Community First Aid Kits

Walking through any urban informal settlement an outsider will see ‘disaster waiting happen’ scenes. Looking at small children playing cooking games with fire, women washing clothes in dirty river, haphazard crossing of Juja Road, open electric wires, possibility of being mugged in dark place,  regular fire outbreaks and people living next to big rocks. The dangers posed broken sewer and open ones are even great incase of major disease outbreak. All these are scenes one will encounter while walking in Mathare.

There have been cases of fire outbreaks which led to loss of life and this was contributed by lack of access road in the inner parts of the community; There are no emergency numbers readily available in the community that people can call for assistance. When assistance is called it takes longer than usual since most people will expect community leaders to be the person to call.

Those who gets injured through various activities both good and back have to seek assistance in far places since the health centres near the community do not operate of 24 hrs basis. This mean that if a disaster strikes at night then it is most likely that number of causalities will be very high compared with day time. Availing first aid kits in strategic points within the community can help reduce number of casualities.  While there has been investments in improving infrastructure, very little has been done to deal with disaster. Having emergency telephone/mobile number people can all and erecting first aid centre can help reduce the number of causalities.  – Simon

Why Map Urban Informal Settlement?

Informal settlements are generally ‘unrecognised’ in many urban settings. In years that have passed places like Mathare, Kibera and Mukuru were not visible on the net. With the advent of participatory mapping and Open Street Map platform, it became practical for communities that are hidden from rest of the world to be visible.

Open Street Map has now become the alternative to showing what most governmens would not want highlighted due to ‘policies’. My experience of mapping Mathare was filled with anxious moments and too many questions by the village elders. Elders in 2010 looked at mapping as a way of  demacating land and plot allocation and regulization.

Upon mapping mapping Mathare;  boundries and resource distribution in the community became evident and this was followed by meaningful discussions with how the community looks like and what is not there.

Local leaders, NGOs and community based groups were not left behind. The map has been become a source of inspiration and motivation to proper community development.  The disparities in allocation of resources by the politicians and local administration became evident and discussions ensued.

The power of people mapping their communities can no longer be ignored as it brings out the true picture of the community.

Thanks to Open Street Map, the underprivileged, invisible can now be corrected and made visible- Simon

Coming Soon

This blog is still under review and I will be soon making very informative briefs on Mathare Valley in general as we approach elections. simon

Blog Changes

To All Readers,

Kindly note that we are reorganizing the blog and we shall resume soon.

Simon

Womb’s for hire in matharevalley

Getting employment in Kenya informal settlements has become a very difficult and that’s why many youths involve themselves in various activities so as to sustain themselves. In mathare there are lots of illicit brew being sold in broad day light and nothing is being done by the government to control it commercial sex working has become a major gold mine in mathare especially in Huruma during the night you will find very nice ladies dressed in seductive cloths so as to attract attention of men passing by I recently interviewed one street girl in which I had to pay her one hundred shillings for a talk with me. I spent 20 minute chatting with her but what truly impressed was a story old ladies who usually come requesting them if some can volunteer at a cost to give birth to their husband.

By the way It didn’t last for twenty minute a very old lady came in driving a very nice black Mercedes Benz which was playing soft vernacular music she later parked her car outside and come in waking majestically like a queen what surprised she come straight to where I was sitting and requested the lady I was talking with to come for a minute since she was a well known street girl around, I was left wondering  on what they were planning something knocked my mind that I was about to be drugged or killed but I prayed God for my security then I took my time to listen keenly drinking my soda slowly but all my attention was set to get what the old lady telling the street girl but the only thing which I was earring was that can you accept to give my husband baby and then I will pay you huge sum of money after birth.

The lady decline the offer but later referred her to another street girl for negotiations after thirty minute she accepted offer to give birth to her at cost of one hundred and fifty thousand:-  Javin

 

Drug trafficking in Matharevalley Schools

Primary school students in slums are being used to traffic drugs. This was revealed by various teachers and other education stake holders based in Mathare. It is emerging that some parents and guardians have forced school children to engage in drug trafficking during schools holidays and other free days.

Speaking to map mathare, mathare north primary government School Head Teacher, Mr. James onyango noted that the most affected are the girls. He also noted that the most commonly abused drug in the slum is chang’aa. “The pupils are forced by their parents and guardians to sell the illicit liquor and other drugs to the slum dwellers,” he complains.

The head teacher further noted an incident involving one of the girls in the school who had been sexually abused and kidnapped by her mother’s drug clients. Though the community rescued the minor, the mother has been reluctant to press any charges against the abuser, afraid to lose business.”I wrote a letter to the police informing them of the incident but no action was taken. It is alleged that the mother owes a lot of money to the kidnapper and that’s the reason she is afraid of confronting him,” he alleges.

onyango added that such cases of sexual abuse are common in the slums especially when the children are involved in drug trafficking. As a result, many pupils have been forced out of school because they have slowly turned to drug abuse while others prefer to continue with their parents’ trade. While the girls are forced to give birth at an early age as a result of sexual abuse, most of the boys end up as hard core criminals. These children learn at an early age how to earn easy money through drug trafficking. As a result, they drop out of school and turn to crime to be able to sustain their economic needs. Joyce, a teacher, has decried the low moral standard which has led to child abuse by relatives and family friends. She noted that there is need to sensitize parents and guardians on the importance of education and respect for children rights.

