John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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| 558. Few full-time jobs are available within the community itself, so those who wish to work walk long distances to find low paying jobs in industrial areas, the city centre and affluent neighborhoods. The average income here is 4500 Kenyan shillings a month, but average household expenses amount to 9000 shillings. One way to bridge the gap is to develop a small business locally. Ingenuity is the key to survival. The Kibera Youth Self Help Group here operates a car washing business, providing an income for young men who would otherwise be unemployed. This is one of the many youth groups involved in the river clean-up organized under the Mentoring Program financed by the Tweed Shire. |
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| 559. These same young men collect waste (for a fee) and earn money selling anything that can be recycled -- plastics for example, though NGOs here want to ban the plastic bags which choke rivers worldwide. The members of this group also meet regularly to consider local issues and plan campaigns against the spread of HIV/Aids, which is a big problem here. Some 80% of Kibera’s young people are unemployed: and the UN estimates that 35-45% of its entire population are either unemployed or underemployed. |
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| 560. This is just one example of the many informal “Jua Kali” (or “hot sun”) small-scale enterprises characteristic of peoples’ settlements. Most of them are operated by women, in roadside stalls selling foodstuffs, fuel for stoves, clothing, and recycled household items. This one offers sweet corn, millet, dry white corn and corn meal (for uji and ugali), kidney beans and green peas -- either shelled or in the pod. The tin-cans are the accepted standard measures used in sales. The small ones hold one kilogram, more or less, and the larger ones two. Both women in the picture are active members of the local self-help group. |
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| 561. Mama Elizabeth's cereal shop next door sold red beans, millet, and peanuts as well as flour. |
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| 562. These bananas, mangoes, oranges, guavas, avocados, onions, tomatoes, and spinach, will have been purchased in the city and transported to Kibera first by matatu and then in a sack on the woman's back. |
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| 563. Most of them will have come from this big market at Wakulima in Nairobi supplied by growers and/or transport companies. |
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| 564. In Kibera different types of business are not grouped together as they would be in rural markets. The stall in the foreground sells sweet corn, peas and a melon. That in the rear sells clothes. |
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| 565. In much the same way, the stall in front sells scarves and beads: the one in the middle ground sells second-hand shoes. And there's a bar in the rear ... selling Tusker and Pilsner brands but also local brews. It's quiet now but it will be crowded on Sunday with those who can afford to drink. The men in the foreground are both residents involved in the promotion of self-help activities. |
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| 566. Beer is moved here in crates on wheel-barrows (made in Kibera). The distributor's truck is too large for the road and is forced to unload outside the settlement. Its contents are then broken down into loads which a man can move with a barrow. He will be paid around 40 shillings for each trip he makes. |
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| 567. Individual businesses may also be diversified. This is a typical cafe in Kibera, at which people can buy a cup of chai and a snack. It is run by a single mother who also sells vegetables in competition with another greengrocer next door. They will both have purchased their supplies from the market in Nairobi. Besides tomatoes she sells kale and spinach (for 5 shillings a bunch ... hence the sign "5".) She also sells paraffin (note the funnel in the yellow bucket on the left). The bowls/containers hold water which she will use to wash her vegetables prior to sale. Because of the shortage of water it will be used repeatedly (in both the cafe and the shop) before it is discarded. |
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| 568. Charcoal sellers near Sam's home. They are friends of his, who purchase charcoal carted to Nairobi from rural areas and then retail it locally to families in their community. As in rural areas charcoal is the commonest fuel used in cooking, but it is much more expensive in town. In the absence of regular employment young people here have a lot of time on their hands but those whose spirit has not been broken by poverty leave no stone unturned in their quest for means of survival. |
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| 569. Recently, with the encouragement of Mentoring Program staff, young men have been recycling waste paper, tearing it into small pieces, soaking it in water to reduce it to pulp, and mixing it with a little charcoal. |
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| 570. This mixture is turned into briquettes with the help of a press, dried in the sun, and sold as another form of fuel for cooking and heating. |
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| 571. Motor vehicle repair centre -- "Jua Kali" ... the” Hot Sun Mechanics". Those rich enough to afford a car may still choose to have it repaired on the street by local mechanics who, of course, do repairs more cheaply than factories and licensed service stations. The only problem is that when they do an oil change here the oil goes into the river! |
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