Ghetto Mirror issue 21

Ghetto Mirror

Politics: Aspirant declares his intention of running for the Kibra seat in 2017

Pg 3

Business: The urge of indepen-dency drives man to open his own shop

Pg 7

ISSUE 21 Ghetto Mirror [email protected]

Real life stories from slumsSeptember 2015

SHOFCO Urban Network (SUN) Launches a movement for urban poor

SUN LaunchedSHOFCO launches a movement that seeks to empower urban poor through the provision of a funeral welfare, SACCO, promotion of peace and unity, and enhancing leadership and governance. >>> Story Pg 5

Ghetto Mirror | 2 ISSUE 21SEPTEMBER 2015

TALKING POINT We welcome letters on topical issues on the stories we publish and comments on [email protected]. You can also drop them in our offices at Gatwikira near PAG Church.

Residents’ Movement Launched Firewood increasing rate of deforestation

Wood fuel is and continues to be one of the most relied-on sources of domestic energy for most rural poor populations today. In Kenya, the use of firewood spreads beyond rural ar-

eas, with huge populations of city dwellers also using this dwindling resource. This is especially the case in Nairobi, where there is a huge popu-

lation of urban poor living in at least 8 major slums across the city. Since charcoal, which is the main source of cooking energy in Ken-

ya, is becoming more expensive, a lot of urban poor are opting for fire-wood, which is much cheaper than most other forms of cooking fuels.

As poor urban residents continue to use both wood and charcoal, [among many other stakeholders who use wood in dozens of ways] they increase the rate at which we are depleting our forests, negatively affecting the environment.

According to the 2013 State of Africa Report, Kenya is left with about 2% of its forest cover. This number continues to de-crease the more people go into forests on a daily basis and cut down trees at an alarming rate. It is understandable that for many peo-ple, this is the only way they can survive, the only way they can cook.

This is why the Kenyan government, and other govern-ments around the world should start taking this issue more se-riously. In Kenya’s Vission 2030, there is no policy for how we are going to deal with predicament of less than 1% forest cover.

The whole country will suffer from having no wood to build with, no forests to protect our air, to shelter our wild life, to bal-ance our water-cycles among many other uses that directly affect.

It is time that people realize that we need to care about our for-ests and our overall environment, because if we do not, it will be the death of the next generation, of our children and our grandchildren.

A publication of Shining Hope For Communities

Editor

Liz Mahiri

Illustrations Dennis Mwanzia

Contributors

Kevin Ochieng’, Jared Kefa, Vincent Baraza, Dorothy Orinah, Faith Museve, Felix Otieno, Joseph Kinyua, Brian Okinda, Silvester Olu-

och, Eunice Otieno & Winnie Otieno

Technical Assistance Albanous Gituru

E-mail: [email protected]

You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice

Quote of the month

Bob Marley The current fight against alcoholism and illicit brews will serve as a re-

lief to Kibera slum residents who have been severely hit by the high supply of the second generation drinks.

The campaign, which was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta, is aimed at curbing il-licit brews that have in the re-cent past claimed a number of lives, a lot of whom are youth.

Most of the busaa dens have been shut down, a move that many residents see as a step in the right di-rection towards curbing the menace.

In Kibera, it is very common to see men and women drinking in the dens where they share busaa and chang’a [home-made alcohol] tins.

Walk by any of these dens in the wee hours of the morning and you are guaranteed to find some in-dividuals drunk before the sun has risen and some more getting there, a grim testament of the strong grip alcohol and alcoholism has in Kib-era and other slums around Kenya.

Despite the force with which the government has used to crack down on this old vice, many resi-dents are worried that the ongoing

campaign is yet another short term solution to a huge societal problem.

“This will go on just for a bit then you won’t see the government around here anymore. The gov-ernment always comes with a lot of energy and enforces its short-lived laws then everything goes back to normal,” said one resident.

Throughout the crackdown, the campaign enforcers continued to pour out large amounts of alcohol wherever it could be found, whether or not the businesses were registered.

Peter Obonyo, a Kibera resi-dent, believes that this tactic works, he says, “This time around, I think that the government is really serious in its fight against alcoholism. They have poured a lot of chang’aa and busaa since the beginning of the initiative and now the owners of these businesses will have to think of another way of making money.”

