Safari Notes

What a surprise! What a shock! The most talked and most researched slum in the world: Kibera , does not have a population of 1 million as always suggested and believed. In fact, Kibera does not have half of that many people; and not even a quarter of that. The 2009 Kenyan census puts Kibera’s population at only 170,070. A few quotes on what has been said about Kibera's incredible population census results: It is now official: Kibera is not the biggest slum in Africa. The 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census shows that one of the world's most famous slums houses just 170,070 residents, not one million, as previously believed.......While many may dispute these figures, I find it highly unlikely that the margin of error in the census was so huge that the population of a settlement dropped dramatically to one-fifth of its previous estimate in just a few years - unless the drop can be explained by a natural disaster or epidemic.......The more likely scenario is that, in the...

Rarely do I read any thing about Kibera, as encouraging and elating as this article from The Standard . Here are some excerpts: Having a kitchen garden in the city is a preserve of residents in leafy suburbs. But what previously could only be a fantasy for slum dwellers has become a reality for Ms Mariam Abdala, a Kibera resident. This is how it works: Seedlings are planted on the sides of earth-filled sacks that are placed besides doorsteps, on verandas or even rooftops. One bag can support up to 30 seedlings. Many families in Kibera have adopted this mode of farming, perhaps setting precedent for a green revolution in Africa. The ‘hanging gardens’ of Kibera account for several acres of land. Residents refer to them as gunia gardens. And just like Israel’s agricultural magic, residents are zealously turning the slum green. At a time when food prices have soared, many residents in the largest slums in Africa can harvest vegetables at their doorsteps. Even schools have picked up the ide...

After what happened last year after the elections , and considering the very difficult conditions that people in Kibera live in - there's some good news: Kenyan designers have built a cooker that uses the trash as fuel to feed the poor, provide hot water and destroy toxic waste, as well as curbing the destruction of woodlands. In another part of Kibera, a group of 35 youths have developed a farm on a former rubbish dump, feeding themselves and selling cucumbers, pumpkins and tomatoes. Read more about the cooker here , here , here ; and about the farm on the rubbish dump here , here and here .

Kibera, the 2.5 square kilometers of densely populated Nairobi slum has some good things going: a group there has figured out a fast, efficient way to convert piles of trash into compost — and to convert areas that were once trash heaps into instant organic farms using just recycled PVC piping and other easily-accessible materials . Read more here about how the face of Kibera is beginning to change as fresh vegetables spring up where trash once lay rotting.

Early this year, during the aftermath of the general elections - Kenya witnessed the worse violence since independence from Britain , in its urban streets and rural areas. No where else was that violence and carnage as horrifying as in Nairobi; in Kibera slum, in particular. It's in Kibera, a slum of almost a million people, where neighbors and friends brutally turned against each other: looting, killing and raping; even old women and small children - boys and girls - were raped. That brutality and savagery had very little to do with the elections or tribalism; it had much to do with the economy . Years of economic deprivation and marginalization, had been grooming the seething hatred and anger in the people of Kibera; especially in the youths. Any one living in such deplorable, inhuman conditions as those in Kibera, would surely be angry and hate; angry at and hateful of those and any thing perceived as being, or seems associated, with the cause of the very difficult conditions i...

Anonymous said... Slum Tours :Go to cape town, Shanty town tours is the in thing,Go to joburg, Soweto slum tours is the order of the day.Go to brazil, slum tours is scheduled daily. In pro poor tourism, the net benefit goes to the poverty alleviation of the Poor in the area visited. What is this husle with James Asudi of victoria safaris introducing a new thing in Kenya. Bravo Asudi, You need a Reward for this effort.In 2006, 56 billion K.shs. came in through Tourism , How much went to alleviating poverty in kibera and other slums in kenya. Critics who have no knowlege of Pro poor tourism should shut up and go for a tour with the only Tour Operator in kenya - Victoria safaris, who considers the plight of the poor in the slums. I received this, above anonymous comment as a response to a comment I made at being sad and considering it cruel, of tourists visiting slums. I am not a critic nor a critique of tourists visiting slums; I do believe that - whatever is done by any one or organisat...

It is in Kenya and yet it isn't a part of it; it is within Nairobi and yet it is without . Is it autonomous? Is it an island in Nairobi? No. It is Kibera ! Forsaken, neglected and forgotten Kibera. Forsaken, neglected and forgotten by those in power; by the government, the local Nairobi city authority and those who decide. Kibera - is the 2.5 square kilometers home, to half a million to seven hundred thousand Nairobians; more than a quarter of Nairobi's population. No one knows for sure how many people live in Kibera; population density is estimated at 3,000 people per hectare -- 750,000 people in one square mile -- or no more than 37 square feet per person. It is one of the most crowded places on earth. 'Six hundred acres of mud and filth, with a brown stream dribbling through the middle.' This is 'Africa's largest slum'. Kibera has no proper infrastructure; no proper piped running water or electricity supply; and no drainage or sewage system. Now. This -...