In and attempt to find a positive focus for the recovering addicts slightly ahead of ‘just something to do’, a number of the young men have organised a clean up team that can be hired to make the narrow alleyways more palatable and clear the congested sewer gulleys that are plagued by single use plastics. The rotting aromatic waste is scooped into large plastic bags and loaded onto a steel push cart to be man hauled to a waste processing facility on the edge of Kibera. A small charge is collected from the affected residents and the profits divided up amongst the young men. Remarkably most of them elect to save a small amount each week in a holding fund for a future they now aspire to.

Kibera in a very Kibera way complicates and hinders this process from all angles. Charging and collecting shillings from those with little income for disposing of waste is not easy. The purchase of the hand cart was made by outside supporters (Just where do you securely night store a large hand cart?) and the processing facility charges the boys for each bag eating into their micro profits. Then there are the waste bags.

Not wanting to be outdone by Rwanda and Morocco, the Kenya government green-washed the use of the single use plastic five years ago and has started to enforce this on those that can afford the least. Maintaining that the more expensive woven bags are reusable may be true but the practicalities and realities of the Chinese copies which are not recyclable have yet to be addressed. Failure to comply is reinforced with a possible four years custody.

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Partially in response to a children’s feeding program being overwhelmed by ravenous teenagers, the Kibera Saints football club was birthed initially as distraction but soon as a focus and a beacon of hope. Numbers grew, local crime rates fell as football skills in tandem with a sense of belonging and purpose flourished. Police reported a drop in shootings whilst team betting and consequential physical beatings diminished. Within a few years the senior teams climbed the local leagues and even the national divisions and did well; too well. Costs spiralled, transport, league and referees fees and mandatory compensation became unsustainable with current support and the difficult decision of rebirth had to be made. Let the older players fledge whilst starting an academy for the younger mainly boys.

Understandable many of the older players felt let down and made rumblings but some turned to coaching the new starts as their numbers and demand soared. In under a year over 100 turn out most weeks to a dusty rough school ground on the edge of Kibera to play and be trained and just belong. Noisy but focussed whilst the coaches are transforming lives and providing hope and purpose and a distraction from a tough life in Kibera. Proudly wearing their sponsored strips with their name printed, the sense of joy is palpable whilst for just a moment the players are somebody and part of something.

Questioning the name change from Kibera Saints to Kenya Saints brought a sobering response. In away games the removal of the slum label just gives that edge and raises heads; giving hope that there is life beyond Kibera.

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Micro businesses are part of the soul of the Kibera economy although some work better than others. Fledging starts-up have around the same success rate as anywhere else in the world and 90 percent will nose dive in the first few months. With no public social security safety net the only choice is get up and try again. Seed capital at Shylock interest rates throttles innovation and the local customer base is often the competitor which should result in the death of the entrepreneur, although it doesn’t. Far from it.

Our micro enterprise development project with its fifty dollar loans has had mixed results. Intended mainly to help developing start ups, it helps baby businesses expand and develop with a capital investment but unbeknown to us had quietly been encouraging others to donate small shilling business seed money grants to those that had very little. Emboldened by this, a group of women formed a complex and bewildering network of informal community credit unions, swapping small amounts of capital with individuals enabling the micro-bulk purchase of saleable commodities for retail in the community.

Curiously named Mama Mboga, their numbers had swollen to around 60 and this formidable group gathers regularly to encourage and share ideas. Hearing their stories was a must.

Mboga: Swahilli for vegetable (Also a young male lion in the Lion King)

Shylock: loan shark

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

It would be irresponsible to underplay the effects of Covid on the nation of Kenya but they are probably not as straight-lined as you might imagine. True, people got sick and died but both governmentally and anecdotally the figures are remarkably low. The reasons are unclear but the civic response was brutal for Kibera; shut down and isolate, thus strangling the already unstable micro economy whilst boosting prostitution and suicide rates. Narcotic use rocketed amongst the young males, the disenfranchised and the vulnerable. 

The pre-pandemic fledgling drug rehabilitation and self help groups that we had begun to set up came into their own. Based on  strangely archaic and odd ball 12 step narcotics anonymous method, Kibera groups were being developed with some resistance from the quick fix brigades. The notions that addicts are rarely completely ‘cured’ and that the issues of addiction are much more complex than physical dependance, need to be explored and worked through alongside others that are in similar predicaments. Remarkably, those that are further along the road to recovery seem to be the best at carrying the flag and cheering on. Regular meetings that build community are as important as the free hot meal shared with those who are choosing recovery. A schools awareness program is attempting to engage youngsters who are experimenting pre-addiction.

It’s a long road; it’s just 12 steps.

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Kibera’s notorious flying toilets are still an issue for most of its residents. Bagging and chucking human waste seems less prevalent, although open sewers are still plentiful and the river at the base of the Kianda region crawls at a consistency that defies description. Building a washroom and toilet block in the middle of a global pandemic was a challenge that just could not be ignored.

Acquiring land post conflagration from mysterious sources, navigating the bewildering complexities of tribal permissions and dealing with payment, protection rackets and threats were only a precursor of challenges to come.  Porting several tonnes of building material by hand whilst constructing under the suspicious eyes of all too close neighbours, the new washrooms began to take shape. Permission to connect waste to a real sewer although obtained, proved not so easy to implement as any space left unoccupied is all too soon adopted and built over. Finally Fundi* connected the electrics to power the suicide showers** and lighting; A huge water tank was spectacularly manhandled over the neighbours shacks to ensure continuity of supply.

A local partner commented with frustration that there are still more churches than toilets in Kibera. A worrying but very real indictment of the perception of the basic needs of its residents by those from afar.

