STORIES OF KIBERA RESIDENTS

That place must have an identity, and its identity is in the name. To me Kibera is home, is urban, to me Kibera is rural, to me Kibera is town, it is slum, to me Kibera is opportunity, to me Kibera is a challenge.

Now you are entering Kibera, so you will not see what you see on TV or what you get to hear on newspaper, because you know they always say that good news is not that good, so you will read about negative stuff […] but for you to get first hand information, you always have to get it yourself. So it is to show you that you are entering a place with more vibrant, more colorfull, very happy people, very welcoming.

This is aerial view of the slum. I want you to have the view, so that you get to understand that rusty roofs do not translate to rusty minds, so when you start a day you will be able to see this rusty roofs, but when I take you inside you will have a different view.

This is the place that I call home, this is where I was born and raised, this is where I sleep, this is where I do most of the things.

This is my home area, it is in Laini Saba. W can see people having different kind of businesses, and also there are people who are fetching water, yes so that is what we can see, and the homes.

You know it is transition kind of thing, before the smartphones we used to use cyber cafes. We still use them for heavy downloading, because you cannot download every stuff on this, so you always find your way back to cyber cafes […] they are oldschool, buy you know, Old is gold, New is silver.

In Kenya we have our mobile phone to use as talking and also as wallet, so M-Pesa shop is where you can deposit your money to your phone and also receive or withdraw your money from your phone […] It is important because it is participating in reducing robbery, when you walk with cash in your pocket, it increases the robbery, when you have your cash in your phone it is hard to be robbed.

This is the church where I go to to this extent to get some spiritual satisfaction, interact with my members of the church, the pastor, reading the bible, singing with the choir, and generally talking about life in terms of spiritual point of view.

This is a small space within my compound, where if I need to meet my community we always gather here, we meet, we talk and we are having special events like meetings. If maybe people want to hold like funeral meetings or for contribution purposes, we can gather at this field and proceed with whatever we are having.

On the photo we have different variety of products, ranging from hard foods to the soft foods. These are common foods consumed by the people of Kibera because they are cheap and when you eat them they can stay for long time in your stomach without feeling hungry.

Chicken – you cannot afford it most of the time, but at least once a month we can buy a chicken, we change diet, children get happy.

Without this shop in Kibera you will be bushy. We have plenty of them because almost everyone is shaving, yeah, so there must be many. We do not shave at home, at home you have to buy your own machine, we do not care about having our own machine, we shave at the Barber, and we share it with thousand people.

When I go back home, my daughter has friends, they are the same age and they are going the same class, they were playing happily, talking… so I just forget about stress of the work because I find everybody was happy in the house.

It is railway line. It marks history of Kibera, because out of it there were people who settled in Kibera, some of them were Nubians, so this railway line is as old as Nairobi. And also in the morning people board train to go to work.

It is a walking nation, because we walk a lot… have you ever been to Kibera very early in the morning? Like at 6? Try and you will see why it is a walking nation, so people walk not because they cannot afford the transport but because they are trying to save a little bit, maybe there is something that they want to do in future, maybe the money you are earning is not enough so you always try to cut the budget.

People sell vegetables, bananas, so I'm saying – you cannot stay idle. If you have something in mind, you can do something, because you can create your own job, if you are not employed, like our lady there selling bananas.

This is the place where my mother used to work […] So my mum, when she was raising us up in Kibera she used to sell vegetables. When I go there I remember where my mother she has brought us up.

There was a workshop I went and we were told if you want to move on with your life and if something is not bringing enough money for you – you have to look for another job, so that you can feel up your tank or your needs.

The net photo is trash in the slum, this trash contain different material in it, we have plastic bags which later are collected by woman groups who put them in the bags which our women use, the same trash also have different small pieces of bones which we collect and recycle and use them to get money.

Another photo is a nice view of Kibera slums. This photo is important because it has two different lifestyles, the first lifestyle is chocolate roofs of the slum, when you are staying inside these houses you are more motivated. When you are looking the other side of the view so you can stay inside those bad houses but you are having motivation or vision to move from these houses to nicer houses.

This are books and they are very significant in my life, I want to live in a slum but I am knowledgeable, I have read wide so I have a wide view.

This is my primary school where I started my journey for searching education and knowledge.

I am living in a slum and I am a graduate, I have a degree, that does not make me special but I am living in a slum, so this means a lot.

I was in London, not just in London, in one of most prestigious Universities called London School of Economics and Political Science, where I got a training three weeks, and that training was worth 2 millions, so when I see this cup I remember somebody invested 2 million in my head.

This is called Lucas Palace. This is my palace, number 3, not number 1, number 2 or number 5 but number 3, beautifull palace, so I was staying in this wooden house for over 30 years […] When time comes, I will move from Nairobi, because when I get old, I will not die here, I will, I pray god, I will die in my home area… yeah that’s my palace in Kibera, the wooden house.

At the end of the day you have to go back to your upcountry this is the bus which takes you back home.