The campaign also receives positive reception from parents who have raised alarm over the large number of youth, a lot of them prima-ry and secondary school aged, who indulge in drinking and other drugs.

A teacher from a school with-in the slum says, “The statistics

are shocking, students are actively involved in drinking and smok-ing bhang here in Kibera. Yet we avoid addressing such a lethal is-sue due to fear”. She added, “But my concern is over these kids’ fu-ture, if this behavior keeps going on, their future is compromised.”

Although most of the well-known selling joints are closed, there has been a rise in the sales of wine and spirits.

In fact , a lot of residents say that there is still a lot of cheap and eas-ily available alcohol in the market.

While a quick inspection of Kibera might give the impression that the campaign has done its job, a big number of drunkards are still walking the streets of the slum, which then begs the question is the crack-down really working , and is it really the right strategy to use in fighting heavy alcoholism and illicit alcohol?

Vincent Baraza

Is war on illicit-brew really working?

Photo | Google images

Ghetto Mirror | 3ISSUE 21SEPTEMBER 2015

By Andy Wanga

You won Groove Award’s new artist last year and you were also the male artist of the year. How did you achieve your succesees?I have grown a lot in my passion and career in music. My vocals are stronger, my lyrics are mature. I am carrying myself around with better poise and style. Also, my fans really inspire me to write songs that are relevant and that will hit.

My songs usually have a meaning and a message, I don’t just sing for the sake of it, I’m also aiming at touching people’s lives.

A lot of people, especially your fans, talk about your past. Can you tell us a little bit of your life story?People may think that I talk about my life as an orphan, that my mom was a sick, single mother before she died, that I was born in Mathare, that I was a beggar, to seek their pity.

But’s that’s not case. I tell these sto-ries because they are what inspires and drives me to do what I do. Before my mom died, she would encourage me a lot.

Unfortunately, she died when I was 5 after which I was taken to Mathare Children Home. This is where I wrote my first song, “Mama”. When I recorded it and my fans

liked it, that’s when I started to hit.

The song ‘Machozi’ is about Ken-yan slums, why did you choose to write it? Unfortunately for many people, I have never been ashamed of where I come from.

“Machozi” was a sort of narration of my life story. The video was shot in Mathare slum where I grew up.

The children in the video are also from Mathare who show how real life is like there, with torn clothes and having to sometimes go with-out food

The song is also supposed to en-courage slum dwellers, especially kids, that they can get out of that situation if they work hard.

For the past couple of months, there have been rumours that you have beef with Willy Paul. Is this true?No, Willy Paul is like a brother to me. There are lots of people out there who make up their own stories and spread them on social media.

Willy Paul is my best friend, some-times we go to shows together and perform together.

You have money now, what do you spend it on?I have been saving for a major project that will change the lives of orphans and needy people in

Eastlands and other slums.

I am planning on opening it up next year in July, where children will have access to in-house talent academy and where I will also be able to nature some talents too.

It has been said that you want to make a colabo with Diamond.No, I am a gospel musician. I sometimes listen to Diamond’s songs and we meet sometimes.

But I am not planning on a cola-bo with Diamond, I will remain a gospel musician.

I am sure that the Groove Awards have lifted you up and ushered in a bright future for you?Yes, Groove Awards helped me become nominated to the Afrima Awards, a Texas-based competition and I was the second runner up.

I really thank my fans for thier support.

Bahati, a word of encourange-ment to your fans and tell us where you will be in 5 years time.I will still remain friends with God and to my fans I advise them that discipline, hard work, determina-tion, respect and dignity are the keys to success.

Don’t be idle. Growing up in the slums does not mean that that is where your life is and where you fate is. No, no, many people have achieved a lot through the slums.

The race for Kibra Constituency begins

one on oneBahati

By Jared Kefa

The Amani National Congress Party (ANC) seems to be gaining

popularity in Kibera constituency af-ter Robert Kiberenge declared to vie for the constituency parliamentary seat in the general elections in 2017.

Speaking at a fundraising even-tat ToiPentacostal Assembly of God (PAG) church in Woodley Wardon

On August 16, Kiber-enge said he is prepared to vie for the seat in the coming elec-tion under the ANC ticket.

In his speech, he criticized the current MP, Kenneth Okoth, for not fulfilling the promis-es he made during his campaign

in the last general elections. Kiberenge said, “We were

promised heaven, but today we are getting hell.” “We can’t even reach our area MP, it has become so hard, it’s like you’re mak-ing an appointment in heaven to meet Jesus Christ,” he added.

