Nairobi

Nairobi's Slum Film Festival

Although the Kenyan government does little to encourage film production in the country, a number of NGOs and trusts focus on putting film equipment in the hands of slum dwellers and helping them gain the skills necessary to tell their own stories. Organizations like the Hot Sun Foundation, Slum-TV, and Invisible Cities have trained and nurtured talented youth from Kibera, Mathare, and Korogocho over the years, giving them the opportunity to develop their potential and, through their images, to challenge the accepted vision of what life is like in the slums. Learn more.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Fri, 10/05/2012 - 01:00

Using Kenya's Constitution to defend slum dwellers

Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a Kenyan partner of the Slum Dwellers International network, is battling it out in court to protect the residents of Mukuru kwa Reuben slum from being evicted from land they have occupied for more than thirty years. In a landmark court case, a legal team representing Muungano is attempting to sue a series of high-profile politicians — including the ex-president, a presidential aspirant, and prominent entrepreneurs — on behalf of the community. If successful, the case will be one of the first to effectively use the new constitution as backing for a community's land claims. Read and discuss.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Tue, 09/25/2012 - 01:00

M-Pesa: social enterprise and mobile banking for the urban poor

M-PESA, a mobile phone money transfer system that has been operating in Kenya since 2007, allows users to easily deposit, transfer, and withdraw money using a mobile device using SMS technology. Initially set up as a micro-finance service to allow borrowers to easily receive and repay loans, M-PESA quickly morphed into the main 'urban banking' system for Kenya's poor — who have no access to Kenya's mainstream banks — as the only requirements for registration are an ID card and a mobile phone. It is now normal to find M-PESA outlets in even the most remote places, including the Maasai villages in the Mara or in the Samburu communities around Lake Turkana. Read more.

Submitted by Nairobi — Fri, 09/21/2012 - 01:00

Nairobi's Mukuru Recycling Centre

The Mukuru Recycling Centre (MRC), in operation since 1991, is run by a cooperative based in Korogocho, an East Nairobi informal settlement that borders on the Dandora dumpsite. The Centre is composed by four groups of waste-pickers, whose livelihoods are all inextricably connected to the nearby dumpsite. The aim is not only to create economic opportunities for Korogocho residents, but also to help in the rehabilitation of scavengers — who, having spent their entire lives working knee-deep in garbage, have little sense of self-worth, nor prospects for a better future. Read and discuss.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Mon, 08/27/2012 - 01:00

Shining Hope for Communities: Kibera's first free school for girls

The Kibera School for Girls, situated in the heart of Nairobi's largest informal settlement, was founded in 2009 by Kibera-born Kennedy Odede to address what he saw as a fundamental gender imbalance between the opportunities available to boys growing up in the slums and those available to girls. "I could not stay silent while I saw such wasted potential," says Odede. "This is why I decided to found Shining Hope for Communities — because I felt that by tackling women's problems, I would also help to address poverty in the slums in a more effective way." Read and discuss.

Submitted by Nairobi — Sun, 08/19/2012 - 01:00

Mathare resident Miriam Ombiwa: Fetching water in a Nairobi slum

Miriam Ombiwa is a 26-year-old Mathare resident who makes a living by working in a small laundry in Eastleigh, a neighborhood close to Mathare. Miriam lives in a single-room shack with her husband and three children. The shack has mud walls and floors and a mabati (corrugated iron) roof. Miriam took some time to describe to us her daily routine and how she deals with the lack of access to water that is a standard feature of life in a Nairobi slum. Learn more.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Sun, 08/05/2012 - 01:00

M-chanjo: Saving lives by mixing health care with mobile technology

Getting medical information can be a challenging process for impoverished people with neither computer access nor efficient national health care. To help solve this puzzle, clinics are trying to harness their limited resources to build a technology to tackle the problem. In Nairobi, a pilot project was launched, first in an informal settlement in Dagoretti constituency, and more recently in Kibera. The project's name is M-chanjo, and its aim is to harness the power of mobile phones — ownership of which has increased tenfold over the last ten years in Kenya — to keep patients up to date on their upcoming inoculations and on any outreach programs that are due to take place in the area. Learn more.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Sun, 07/29/2012 - 01:00

Participatory urban design in policy and practice: interview with Dr. Alex Frediani

The Development Planning Unity (DPU) — a center for academic teaching, practical training, research and consultancy in the field of urban development — takes a different approach to closing the gap between research and practice. In a recent series of workshops in Salvador da Bahia in Brazil and Mathare slum in Nairobi, the DPU joined NGO Architecture sans Frontières UK to create environments where communities could imagine and articulate their ideal living arrangements, then translate this ideal into action through negotiations with local government. Dr. Alex Frediani, DPU lecturer and Change by Design program coordinator, spoke with us about the project's implications for policy and practice. Read more.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Sat, 07/21/2012 - 01:00

Kenya Vision 2030: Slum upgrading in Soweto

Kenya Vision 2030, a Kenyan government plan based on the Millennium Declaration development targets, pledges to improve the quality of life for all Kenyans, including residents of Nairobi's slums. To implement it, the government partnered with UN-HABITAT to create the Kenya Slum Upgrading Program, whose flagship project was launched in Kibera's Soweto village. But despite its noble goals — secure tenure, improved housing, enhanced income and infrastructure — there was a problem: fully half of its intended beneficiaries wound up being priced out of the project. What went wrong? Read more.

Submitted by Katy Fentress — Tue, 07/17/2012 - 01:00

Agent banking: easier access to financial services for Nairobi's poor

The absence of financial institutions in Nairobi's slums presents serious obstacles to residents seeking access to financial services. But in places like Kibera, the introduction of agent banking — an innovative delivery channel that seeks to bring financial services much closer to poor people — presents a promising step forward. Read more.