Wilson Youth Group, one of Undugu’s many Street Associations. They got their name because they live close to Wilson Airport. The members are all homeless without so much as a semi-permanent shelter. They live on the street, they work on the street.

Wilson Youth Group posing next the the dump site by Wilson Airport.

Wilson Youth Group posing next the the dump site by Wilson Airport.

They have a constitution, and they have a dog. However, they cannot register with the government because they don’t have IDs. If you don’t have an ID, it is assumed you are a child, and a child cannot register an organization.

To earn money they dig through the trash which is brought from Wilson Airport and dumped next to their base. When the garbage is being delivered, people line the walls of the dump site, and as soon as the bags hit the ground each individual starts pulling as much trash towards himself as possible. They compete for the most garbage. They can sell almost everything they find: plastic, paper, glass, empty printer cartridges, bones, soles of shoes…

Unfortunately it has been several weeks since Wilson Airport has dropped off any trash. And if there is no garbage, then they can’t make any money, and they can’t eat. They can’t go to Wilson Airport to pick up garbage themselves or they will be arrested for trespassing (they’ve tried this before). They are barely able to scrape by making less than 100 shillings in two days ($1.30).

They sleep where they can, under what they call “papers” (plastic sheets), old boxes and newspapers. When it rains they do their best to cover up, they acted this out for me to illustrate how even if they cover up when they wake up in the morning at least one side of their body is completely wet.

They took turns showing me where they sleep at night.

They took turns showing me where they sleep at night.

Perhaps the biggest problem they face is police harassment. When the police find them just laying around outside (trying to sleep) they are often beaten or arrested… “for being idle.” Recently 10 members of Wilson Youth Group were arrested. They were at a nearby pub when the police arrived and arrested everyone inside:men, women, and children. They were accused of being drunk and disorderly.

They explained that “if you’ve got a little something for the police then it’s OK, but if you have nothing in your pockets…”

They were all sentenced to two weeks in prison or to pay a fine of 500 shillings a piece, which none of them had. If Undugu learns about the arrest of anyone involved in a Street Association, they will go to court and advocate on that person’s behalf. Unfortunately, in this case it all happened too quickly and no one called Undugu. So all 10 spent two weeks in prison.

Mambo, talking about his recent experience in prison.

Mambo, talking about his recent experience in prison.

Here is what I learnt about Kenyan prisons. They are extremely overcrowded with about 150 people in a 10m by 6 m room. They have to sleep like “firewood” (or sardines). If one person rolls over, then everyone has to as well. For breakfast they get a cup of watery porridge, for lunch a small handful of ugali and some greenish water with a leaf of skuma wiki floating around. There is a little shop inside the prison, if one has money they can buy more food. Good luck to the individual who is seen with money in prison. Apparently, young teenage boys can be found in the same prison as grown men. If a child is arrested by themselves they are taken to a juvenile facility; however, if they are arrested in a group with older guys then they are treated like the older ones.

Of course it is dangerous to be young and small in such a situation. A DSP participant told me that when he was in prison when he was 12 years old the older men would take his food, his blanket, his shoes, his clothing…and of course the young boys were beaten.

We have recently experienced a string of fires in Nairobi. Fires are not uncommon; however, in the eight weeks I have only seen two, both of which occurred in this past week. This post will contain mostly photos with a bit of text to explain what happened.

The first fire occurred last Monday night in Westlands right next to the Undugu office. We are experiencing electricity rationing in Nairobi; Monday nights we have no electricity in Westlands. The next day as Barbara and I were approaching the office with Iain Guest, the director of the Advocacy Project, we noticed smoke. As we approached the intersection next to the office we saw that the entire market had burnt down.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

The market was an informal settlement composed of aluminum shacks. I assumed that during the power outage, someone had accidentally knocked over an oil lamp; however, it now seems far more likely that the City Council burnt it down.  Westlands is considered far too nice a neighborhood to have such a market. Apparently, the slum/market area close to a friends office was bulldozed that same week by the City Council.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Barbara Dziedzic, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

In any case, the market is gone. Tuesday and Wednesday people stood around where their shops used to be, unsure what to do. Since then they have started rebuilding, but it is only a mater of time until the market is destroyed again.

The next day, Wednesday, we were in Kibera, taking Iain around to meet some of the Street Associations in the area when we stumbled upon a crowd. Kibera is experiencing the brunt of the electricity shortages, they only have power a couple days a week. Wednesday there was no power. Somehow a fire started in someones home, and it quickly spread to the adjoining houses. We are not sure how the fire started, but this time it is far more likely that the cause can be attributed to the power outage.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

A fire in Kibera, or any slum for that matter, is a huge problem because the houses are built practically on top of each other. If one house were to catch fire, hundred of homes could be destroyed. For this reason people living or working around the houses on fire quickly emptied their homes of all their belongings.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

To prevent the fire from spreading, the houses next to the ones on fire are torn down.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Here you can see men on top of the houses that were on fire, beating down the the walls to smother the flames.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Women stood with all their belongings which were emptied from their homes.

No fire trucks showed up, and even if they had there was no where to pump water from. Instead, people passed buckets of water to try to tame the flames.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya is currently experiencing a major drought. Not only is electricity being rationed, but so is water. We were very worried that they might run out of water before putting out the fire.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Children watched from a nearby balcony.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

The crowd was huge. People watched, helplessly. There was nothing we could do to help.

Photo by Alixa Sharkey, 2009 AP Fellow. AP Partner: Undugu Society of Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya.

Seeing these fires reinforced in my mind just how vulnerable people are in the slums. The lack of government services in the slums is shocking. In the end this community was about to get the fire under control and eventually put it out; however, it could easily have been much worse.