In addition to announcing his intention to run, Kiberenge vowed to initiate an awareness campaign in churches throughout Kibera in an effort to ensure that every resident has a national ID before the coming general elec-tions so they can register as voters and help to bring a change in the leadership of Kibera Constituency.

The campaign’s mission is to en-courage all youth and women above 18 years to apply for the ID so as to be eligible to vote for him in 2017.

At the moment, Kiberenge is the only candidate from the Luhya Community who has shown inter-est in running for the MP position.

If elected in the 2017 general election, he will be the first Kibera MP who is actually from Kibera.

Kiberenge seems to be heavi-ly relying on the Luhya community in Kibera to help him win the run-ning as he urged the all Luhyas to register so as to be eligible to take partin the 2017 electionsas voters.

He pleaded to his fellow Luhyas to join together in orderto build a strong Luhya Unity in Kibera.

He also said that most Luhya women and youth do not own ID cards, something that prevents them from participating in elec-tions. “Most of our people, es-pecially married Luhya wome-

nand youth, have no ID cards.” He challenged husbands to

make sure that their wives obtain ID cards saying,“We husbands should be the main campaigners in their home so that this time round a luhya takes over leadership,” said Kiberenge.

To the rest of the Kibera com-munity, Kiberenge said the time has come for Kibera residents to elect someone from Kibera slum, not those who come from outside Kibera.

“It’s time for Kibera residents to struggle for their power if they want their problems to be solved,” he said.

“We have been cheated for a long time and for many years, when others get into power, they forget about our problems and in-stead goback to their homes in Kileleshwa and Runda,” he added.

Kiberenge told resi-

dents that he is organizing for abig rally in early September.

The rally will be held at DC grounds as he officially launches his move for the seat and where he will start his road show as well as his campaign for awareness of the im-portance of registering for ID cards. The slogan for the ID campaign will be “My ID, My Life, My Vote”.

Westland’s MP, Tim Wanyonyi and Kakamega Senator, Bony Khal-wale are expected to be in the rally among other strong luhya leaders.

Kiberenge also said that he is looking forward for ANC par-ty leader,MusaliaMudavadi, to attend the road show and Rally.

Mudavadi is expect-ed to tour Lang’ata and Kib-era before arriving at the event.

Politics Aspirant declareshis early candidacy for Kibra seat.

His story is one of growing up a poor orphan in Mathare

slums but overcoming his misfortunes to

become a gospel musi-cian who inspires many with his popular songs. Ghetto Mirror reporter,

Andy Wanga, caught up with him for this

month’s One on One.


We dedicate this month’s Pic Speakto the SHOFCO Urban Network launch.Pic Speak

The SHOFCO URBAN NETWORK (SUN) Launch started with performances by local artists. This acro-batic group called Kibera Messengers impressed the crowd with their gravity defying moves.

Photo | Adan Ibrahim

Britich High Commissioner, Dr. Christian Turner (left) stands with U.S. Ambassador Robert F. Godec (Middle) and SHOFCO founder Kennedy Odede at the launch of SHOFCO Urban Network.


Britich High Commissioner, Dr. Christian Turner (left) dances with SHOFCO founder Kennedy Odede during Lady Maureen’s performance at the SUN Launch.

Photo | Liz Mahiri

Kennedy Odede speaks to the crowd, reminding them that SHOFCO started with a football team and eventually grew to become a movement for the urban poor. Photo | Adan Ibrahim

SHOFCO’S Theatre group took the stage and performed a skit that highlighted the gen-der-based roles in a typical Kenyan relationship.


British High Commisioner Dr. Turner said, “to-day is not a day for politics... it’s a day for youth and community.”


Lady Maureen, a popular Luo musician, riled up the crowd, especially as her dancers seemed to be ripping their bodies apart with intense dance moves. Photo | Adan Ibrahim

Ambassador Godec said, “President Obama would love to be here, he believes in you and so do I. We are with you every step of the way.”



The U.S Ambassador Robert F. Godec, the British High Commissioner Christian Turner, Former Chief Registrar of Judiciary Gladys Shollei, CEO of Wildlife Di-rect Dr.Paula Kihumbu and SHOFCO’s CEO Kennedy Odede having a conversa-tion during the launch of SHOFCO Urban Network.