*Fundi: Local tradesmen/workmen

**suicide showers: shower heads fitted internally with high power electric mains heating

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Traveling from Jomo Kenyatta International post a two year plus covid enforced separation, reminds the visitor that Beijing has been rather busy with an awful lot of concrete.  Sixteen point eight miles of elevated elegant dual carriageway delicately connect the airport with the capital Nairobi and for a toll, pre-registered vehicles can gracefully rise above the Nairobi traffic carnage and reduce the city to airport travel time to around fifteen minute from anything up to three hours.

To date, the elevated  beltways remain remarkably void of user traffic despite the beckoning neon of the plentiful toll booths.  Preferring to take their chances and keep costs low, the majority of the ageing vehicles stick to the pot hole ridden six laner below, occupying the few vacated spaces made by those that can afford the toll demonstrating the best of trickle down economics in action; Besides Matatu would only struggle with the ramps. China of course has generously signed a PPP declaring that the China Road and Bridge Company will recoup their investment after only twenty-seven years of tolls transferring what’s left to the Kenyan government. (*)

Our taxi opted for economy and took the down to earth freeway whilst narrowly avoiding a heard of Zebra that had wandered post dusk roadside from a nearby national park.

Matatu: basic public mini bus service of questionable quality

PPP: public private partnership

(*) South China Morning Post August 2022

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Jane Mwikali died last week and it did not make the news. Probably not Covid related but certainly Kibera related, Jane’s demise was a bit premature. Jane ran a barely recognisable retail kiosk on questionable economics, with eclectic unreliable stock and a wafer thin footfall. ‘I’ll get your change later’ was always followed by an infectious grin; Jane’s heart had an economy of it’s own

Walking past her kiosk without experiencing Jane’s love was not possible. Greetings were long, heartfelt and usually physical. Genuine to the core, she could brighten the darkest of days, giving hope where there was little and joy to the hardest of hearts. Jane became our Kibera Mum and changed our lives.

In the current rush of regret and introspection the understandable focus on colour deflects attention from the economic apartheid that maintains Nairobi’s wealth. Kibera’s residents are treated with an appalling disdain by some. Summary killings and police shootings rarely make the media. Discrimination and prejudice spike hope and grind change to asthmatic levels on an already near-vertical playing field. People cross roads and move tables rather than mix with slum dwellers whilst a language of patronage and subversion slow-chokes aspiration and hope and Kibera just can’t breathe.

But Slum lives matter.

Jane’s did.

These writings are usually penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Nairobi’s notorious transport infrastructure is tightening its stranglehold upon the health and patience of city commuters daily. Eye watering and visible black acrid diesel exhaust choke the peak time air whilst ageing poorly maintained vehicles grind into gridlock on a daily basis. On a main arterial route, six lines of frustration morph into eight annexing the central reservation whilst kicking up clouds of red dust. Tempers flare, metal grinds with metal; all serenaded by a cacophony of frustrated motor horns.

Ever adaptable and hungry for a bigger slice of growing commuter pie, Uber has already corralled boda -boda for the white-knuckles on a budget. For those that aspire to a greater life expectancy Chap Chap was birthed. More economical than Uber X, Chap Chap is limited to compact frugal vehicles with an engine capacity of no more than 800cc.

Whilst these tiny vehicles vie to occupy non-existent gaps in the pot-holed tarmac at more affordable rates to the aspiring working classes, a new Uber Prius smugly awaits to salve the conscience of those that can afford to tackle the morning smog.

Boda Boda:- Motor bike taxi; sometimes with more than one pillion passenger.

Chap Chap: Swahili slang for faster-faster.

These writings are penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Disposing of any type of waste in Kibera is a huge challenge. Flying toilets, open sewers and informal housing density provide little opportunity and even less incentive to tackle what seems like an impossible problem. Dumping just out of site and open burning do little to mitigate as daily survival takes precedence over longer term environmental issues and general municipal disinterest.

Always a source of surprise, young Bonface (no relation) has motivated and created unexpected pockets of change and hope. Communal clean ups and joint strategies have seeded a new determination that small changes can have big impacts as Kibera residents pull together allowing environmental hope to birth longer term physical and mental health benefits.

Ever the optimist this young visionary is planning the planting of tree saplings in some of the cleared areas to improve air quality and quite literally “bringing life to the city”.

These writings are penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.

Dealing with menstrual poverty is rarely high on the to-do lists of those that are not affected by it. The reality is that it affects not just the individual, but it has a huge impact on female independence, social order, education and the local economy. Exclusion from education and work during menstruation, poor understanding, traditional culture and social stigma urgently need to be tackled if rudimentary sexual equality is ever to be achieved. To be fair a number of projects are making some good progress through education, self-help groups, and the manufacture of washable sanitary towels and the distribution of some subsidised sanitary products.

The introduction to the concept of mooncups in recent Kibera health care training caused quite a stir amongst the mixed sex attendees. Samples were passed around as excited and often heated conversations jarred with some obscure questioning. Hardly new in concept, the menstrual cup has experienced a renaissance in the UK as women look for eco-friendly and practical alternatives to the more common products. This compact silicone device sells for a few dollars, is washable and has a projected life expectancy of between 6-10 years.

Although not for everyone, for a small investment the impact could be huge. It has to be better than carrying woefully inadequate well-intended donated odd boxes of tampons in hand luggage.

These writings are penned whilst in the field working with our friends who live and work in Kibera and it is hoped that they bring insight, understanding and a provocation that the status-quo is unacceptable. Please feel free to unsubscribe or share as appropriate. Any opinions implied or expressed are my own and names may have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Dave Boniface.