Tuesday 10 May

More on young aspirations in Kibera

I bump into Ola whom I met on the tour on Sunday.  She’s a Polish girl living in London and currently doing research on slum tourism here in Nairobi.  She’s with Sandy whom I mentioned in my blog of Sunday 8 May, one of the guys who runs http://explorekibera.com.  Sandy is another impressive young guy.  He’s not only involved in the tour company but is also part of a community youth group in Kibera as well as an online media group called Voice of Kibera http://voiceofkibera.org.  I am still so intrigued about slum tourism and its relation to development that I ask him so many questions.   I’m not sure how it can help communities as a whole unless it’s designed in that way.  Guys like him are also trying to make a living so it’s understandable that all the profit of a business such as this should go into their own pockets.  However, that is not entirely the case.  Similar to Frank’s Kibera Tours, Sandy tells me that their tour includes introducing tourists to at least 3 development projects – these include the community youth group that he’s a part of, Voice of Kibera and the Kigulu HIV/AIDS orphanage.  Apart from this, they have also supported these groups with a little funding from the profits made from the slum tour.  Sandy has aspirations of his own too.  He has lived in Kibera for 7 years having come from upcountry.  For him it’s a journey.   He’s happy with where he lives but it’s not the end for him.  One day when he has a family of his own, he says he will be ready to move elsewhere.  For now, he’s pursuing his career and enjoying his work with Voice of Kibera and Explore Kibera.  He’s involved in media training through his involvement with Voice of Kibera.  

We talk about the level of poverty that exists in Kibera as well as the attitude among some of receiving free handouts from well wishers.  He is of the opinion that people should not get things for free but should realise that they are also capable of making a contribution however small.  I find him to be such an inspiration, even to me.  For the second time this week, I see Kibera as one big melting pot.  It is a community of people from all walks of life, with different upbringing, different education levels, different aspirations and even different reasons for living in the slum.  This is a big learning curve for me as like most people I tend to tag all slum residents with the same (often preconceived) brush.  Sandy, and Frank from the tour on Saturday, are really inspiring.   I think he would be such an inspiration to the local staff I work with and I invite him to visit us in the future.  

From young aspirations in Kibera to old leaders in Africa

Later in the news that evening, there is more on Libya – a few days ago Qaddafi’s son and grandchildren were killed in NATO air raids.  It’s a real shame and in as much as I think he’s another heartless dictator I still feel sorry for him – as far as justice goes does he really deserve to lose his family, in particular his grandchildren? But then again this would not have happened had he stepped down.  Also in Uganda, there is more on Museveni  using security forces to quell demonstrators and to clamp down on the opposition.  Nowhere cool in Africa (!)