However, the teachers were quick to add that the main reasons for the failure to protect the rights of children are lack of education, and poverty among the parents and guardians. They are therefore calling upon the government to put in place stricter laws to ensure that children from both poor and rich backgrounds are protected against such kind of abuses:-javin

Children Using Space

Creating good a conducive environment for all to enjoy is the most challenging aspect in slum like Mathare. There are always huge piles of uncollected solid waste, broken sewers, use, noise pollution, limited space for children to exercise their right to play, lack of social amenities for the youth, no social halls or club house for elderly to meet and discussion about their own issues.

Despite all these, people still live and survive against all odds. The limited space available is shared amongst different groups. Like Huruma Sports Ground host various Christian crusades but it has produced some good and international soccer players while at the same provides bulk of players for street soccer in the Kenyan team.

On the other hand Mathare river host various socioeconomic activities despite high levels of pollutions. Various youth groups have managed to reclaim riparian land along the river and started urban farming activities. The good thing abour urban farming is that the youth do not use polluted river for irrigation.

Children make use of any available space to exercise their right play not caring much danger associated. It is common to find children playing next to a garbage hip or beside the river. – Simon

Using social Media to monitor government projects in mathare

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The government of Kenya is spending millions of shillings through constituency development fund and local authority transfer fund so as to improve the condition of its citizens in both formal and non formal areas here in Kenya but now these funds as now turned to be a swimming pool of money to some members of parliaments and some councilors to get rich quickly without struggling later leading millions of Kenyans to suffer and languish in poverty. That is why Map Mathare team and the experience gained in one of Plan international Kenya projects in Kwale County (YETAM) Youths empowerment through art and media we decided to conduct the same initiative here in mathare.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                But ours was done differently due to security reasons most of CDF and latf official are very influential and powerful people in the community so we decided to hide our faces. We have hosted a webpage which will be used as tool of evidence to both community and government representative to hold leaders accountable to their selfish deeds. The auditing report was drawn from CDF website Stareheand LAFT report was drawn from community members.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   During the auditing the results were shocking since most projects stalled, incomplete and the community members were only involved in the identification stages and later kicked out during the implementation processes for more information here is our findings please visit cdfandlatifstarehe.wordpress.com

Elections and Food Insecurity

Urban farming demonstration centre in Mathare funded by European Union

Mathare depends on mainly food transported from outside. This therefore means that if a small disruption occurs then outsider traders cannot access Mathare and sell their food. It also mean that people will not have enough food for survival.

Walking down the valley, there is very little efforts being put by either the government or NGOs to invest in food security. It is common knowledge that during the last election period, traders could not access market to sell their commodities. In one of the villages-Mathare 4B and Gitathuru in 2008, people resorted to breaking houses to steal food and not electronics equipments.

I remember when peace had return after post election violence many NGOs started initiative addressing food insecurity. Currently the most visible programmes on food security in Mathare is the one being led by COOPI where by vulnerable community members are given Kshs. 1500 for food per household. This has been going on close to one year.

Given that we are nearing elections in Kenya, it will be good for various actors to invest more on ensuring that there will be enough food in the market by exploring ways of creating community based silos to store food in vulnerable communities so as to avert food crises. Currently various parts of Rift Valley such Burnt Forest have bumper harvest on maize. From previous elections in Kenya, it is common knowledge that whenever we have elections, case of food insecurity has always been reported.

There can be no free and fair elections if people are hungry. Democracy and access to food and security will always go together. In urban centres it is even worse. Investing more in urban farming and food storage facilities would help avert previous cases of food insecurity before or after elections. – Simon

Urban IDPs, Forgotten Lot

Mabatini, Huruma Corner and Kiamaiko were some of the hot spots of 2008 post election violence in Mathare which resulted to setting up of a camp for internally displaced persons at Mathare chief’s camp. The IDPs were from Mathare 3c, Mabatini and Mashimoni areas.

Today former IDPs held a demonstration to protest what they term as a case of them being forgotten or neglected by the government and NGOs. One of the leader of IDPs from Mathare lamented that while in other areas (Rift Valley) IDPs had been resettled or their -plight addressed unlike those from urban areas like Mathare had been forgotten.

Most IDPs I interviewed expressed concern that ‘the IDPs from Rift Vallye are being favoured while those from Mathare have been forgotten’.

After the confirmation of ICC case, IDPs from Mathare felt that nobody was addressing their plight or compensation package. A woman who was part of the demonstration said ‘the ICC case has become more to do with Ruto and Uhuru than victims of post of election violence like us. The government has rushed to form a team to look into Uhuru and Muthaura’s case but not about the IDPs’. This motivated IDPs today to match to Marthare District Offices to seek audience over the matter of compensation. The previous space which was occupied by IDPS had now been turned into urban farming demonstration centre for the community to address food insecurity in Mathare. – Simon