By Mirror Reporter

Shofco Urban Net-work (SUN) was launched on Satur-

day 22 August with a huge bang. SUN provides a plat-

form where community based groups come together to trans-form their communities.

In addition to offering self-help financial services such as a SAC-

CO and a funeral welfare scheme, SUN also seeks to promote peace and unity as well as enhance lead-ership, governance and social ac-countability in urban slums. At the time of the launch, SUN had already registered about 4,000 residents.

The event started with a march by Kibera residents that started in Gatwekera village, went through Kisumu Ndogo, Daraja-ni, Makina, Karanja via Karanja Road then to Kibera drive before branching at Olympic bus stage

and ending up at the Kamkunji grounds to commemorate the event.

Hundrends of other Kib-era residents also attended this lauch that was open to the public.

Entertainers and VIP guests

There were various entertain-ment acts to celebrate the event in-cluding local artists such as acrobats from Kibera Messengers, SHOF-CO’S Theatre group and Yellow B.

The main act, Lady Mau-reen and her dancers, set the stage on fire with popular hit songs and intense dance routines.

In addition to SHOFCO founders, Kennedy and Jessica Odede, British High Commis-sioner (HC) to Kenya Dr. Chris-tian Turner, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert F. Godec, CEO of Wildlife Dr. Paula Kahumba and Former Chief Registrar of the Ju-diciary, also attended the event.

In his speech to the huge crowd that turned out for the pub-lic event, HC Turner said, “today is not a day for politicians…it’s about communities”. U.S. Ambassador Godec encouraged the community saying that U.S. President Barack Obama would have wanted to come to Kibera and that the U.S. is com-mitted to supporting urban poor in Kenya to empower themselves.

In attendance was also Winnie Odinga, Raila Odinga’s daughter, who riled up the crowd saying, “You need to fight for your independence.”

SHOFCO’S founder, Kennedy Odede, closed the event by remind-ing the crowd that SHOFCO “start-ed as a football club…a movement.”

Much needed services

The four main elements of the SUN Movement were chosen based on the needs of the urban poor and for their potential to en-sure the movement puts the pow-er in the people to make a change.

All of the services depend on each member, each group and each leader to contribute to a grass-roots collective that brings the urban people together for a com-mon purpose; to empower each other and to solve the challenges facing the urban poor in Kenya.

Since funerals are regard-ed as extremely important events in Kenya, a lot of the urban poor tend to incur substantial debt try-ing to cater for funeral costs in-cluding mortuary fees, transporta-tion fees and the massive cost of holding the burial ceremony itself.

For the funeral welfare pro-gram, members are required to save Ksh.100 per month which allows each member to access a compen-sation of Ksh.70, 000 that is eligi-ble for their whole nuclear family.

The SACCO is a much need-ed resource for urban poor, many of whom do not have easy access to banking and loaning services.In the same way the funeral welfare scheme is a collective self-help fund, the SACCO also creates a commu-nity-based bank that is cheaper and more accessible to members who might be shut out by banks and other formal saving and loaning services

SUN promotes peace and unity by bringing together diverse groups and ethnicities into a collective cen-tered on shared values, goals and overall community development ,

Lastly, SUN gives a platform for urban poor to discuss problems and solutions with their leaders.

The huge numbers of indi-viduals registered and that will continue to join the movement em-powers them to have a strong and powerful collective voice and to be able to hold leaders accountable.

SUN also ensures that this is done responsibly and equitably by providing capacity and leadership trainings at group levels, which also guarantees that each group and each member is duly represented.

SUN is currently operating in Kibera slum and Mathare slum but is looking forward to expand to other slums across Nairobi soon and even-tually across Kenya and beyond.

Feature NGO launches a movementthat seeks to empower the urban poor.

Movement for urban poor

Quick one on one with SHOFCO founder and CEO

Kennedy Odede about SUNQ: What inspired you to start SUN as one SHOFCO’s programs?

A: It is important for communities to come together for a common goal. SHOFCO brings different communities and different groups together to solve their own problems. United we stand strong and divided we fall.

Q: How does SUN enhance SHOFCO’s overall mission and goals?

A: SUN enhances SHOFCO’s mission by reaching out to differ-ent diverse groups in the community and having them come to-gether. SUN supports the goals of including everyone and work-ing together to place the possibility into the hands of the community.

