African Asylum: Nairobi Part 2

Week 3 in Nairobi and I still haven’t set foot in the heart of the city. Nor have I been to the Museum. I console myself with the fact that the CBD is rarely the most interesting part of any city – the quick drive I have done through the centre of ‘town’, as it is called, revealed the kinds of tall buildings, busy roads and even glittering casino one might expect in most cities. Not that I don’t want to explore further - but I have just been so busy exploring the other parts of Nairobi that I haven’t made it there yet!

Most of my time so far has been spent walking or driving between interviews, of which I have had many (but more on that later). One of the best things about visiting lawyers, NGO workers, UNHCR and government officials is that their offices – or alternatively, the cafes they suggest we meet in – are all over Nairobi. I walk when I can – this is still a relative novelty after being in Jo’burg. Nairobi definitely feels like a calmer safer to walk around in, though I would still never go out at night. While security abounds, I am told this is not due to general crime; rather it is largely a response to the few terrorist bombings carried out in the city by Al-Shabab in the last year or so. Perhaps I have been in Africa too long, but this actually makes me feel safer. When it gets too hot I buy fruit salad from a roadside stall and put up my umbrella as sun protection. When I get too dusty and sweaty I look for a shopping centre with a Java House or Dormans café to recuperate. And when the distances are longer, or I am not quite sure where I am going, I travel with George, my taxi driver.

The streets in Nairobi’s suburbs are lovely. At the risk of repeating myself, they are so green! Huge old trees, grass, vines, hedges and brightly coloured flowers everywhere. Many gardens still display a very definitely British sensibility – the house just up the road from where I am staying could be straight out of the Cotswolds. But a lot the greenery is wild and sprawling, and it’s often hard to believe you are in a city at all. The state of the roads themselves has the same effect. Many look like the have not been attended to for decades, and the extent of the potholes, some of them several feet deep, makes driving in a straight line nearly impossible.

Last weekend I venture a little further afield, with a visit to Kibera. Even if you have never heard of Kibera you will probably feel like you have seen it a hundred times. It is the quintessential image of poor Africa – an inner city slum full of dust, rubbish, open sewerage, barefoot children, makeshift homes and a few animals. As well as being the largest slum in Africa, it is apparently the most studied, owing to the fact that it is so close to the CBD and UN-HABITAT’s office is nearby. Many of the homes here have neither running water nor sewerage and unemployment is apparently somewhere around 40%.

On the one hand I think it is important to acknowledge and address the level of poverty that many people in Africa live in. In fact, getting a better understanding of what life is like under these circumstances is one of the main reasons I have wanted to come here for so long. I’ve always believed (or hoped) that if everyone in the world was forced to come face to face with these realities they would not be allowed to continue. But having now spent some time here and having visited Kibera, I feel less sure that perpetuating the image of the poor, helpless Africa is very helpful at all.

Certainly Kibera is a place of extreme poverty – there are single mothers there who spend their days offering to wash other women’s clothes for a sum of about 100 shillings – less than a dollar. And there are children who will catch and suffer from diseases that could be easily prevented or treated in better conditions. But most of the people I saw during my visit were anything but passive victims of their surroundings. Kibera is a hive of activity and a vibrant breeding ground for small businesses and other entrepreneurial activities. Many of the shanty-type homes in Kibera double as shopfronts, selling everything from homemade soaps to pre-paid mobile credit to chapatis.

Kibera is on the list of places to which both the Lonely Planet and Australian government advise against travel. This is ironic – according to my guide Frankie (and verified with others I have spoken to since) Kibera is one of the safest places in Nairobi, due to the local community’s ‘people power’. ‘People power’ is a slightly euphemistic term for describing the fact that anyone caught stealing in Kibera will be set upon by a group of locals and, more often than not, killed for their crime. This is apparently a result of the community’s impatience and frustration with local police and justice mechanisms. Unsurprisingly, it has vastly reduced the amount of crime, at least during the day.

The other thing that struck me about my visit to Kibera is the fact that so much of Nairobi is not like Kibera. In many ways, it is a booming city. There are good universities here, a growing economy and lots of development – those given the opportunity could really make a go of it. In fact my guide Frankie grew up and still lives in Kibera. He was sponsored by an NGO to attend school and is now studying towards an accounting degree at the University of Nairobi – he shows people around his home town as a part time job to help him through his studies. No doubt, education is key. That’s why on Friday I plan to return to Kibera and spend the day volunteering at one of the local primary schools. I might just have to teach them how to sing Happy Birthday!

One of the lovely suburban roads where I spend my days walking.

Entrance to the British Institute of East Africa, my Nairobi home.

Bus stop in Karen, the suburb named after Karen Blixen (Out of Africa)

Tree signs are one of my favourite features of the African urban landscape.

There is every kind of religion in Kenya - in the morning I wake alternatively
to church bells and the call to prayer at the nearby mosque

Kibera - Africa's largest slum. The apartments behind are being built as part of the
upgrade/development program, but Frankie explained to me that they are unaffordable for most
Kibera residents, costing about $30 a month (between 2 and 6 times the costs of rent in Kibera itself).

The railway line through Kibera is still used by passenger and freight trains.

This is Modest, who works with women in Kibera to make
jewellery and other handicrafts for sale at Pam's curio shop

Homemade soaps for sale - these soaps are made by people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS

I now understand why everyone returns from Africa with photos of children - they love having
their photo taken! Kibera Tours, through whom I arranged my visit, have a quite strict photo
policy, only allowing photos at certain stops during the visit. Frankie made an exception
in this case, after the kids begged for me to take their photos!

The kids love being photographed, but they love even
more seeing their images on the camera view screen afterwards.

I think this little fella saw himself as our mini security guide - here he is chasing off some of the bigger kids.

The view from inside a Kibera home - the mzungu lady is an intriguing sight in Kibera..

Women doing their washing together at a community water source.

Almost every second wall or fence in Kibera has an NGO's logo on it. There are
apparently over 800 NGOs working in this area, only some of the working well.

The Bead Factory. This factory buys cow, goat and camel bones from butchers and slaughterhouses and turns them into jewellery. It's a remarkable use of limited resources, though the dust and smell of bones is a bit overwhelming!

It's not only the kids who love having their photo taken!

What would Workcover say about this.... The head of the factory proudly showed me the scars
on his hand, suggesting they are some kind of mark of achievement for workers. I'm not so sure...
This worker is making little turtle shapes from the bone - you can see a pile forming on the floor.