Save the environment, save the world! : People of Kibera, wake up!

To enhance sustainable development, we need to understand three major pillars. These pillars include: political pillar, social-economical pillar and environmental pillar. However, understanding millennium development goals is crucial and something every Humanitarian Organization should understand. Many organizations working in Kibera pay no much attention to these factors as they are only attracted by the fame of Kibera since it was dubbed '' the largest slum in the world'' and the slum of ''Constant Gardener.''As an expert in Environmental and community development, I have come to understand that Kibera Slum has over 150,000 international humanitarian aid organizations. A number which is more or less the number of people living in Kibera Slum, leaving me wondering why people are still poor in Kibera slum. The government of Kenya also built better houses with better sewers and drainage system for the residents of Kibera with an aim of demolishing Kibera slum and curbing the proliferation of slums in Nairobi but what happened? It's simple: the residents of Kibera decided to rent out their nice well-built houses and pocket the money. Many international organizations have directed all their resources and efforts to Kibera but the question is: do they really do a research to understand what is going on around the slum? or they are just attracted by the name Kibera, the biggest slum in the world? In Kenya, and especially in Nairobi, we have over 100 big slums but many NGO's don't pay any attention to those slums, except for the Kibera slum. In the recent past, we have been given different figures explaining the population of kibera slum by different international and local organization all aimed at raising funds. According to the Guardian newspaper (August 2012), "Google research finds page after page of estimates in or around the same ball-park. The White House reckon it's "just about 1.5 million", while the BBC claims 700,000. Jambo Volunteers say "more than one million." The rather sickly-sounding Global Angels reckon "around 1 million." The Kibera Tours website describes "a population estimated at one million." The Kibera Law Centre gives "almost 1 million." Shining Hope for Communities reckon that Kibera "houses 1.5 million people". The Kibera Foundation talks about "a population of almost a million people," as well as Kibera UK and about a hundred other sites you can find through your friendly neighbourhood search engine." While in fact, says the same journalist: "a census by the Kenyan government found only 170,000 residents, a count probably not much higher than the number of NGOs that have swarmed into the area. It isn't easy counting the transient population of an informal settlement, and of course the government don't have a fantastic record on Kibera – if they did, it wouldn't exist – but their figures fit reasonably well with those produced by others. The Map Kibera Project used sampling to produce an estimate of 235,000-270,000, while KeyObs deployed the cold, hard gaze of a satellite to produce an estimate of around 200,000. These more accurate figures have suffered the fate that tends to befall most inconvenient truths; they have been widely ignored."

Kibera slum

The idea that Kibera holds a million people is completely and utterly absurd. The population myth about Kibera slum is a concept from the western world due to the high number of tourists who visit Kibera every year as if it were a tourist attraction site. As a result, people from Kibera have taken advantage of situation and now nobody wants to go out of the slum due to the benefits gained from tourists. Some of them will even charge you to take pictures and now they have formed gangs of youths who will not spare anyone who disobey the rules of the game. In public schools, where school fees should not be charged, foreigners are charged in case they are willing to help children to go back to school. They are given a special price dubbed ''MUZUNGU PRICE'' meaning special price for the white people. Personally I have reported a case of corruption in Olympic primary school where a foreign friend was being charged 14,000 a year to take a child to Public school. Few days later, after filing the complaint, my friend was sent away from Kibera slum since she was no longer needed after finding out she was being cheated. In case you are not aware, there are no fees for public primary school in Kenya except for private school. cheating might sounds so sad to you but to them, it's their ''right''. My biggest concern goes to the children living in Kibera slum, since they are now the ones to suffer from the mistakes made by their parents. I believe strongly that every child has a right to have a better life and no child deserves to live in such deplorable conditions. Every child has the right to food, school, better healthcare and security, but this is not the case for Kibera slum. Some of the parents in Kibera slum have chosen drugs and money at the expense of their own children, leaving me wondering what is the future for this country. Children are being raped, others are dropping out of school and some are using drugs but their parents have closed their eyes and turned their back on them. The only thing they think is how to make money to buy drugs from various NGO working in Kibera. USAID and Doctors Without Borders have given free life-saving medicine to children and parents suffering from HIV and AIDS, but what do parents do with those drugs? They sell them to people making cheap liquor in the slum.... Yes! ARVs are used to make cheap liquor in Kenya! As a result, parents leave their own children with no other choice but to helplessly wait for their death... What a big shame that animals are taking care of their offspring better than human beings!

Children suffering in Kibera...

To cut the long story short, international and local organizations should really think of a better strategy of helping people in Kibera slum. Teach them how to fish but not giving them fish, only the children should be given food in their respective school in form of feeding programs, since they are innocent, as well as to encourage them go to school. Parents, on the other hand, should not be given money as many organizations have been doing. Instead teach them how to make money and how to be responsible for their children. Capacity building will be of greater importance to them, since giving food only will make them lazy and might result to Africa only depending on donors, while what we need most is to be well informed. I believe some of the action from these people are out of pure ignorance. As an environmentalist and community development expert, I can assure you that unless children get education, we improve living standards, curb poverty and hunger in a professional manner, we will never have any sort of sustainability may it be environmental or in terms of development. Money from the donor is not aimed for individual pocketing but for the community. I wish the few rotten-minded people of Kibera, who are making it difficult for the good people living in Kibera and the NGOs who are trying to help them, can realize this while it's still early to save the country from shame in the near future.

Kibera you already have enough funds of donors: please make good use of it and develop yourselves! We have slums like Kitui Ndogo in Majengo slum and they only have one NGO working there called ADDHU... Yet those people are ready to receive and make good use of the help given to them. To some extent, they work together with ADDHU and even help in paying the teacher's and cook's salaries. They are responsible! They care about the future of their children! Being poor is not an excuse to be lazy or careless, especially to your own children. Parents in Kitui Ndogo wake up every morning, wash their kids, dress them and send them to school without expecting anything in return. Then they go to work, so that their kids can at least get some dinner when they get home from school... Kibera, do you have to be paid to take your own children to school? Without the help from you, Kibera, poverty will continue striking, children will continue being raped, they will drop out of school, drugs lords will continue getting richer from you and the country will never develop.