Illustration by Louise McCune Consider the flying toilet. The term comes from the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Within the slum, there is often less than one latrine per 50 shacks, with each 12-foot by 12-foot shack containing, on average, eight people. Kibera sits on government land that never fully transferred legally to its pre-independence residents, and, as such, the government treats residents as squatters with no right or entitlement to...
In Kibera, one of the most notorious slums in the world both for its extreme poverty and danger, there is a group of artists who are inspiring tangible change within the community. Based out of Katwo Kera, one of the 14 informal neighborhoods in Kibera, is Jah-Army. While the group started in 2005 with two members, today there are about 15. Each member specializes in a type of art including basket weaving, beadwork, graffiti, film, painting, and...
Hajy next to the Mural of Robert Muhammad Wangila on Kibera Drive Serbit Said, called Hajy by all who know him, is a famous face all over Kibera. Hajy lives in Makina, on the same plot of land that his Nubian family settled on several generations ago. Hajy’s home is certainly one of the nicest in Kibera, where Hajy and his father are the landlords to about 30 families. Generally landlords have a notorious reputation for being real bastard...
With the current condition of the world economy, the decision to quit a job to stand up for a belief is extremely difficult – particularly when there are no promising prospects of future steady work and income. This decision was particularly difficult for Vituko, a 23-year-old from Kibera, who worked for a local non-profit organization. Despite Kenya’s daunting 40 percent unemployment rate, Vituko took a stand for what he believed in and made th...
...spite these good intentions, the Nairobi International Trade Fair has a hidden underbelly, which tells an entirely different story: exploitation of the water and electricity supply of nearby slums. The fair is nestled between Kibera to the east and Jamhuri to the west, which are considered some of the world’s worst urban slums. These blighted neighborhoods also unwillingly provide much of the energy and water supply the fair requires to run ever...
It’s 4:30 am in Kibera, and a train had fallen off the tracks. While trains have fallen in Kibera many times before, this was strange – like something out of a comic book. Along with 15 downed train carts was neon orange goo dripping out of a cylindrical black tank. As a construction team in yellow vests attempted to clean up the mess, a man, not in uniform or working gear, called out to me and demanded to know what I was doing there. After show...
...e of these searches. According to traveler alerts from the US Embassy, there have been viable threats on places in Nairobi that attract a lot of westerners.” The only region that appears to be unaffected by the war efforts is Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi. Resident Gigi said, “There is nothing here that the government wants to protect here, even though I know there are Somalis living in Kibera. Despite the hardships, Nairobi residents...
Follow us at
Like us on
Recent Comments