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

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

Rampant spread of crime in mathare north

Accident on Juja Road at Mathare No10

New video from Mathare in Motion.

Mathare: Changing House Design

Storey building on the background

Construction of storey buildings using wood and iron sheet has become an indicator that the population in Mathare Valley is increasing at very high rate. This is apart from increase in house rent. The houses vary in size and the number of people per household.

A normal house is about 10 x 10 in size housing 3 – 5 people on average. The safety of these houses is questionable as they are never supervised by qualified personnel. However most people preferred them as they are considered safe. Lack of space for slum expansion has made structure owners to be creative and change their design.The design is also dictated by how deep one pocket is.

In the early 70s and 80s the City Council of Nairobi had constructed toilets and bathroom. A community elder who has lived in Mathare for more than  50 year told me that the project was funded by the World Bank. This led to laxity by structure owners to construct washroom for the community. Unfortunately due to land grabbing many of these facilities are no longer there.

Permanent buildings are much more expensive than semi-permanent even though located inside slum. The rent ranges between Kshs. 500 – 3500/- for a single room. Power, water and washroom are not a guarantee by the landlords. – Simon

Mathare Youth Vote

Felix, one of the contestants from Huruma Ward

The National Youth Council elections are going across the country and Mathare held its elections for the delegates. In each ward, youth gathered to elect their choice peacefully. At Mabatini ward, 13 youth came out seeking to be elected as youth delegate. In each sub location, 3 youth delegate will be elected.

While in all the polling station there was high presence of women, very few of them were seeking position. For instance, in Mabatini out of the 13 contestants, only 3 women were on the list seeking to be elected. In Huruma, the situation was the same, with only 4 women among 16 contestants. Given that there is low women participation, this might affect articulation of women issues at higher level.

The election has been so peacefully against to what was expected. At Huruma, one of the contestants Mr. Felix, 24 yrs was happy with the arrangement and was optimistic that he will be elected. The selection of administration camps as voting sites has greatly contributed to the elections being held peacefully.

When it came to mobilizing people most people were using mobile phone and texting through SMS service. Printing of poster was common combined with collection of mobile phone numbers. When I visited Huruma polling station, I found Felix calling people to remind them about the day.

The situation on ground revealed that the elections of youth delegates in Mathare being less tribal and this is one of the lessons that the political parties can learn from the youth elections. The election is driven by how well known one is for doing things than money politics.

However there is generally low voter turn-out by the youth. This could be partly attributed to low publicity of the elections by the Ministry of Youth and the local administration. Also the election being held on a working day has locked out youths attending colleges or those working.

From the start of youth election, there was very little interest civil society organizations which conduct monitoring of elections or promote voter registration. Part of Yes We Can Fund by the USAID should have been invested in the youth election. – Simon

Mathare: Lights at Night

Light the slum

When dark falls in slums to some it become a source of worries. For small businesses selling vegetable and shop operators this means they have to close early. For the women, darkness is associated with insecurity. But with time, the government has tried to light the slums through the Adopt A Light. High masts fitted with powerful bulbs have been erected in some parts of Mathare. In locations where the lights have been erected, businesses have increased while insecurity has greatly reduced. -Simon

Electricity: Safety in Mathare

Transformer on fire along Juja Road

Every week, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company workers are usually accompanied by two uniformed police to inspect illegal connection in the slum. Along Juja Road, there are more than 10 transformers which serves a very large population. Today (21/3/2011) was a bad day as a transformer burst into flames along Juja Road near Kiboro Primary School. More than 500 houses will go without electricity for a few days. The helpless members of the community were forced to just look from a far while pondering when it will be replaced. One of the hallmarks of living in slums is time taken to respond to emergencies. Before the officials from KPLC and City Council of Nairobi Fire Brigade responded to the emergency call, the fire had already consumed nearly 90% of the transformer.

The demand for lighting houses Mathare Valley is increasing everyday. People depend on paraffin to light their homes despite environment hazard posed by inhaling fumes from the kerosene.

Those who can afford electricity, share it out with their friends though illegal connection. It is these connections that the Kenya Power and Lighting Company workers and uniformed police are trying to locate for arrest. Today’s fire on the transformer is being blamed on overloading. This shows that there is demand for power by the community but only a few have access to it genuinely. If I was KPLC, I would lower the connection fee and create incentives for people to have power before it is too late. KPLC should learn from what happened to Kenya Posts and Tele Communication Ltd given that very soon we might have a second operator in the power sector. – Simon

Celebrating Slum Women and use of ICT

Handset: Cell phones

Today, I would like to join the rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day while acknowledging how the introduction of mobile phones has helped hastening development among women in Kenya. I want to acknowledge the role of mobile use among women of Mathare Valley. Most women use the phone for communicating and money transfers. The use of social network is not very popular with older women. The most popular social network is Facebook especially amongst young ladies.

From Mlango Kubwa to Kiamaiko it is estimated that 1 out of 7 women have access to mobile phone. I met a group of women and when I asked them what they will choose between a mobile phone and laptop, many preferred the cell phone. The most preferred handset is Nokia while handsets from China are preferred for their affordability.

Women with access to mobile have greater chance of having more social support base and feeling safe than those without. Take a case of the lady who was nearly raped by the neighbor, she found it convenient to call for assistance and within twenty minutes she was on her way to the hospital and one later she was at the police station.

In fact the use of mobile phone has really helped bridge the digital divide that nearly hampered access to internet for sometime. Computer and access to internet was expensive beyond the reach of many slum dwellers. Given that women control social and economic life of most slums, the mobile phones have helped facilitate communication and other transaction. Mary Muthoni is a member of three merry-go-round scheme. She does not have time to attend the three meeting at once. In one of the saving scheme, she makes her contribution through the Mpesa. She now preferred saving her money in her phone as opposed to the bank since it is less cumbersome. This has helped her save time and money.

The illiteracy among women has not deterred them from the use of mobile phone. The handsets are easy to use as opposed to computers which require training on basic skills plus expensive infrastructure for the initial set up.

Maybe the next step will be to ‘train’ people on the use of Twitter and YouTube even though corrupt, dictatorial and authoritarian African states have became allergic to the social network.

The theme for 2011  is Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.

The event will be celebrated in Nairobi at Huruma Grounds and is being co-ordinated by Amref-Kenya and White Ribbon. Reality Tested Youth Programme will mobilize women and young ladies from Mathare, Huruma and other parts of the Nairobi County. The event will be used to promote safe motherhood. – Simon