Slum upgrade gives Kibera residents hope

By ODUOR JAGERO
Published August 30, 2009

An identified kid trudging along the railway in Kibera

What started as a forest settlement (Kibra, meaning jungle) has become an eye sore on Nairobi’s landscape. Residents live in abject poverty, lawlessness and unspeakable misery. Located approximately five kilometres, south west of Nairobi City, the sprawling Kibera slum stretches about 630 acres and holds almost a quarter of Nairobi’s population. Standing by the Nairobi Dam, which is to the far south, one sees a stretch of rusty iron sheets – sheltering Kianda, Soweto, Gatwekera, Kisumu Ndogo, Lindi, Laini Saba, Siranga/Undugu, Makina and Mashimoni.

The slum has attracted the largest number of NGO campaigns in Kenya. Yet most NGOs have “protected” the slum from interference, maintaining the status quo to make sure donor aid keeps trickling in. The government has however now decided to finally tackle the problem, albeit amid some pockets of resistance and anxiety.

Together with the UN-Habitat, they have initiated an upgrade program that is set to transform Kibera. Dubbed ‘The Kenya Slum Upgrading Program’ (KENSUP), this arm of the Ministry of Housing has invested US$ 8 million to construct 14 blocks which will have 770 housing units in Kibera. Other targeted interventions are set to address infrastructure services, land tenure and employment issues, as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS in slum settlements.

Kibera residents live without running water, no sewerage system, and very little or no electricity. They live in shacks that stand precariously and sandwiched between foaming sewerage and human waste. The children pass through mountains and hills of dumpsites not far from the houses and buzzing with flies.

But now as the project takes root this erstwhile gloomy group is starting to smile. Indeed, the locals are having not only hope but also something to do.

When Ban Ki-moon visited Kibera in February 2007, a young man by the name Linus Sijenyi organized a group of people to come to the function where the UN Secretary-General was visiting. The latter was not amused. “Why are all these youths idling around here at a time when they should be at work?” The diplomat asked. He was told that these youths were jobless.

Moon was touched and later released US$ 105, 000 to help this group of destitute youths. “It was then that we sat down with UN-Habitat officials to discuss how best we could spend the money,” says Mr Linus Sijenyi, the youth coordinator.

To capitalize on the huge building project that has been running, the youth decided to invest the money in training the youths on making low-cost Stabilized Soil Blocks. “Most of the youth were already involved in the industry as unskilled workers anyway,” he says. From that, they have slowly ventured into making the highly popular Hydro- form Interlocking Blocks.

“So far we have witnessed the successes of the program as more youth have been trained in building and construction,” Sijenyi says. This initiative has helped them to send scores of young people to train as electricians and plumbers in different training schools such as Don Bosco Catholic Church training facility.

Kibera upgrade

As the project of face-lifting Kibera goes on, the youths are committed to reaping the benefits that come with it.”The youth will gain more from the Kibera slum upgrading project since they will be contracted as skilled rather than as unskilled laborers like they did before,” says Sijenyi. The aim is “to form our own companies that could competitively bid for such contracts on equal level with big companies,”

Similarly, with trained electricians amidst them, cases of fire will be minimised. Most of the fires in the slum have been largely caused by illegal electricity distribution. To make this a success, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has embarked on ways of making electricity cheaper for residents.

Instead of the US$26 application fee, the residents will be required to pay only US$13. Each plot will also have a meter box so as to minimize pilferages.

Groups of NGOs such as Jamii Bora investments groups have also come up with poverty-friendly packages of investing. Jamii Bora for example allows youths to get into groups of five. Each member is supposed to give US$3 monthly. A month after joining a member can take a loan of US$132 that is payable within a year at less than five percent interest. When that first loan is paid, the member can ask for a US$ 264 loan followed by a US$ 396 loan. The member after successfully going through three faces of loans is eligible for a mortgage worth US$6600. The future is at last looking bright from Kibera.

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