Q: Do you think SUN could expand to other slums and non-slum areas where SHOFCO does not have a presence?

A: Yes, of course. SUN is a movement that will spread across the urban slums in Kenya. The model of SUN will be implemented in other African countries because the idea is simple. How do you bring communities to-gether? It is about organizing and mobilizing for a common goal or cause.

Photo | Liz Mahiri

SocietyGhetto Mirror | 6 ISSUE 21

SEPTEMBER 2015

Topical issues on daily happening in our societies

Houses & businesses demolished in MathareBy Faith Museve

On Aug. 27, residents of Mathare woke up to the noise and cha-

os of City Council of Nairobi of-ficers demolishing their houses.

The homes and businesses that seem to have been specifically chosen for the demolition area were located just opposite the Moi Airbase gate.

The demolished hous-es were directly facing the Moi Airbase gate; men and women who had businesses around the area were left counting losses.

It is alleged that this partic-ular section was brought down due to the high crime rate in the area. In specific, a police officer had recently been stabbed to death with a knife in the same location.

Many residents think that this is reason behind the early morning demolition of this particular section.

While the suspected perpe-trators of the officer’s death are not known, it is believed they sought refuge in the nearby hous-

es after murdering the officer.

No warning

After the demolition, the displaced were left perplexed,

with some in tears as the demo-lition occurred without warning.

One such resident, Martin Otieno who owned a stall along Juja Road that was brought down

during the process said the op-eration left him with nothing.

“It was completely unexpected as the police and the City Council officers came down without warn-

ing and they destroyed everything they came along as they were bringing down the houses. They didn’t give us any time to secure any of our wares,” Otieno said.

Left with nothing

The affected could only pick a few items that had not been de-stroyed after the demolition.The lucky few found surviving pillow cases and pieces of furniture and those who sold vegetables along the road were left picking their vegeta-bles that had been scattered all over.

Many women with their young children were left homeless, wondering where they would go. Some complained bitterly, blaming the merciless police who were in-structed to secure the area as their homes were completely destroyed.

These actions have left everyone wondering wheth-er or not the affected will be compensated for the losses that saw them lose everything.

Gospel Parliament challenges immorality in religious leaders

By Abraham Olang’

In the recent past, there has been a noticeable rise in in-cidents where religious leaders have displayed immoral behavior.

Indeed, the media has been awash with various examples of well-known and influential religious leaders exhibiting controversial behavior throughout the country.

This has made it challeng-ing to identify legitimate religious leaders who are honest in their mission to lead others and to dif-ferentiate them from those who are wolves in sheep’s wool. This pre-dicament is what motivated Bishop John Okombo from Kayole, Nairo-bi to form a parliament to discuss and find solutions to this issue.

In forming this “Gospel Par-liament”, Bishop John Okombo, in 2013 together with his colleagues and friends decided to bring lead-ers together to discuss and come with possible solutions to the issue.

Around mid-2013, these dis-cussions started becoming more formal meetings as the number of discussants also increased.

To date, they meet ev-ery Thursday at The Commu-nity Baptist Church in Kayole.

“In our first debates we used to have not more than seven mem-bers in attendance, but we cur-rently have no less than 70 mem-bers, exclusive of invited guests, with some coming as far as out of Nairobi,” said Bishop Okombo.

The discussions at the weekly meetings range from church leaders to married life, to community. Bish-

op Okombo notes that there has been a significant improvement in how the members deal with such issues since they began the discussions.”

In light of the positive effects, the members are eager to and are making plans to expand the reach and scope of this initiative. “We are aiming to expand this ‘parlia-ment’ to other parts of the country so that we can change the whole country,” Bishop Okombo said.

The parliament already invites schools and students with an interest of becoming religious leaders to the discussions for them to participate and learn from the conversations.

In a concluding remark about the parliament’s long term plans, Bishop Okombo said, “The future of this field is highly dependent on and is expected to guide the commu-nity by setting the right examples.”

By Eunice Otieno

A group of artists known as Kib-era Talking is using hip-hop to try to change young people’s lives in slum.

The group, which was formed in 2013, comprises of Slavey Dai-llest, Gaz Wafalme and Juda King who believe that they can help the many young people in slums who are drowning in drugs and crime.

