan government through
partnership with a Chinese compa-ny called China Road and Bridge
Corporation. It was built to decon-gest the Central Business
District (CBD) and prevent long distance trucks from accessing the
CBD.
The highway bypass stretches from Mombasa Road near Ole Sere-ni
hotel passing through Langata and Ngong all the way to theNairo-bi-
Nakuru highway in Kikuyu town.
At first, it was dream come true for the residents who thought
they could easily access the road as com-pared to earlier days when
they had to walk for miles to access the main road.
School children
School children are the major victims of the road accidentsthat
occur as often as every two weeks. Women also suffer from these
accidents since they have to cross the road to access the water
points located in the slum.
This has made their lives mis-erable because they have to cross
the road with their filled water cans and risk getting hit by
reckless motorists.
Ken Nyongesa, who sells man-dazi along the side of the road
says, Accidents occur here almost once a week, with quite a number
being fatal.
Though the road has an un-derpass for pedestrians, and big sign
in red that says, BE SAFE USE UNDERPASS DO NOT CROSS
THE ROAD, most pedestrians seem to ignore both sign and the
ap-parent danger of crossing the road.
Maasai herdsmen are also of-ten be seen shepherding their
cat-tle alongside the road which dis-tracts motorists as the cattle
tend to walk in the middle of the road.
Another resident who gave his name as Felix noted that a woman
was knocked down while attempting to cross the road and died on her
way to hospital.Felix believes that if pedestri-ansused the correct
underpass to cross the road, a lot of lives would be saved.
Most accidents are hit and run incidents and some motorists do
not even bother stopping after committing an offence. The
motoristsprobably fear for their lives and their vehicles safety
since residents might resort to stoning the cars or burning them in
retaliation for causing accidents.
Recently, a woman was knocked down by a car that did not stop
af-ter hitting her. However, the driver returned and said that she
had not stopped because she feared for her life. She later took
responsibility of paying for the victims medical bill who was
admitted at St. Mary Mission Hospi-tal. Unfortunately, the victim
died.
Residents are calling upon the government to erect bumps on the
highway as a way of controlling speeding cars.
Schools in the area are also cre-ating awareness among their
pupils on the importance of using the un-derpass for pedestrians.
Students who defy the instructions arepunished.
Langata Road, Southern Bypass Photo | Courtersy
Southern by-pass becoming a highway of death ...as more lives
continue to be lost
Photo | Courtesy
