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Showing posts from July, 2014

A ‘tap and go’ revolution in Kibera

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I n Ke n ya, there are appr o xim a tely 2.5 million people residing in the count r y ’ s 200 settlements . Kibera – mo s t famous among these s e t tlements – is home to almo s t 1 million people, making it one the bi g g e s t of slums in Africa. Ap p a r entl y , Kibe r a ’ s r esidents sha r e 600 t oil e ts, m e aning that on ave r a g e, one t oil e t se r ves 1,300 people. This has seen many r esidents opt f or other m e ans of sani t ation including use of what has be c ome known as ‘ flying t oil e ts’ and putting most peopl e ’ s h e alth at a ris k . This has seen many non- g overnmen t al o r g ani z ations (NGOs) t r ooping t o the a r e a t o d e velop solutions t o this p r oblem. Among these is Umande T rus t , an NGO b ased in Kibe r a that has d e veloped over 25 bi o - c ent r es ac r oss Nai r obi and about 10 bi o - c ent r es ac r oss Kibe r a t o

The Saba Saba Peace Experience

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Youth in Kibera discussing the importance of keeping peace . In one of the most notable community outreaches done by the community members themselves, Umande Trust witnessed one of the rare moments last week when community members reached out and demanded a peace consultation meeting as a mitigation measure to peace threats that were already witnessed due to heightened political temperatures preceding the opposition rally. The community members from Kibera, Mukuru, Korogocho and Mathare had concerns that the peace gains made during the period preceding the 2013 elections were under a serious threat following the demands of the opposition to force an adamant government to national dialogue on issues affecting the nation. By the time the community members were coming together under one network, the social media was awash with what can simply turn out to be misleading and very dangerous posts. The Kenyan youth, who are majorly the greatest users of the social media, had gone vira