Daillest and Wafalme were inspired to form the group after they realized how much poten-tial goes to waste in the slum due to the youth getting caught in-side the clutches of slum vices.

They point out that popular hip-hop and rap music tends to paint drugs, crime, sexism and material wealth as ideals of success therefore negatively influencing what young people think is cool and how they envision a successful life or future.

On the other hand, as bon-afide hip-hop artists, they under-stand real hip-hop as an art form that speaks truth to the reality of a society’s or community’s conditions in meaningful and self-expressive ways. Kibera Talking therefore aims to influence youth positively through real hip hop, that is, hip hop that portrays real issues from the slums, especially those that youth deal with and how to overcome the challenge of their predicament.

“Drugs are a major problem in the slums and in most areas in Kibera slums and kumikumi (illicit alcohol)

Artists use Hip Hop to influence youth

has really affected us. That’s why we have decided to make a group to sensitize the youth,” said Daillest.

They add that is unfortunate that most people in society have a negative perception of people from the slums. This affects young peo-ple with the potential to succeed in a lot of different ways by dis-couraging them from exploring their talents, believing in them-selves, and ultimately getting op-portunities to get out of the slum.

Juda King blames the media for these attitudes saying that,“Ma-ny FM stations in Kenya do not want to sensitize the society”. The group believes that if people understood that being a slum dweller does not automatically make you a ‘bad’ per-son, or a failure, then there would be a lot more opportunities for success.

In fact, one of the group’s big-gest challenge has to do with such negative perceptions. They say that it is extremely hard for them to se-cure sponsors, not because they don’t have the talent and determina-tion, but due to the idea that they will not deliver on their commitments.

Despite these misconceptions, Kibera talking has produced a num-ber of songs as well as performed at several venues and events. Among their best songs are “Hip-Hop-Kibera”, “Talking Anthem”, “Last Letter” and “Just a Dreamer”.

Apart from music, the group also engages in other forms of art such as graffiti as a way of in-teracting with and passing their message to the community.

Residents watch helplessly as police and City Council Officers bring down houses and business stalls in Mathare slum along Juja Road on August 27.

Photo | Faith Museve

Want to be a computer guru? Get SHOFCO ID card for free and join the SHOFCO Computer classes.

400/= Call: 0713 479 278

We are located at SHOFCO headquarters near the Kibera School for Girls

@


Business Man gains experience and opts for independence,opens up a barber shop.

By Mirror Reporter

Bernard Otieno opened Classic Cutz in 2004 after wanting

some independence from work-ing in his cousin’s barber shop.

Otieno grew up in the ru-ral countryside and after com-pleting his primary school ed-ucation, he found himself idle since there was no money for him to continue with his education.

After a few years, he travelled to Nairobi to become an appren-tice for his cousin’s barbershop.

“He taught me everything about the trade,” Otieno says.

Otieno started saving his meager earnings after he realized that he could open his own shop.

A few years later, he opened the doors to his ‘Classic Cutz’ Kin-yozi that’s located on the busy main road of Kisumu Ndongo, Kibera.

The good

Otieno says that he likes his job because it is fun, easy, and he gets a lot of customers.

On a normal weekday, he gets about 10-20 cus-tomers, depending on the day. He also gets a b o u t 5 fe-

male c u s -tomers on a weekday (and more on the weekends) who come in for a convenient and easy short

haircut. On weekends, he usu-ally gets a lot more than that.

He enjoys the comfort his earnings afford him because he can feed his kids and still have money left to pay rent and invest.

He has even been able to buy cows and a small farm in his village.

He has also hired an assistant, Steve Aus-tin, who helps him when the shop gets busy, mostly on weekends.

The bad

As much as he has experienced some successes, Otieno says there are a num-ber of challenges he has ex-perienced in the job, some of which may be hard to find a solution for.

The most frequent chal-

lenge is that of power

issues. Be-

cause of the unreliability of elec-tricity in Kibera, Otieno has had to deal with the issue of losing power for long periods of time, a problem

that can completely stop his busi-ness from operating and cause him

huge losses.

There’s one particular week that the power failed

completely. He had no choice but to buy a genera-tor but it only lasted a

month before it gave in. To solve that, he bought a car battery and an inverter to operate his machines.

The third and hardest chal-

lenge is the very real shad-ow of

eviction. S i n c e

h i s

s h o p is right next to the rail-way line, his business is likely to be in the line of danger for evictions by the rail-way compa-ny that owns most of the land along the railway.

T h i s means that he has to start p l a n n i n g for a new l o c a t i o n ,

s o m e t h i n g that’s not easy in the busy and high-

ly-contested prime locations.His day to day challenges

are generally brought on by the rain, which keeps customers away.

Advice to aspiring barbershop

owners

“Funguatu” [just open} Otie-no says. In his opinion, the most important elements for success are to be hardworking and patient.

For instance, he says,

“You can wake up early and be in the mood to do really

well that day but not get customers till

the afternoon, you should still maintain that work ethic and that energy to suc-ceed in tough times and in good times.”

He adds that “young peo-ple these days don’t want to work hard, they like easy money.”

While working hard and hav-ing patience are key elements, one the first things that you have to con-sider if you are to open up a Kin-yozi, he advices, is location. The optimal location is a place with a lot of people, preferably where people are living, not working.

Barbershop owner’s road to success

Bernard Otieno during one of his very busy days in his barber shop shaving a cus-tomer as he is given a helping hand by Steve Austin a man he has hired. Perhaps he will have to expand the shop since it looks smaller now

Photo | Liz Mahiri


Sports Team wants to reach next level in style as they hope to remain unbeaten to the end

Kibera Blackstars players getting ready for a league match at Woodley Grounds in Kibera. The team wants to replicate the succesful first leg run so as to finish the second leg unbeaten in order to qualify for the Nationwide League.

Photo | Coutersy

BY Vincent Baraza

Kibera Blackstars is back in training ahead of the second leg fix-

ture, Nairobi Provincial League (NPL), which resumes after the September international break.

Sitting at the top of the table with 41 points, Blackstars hope to maintain their winning streak so as to qualify for the Nation-wide League, third tier level af-ter The Kenya Premier League (KPL) and Football Kenya Fed-

eration Premier League (FKFPL).The team, comprising of play-

ers from several if not every corner of Kibera, is ready to take on the responsibility of being at the top insisting that it is not by sheer luck but hard work that they got there.

According to the club’s assis-tant chairman, Edwin Oketch, the team has played a lot of matches away from home, he insisted that they are looking forward to work-ing even harder to earn points and not disappoint the club’s faithfuls.

“We have played more match-es away, 13 games, and we need to work even harder this time round so

that we don’t disappoint our fans.” Oketch said. “But we also have to learn our opponents so it even easier for us to win,” he added.

When Ghetto Mirror visited them in training at the Harlequins, the players seemed focused on the task ahead as everyone. The head coach said that they had just report-ed back to camp from a two week break they had taken after con-cluding the first-leg of the league.

But all is not a smooth sail for the team, lack of financial support is a challenge that the team is yet to over-come as it only has one sponsor who carters for the expenses. They are

appealing for any willing cooperate to come on board and support them.

“Some of the players have families and the little allowances they are given cannot sustain them and as a team we can only give what we have, if more sponsors come on board then things could be dif-ferent,” Oketch told Ghetto Mirror.

The delayed release of fix-tures is yet another major chal-lenge Blackstars and all the teams in the NPL have to deal with.

Teams barely have time to train and prepare for their op-ponents as fixtures are released very late. Some are released a day or two to their match day.

In addition there is a short-age of playing grounds. The team cries that shortage of grounds has led to matches clashing with teams from other league categories.

There are also a few chal-lenges from their home base. Un-fortunately, as the team gains popularity among the Kibera res-idents, there have been efforts by individuals to brand the team as being from one particular area.

“Every player from here wants to play for Blackstars but we focus on an individual’s tal-ent and effort to build a team and when people try to tarnish its im-age, then the fans’ support goes down and that kills our morale,” said the clubs assistant chairman.

While applauding Kibera Member of Parliament Hon. Ken-neth Okoth for coming to its res-cue by donating registration fees and affiliation,the team also urg-

es Kibera leaders to invest more in sports within the constituency pointing out that there are talents in the slum that need to be tapped.

“80% of the players come from Kibera where crime rates are high and we need to cre-ate more opportunities for them to engage in to keep them from drugs and crime,” noted Oketch.

But with all that said, the head coach Erick Ouma Okoth, reiterated that the team is in great shape and ready for their second

leg performance as they seek to move to the Nationwide League.

“The team is in a good shape, we want to go through it unbeaten in this second leg,” said the head coach. “We lost a game in the first leg and had five draws,” he added.

“It’s God’s favor that we have come this far we pray a lot and our main dream now is making it to the KPL and we be-lieve we will,” the coach added.

Low tier league teams; Shofco FC and Quarkestomers FC, all from Kibera, have made it to the NPL and are also hoping to play top flight league in the future as they prepare for the challenges of playing in NPL.

The two teams are to play a mini-league that will be held at City Stadium in mid September. The mini-league will comprise of two teams from four zones in Nairobi County League setup.

The aim of the mini-league is to have a winner for the Nai-robi County Leaguebut all the teams playing the mini-league have already qualified for the NPL.

Blackstars target unbeaten run

By Felix Otieno

The Mathare Sports As-sociation (MYSA) foot-ball tournament took

place at the Mathare police deport grounds from 28th-29th August.

This two-day event was a seven-a-side that featured 16 teams from across the slum.

The participating teams were required to each con-tribute Ksh. 140 - Ksh.10 per player- as a registration fee.

The total amount of Ksh. 2,240 per team, was to be used to pay the referees as well as buy some of the extra material needed like chalk dust used to mark the field.

The first day of the tourna-ment was scheduled for group stage games. There were four total groups, A-D, with each group consisting of 4 teams.

After the morning clash, Mathare Shofco team and Julius Burger’s team emerged at the top of group A and B respectively with

each gunning seven points after two wins and one draw. Scom FC and Beijing Cranes emerged sec-ond in group A and B respectively.

During the afternoon games, Mighty Titans FC emerged as num-ber one in group C with a total of 9 points after winning all their games and Young Eagles FC came in second with six points after losing one game.

In group D, True Colors Sportive and Sajorooney FC both tied at seven points after two wins and one draw each with True Col-ors leading in the goal difference.

The second day of action was meant for quarter, semi and finals.On the first quarter final, Mathare Shofco was shocked by Beijing Cranes to a 2-1 loss, Julius Burg-er managed a single goal escape against Scom FC while True Colors sailed through to the semi’swith a two nil win against Young Eagles.

In the last quarter final match, Mighty Titans was held to a barren draw against Sejorooney but were able to advance to the semi’s after winning 5-4 in the penalty shootout.

In the first semi-final, Julius Burger and Beijing Cranes were

engaged in a tight match with Ju-lius Burger advancing to the finals when the game ended 1-0 in their favor after an early first half goal.

The second semi-finalof the day between True Colors Sportive and Mighty Titans was nail-bitingly intense. Mighty Ti-tans grabbed an early first half goal against a tough True Colors.

In the second half, the ta-bles were turned around after the Mighty Titans’ goalkeeper was sent off for match irregularities.

This gave the True Col-ors team a chance to make a quick comeback of two goals,ad-vancing them to the finals.

True Colors Sportive went into the finals as heavy weights after gunning a total of 19 goals and hav-ing not conceded a single goal till the semi-finals.Julius Burger came in as underdogs with only five goals and not having conceded any goal.

The first half of the final start-ed at a very slow pace with True Colors Sportive playing an attack system leaving Julius Burger to be on the defending side. It ended with a scoreless draw with both teams

missing open scoring chances.In the second half, Julius Burg-

er came back with guns blazing. They moved from their de-

fense position and started search-ing for that elusive goalthat would give them the win.In the dying embers of the game, their strik-er Sam almost put the ball into the net through a free kick but True Colors’ goalkeeper Mar-vin Avokodenied him the chance.

The game ended with an empty draw at full time and had to move into penalties.

Both teams brought forth their best penalty takers in a bid to win the game.The penalty takers from both teams took the penalties with great expertise with all of them scoring.

The True Colors’ goalkeep-er showed why he deserved to be crowned the best goalkeeper of the tournament when he served the last penalty of Julius Burger strike Eliud-Kimanzi serving his team the victory in a silver platter. In the end the game ended with a 5-4 win with True Col-ors Sportive winning on penalties.

The winning team,True Colors Sportive, was awarded a trophy and

school bags for each player that par-ticipated in the tournament.Julius Burger came in second place and they were also awarded a smaller tro-phy and school bags for each player.

Dexter Kimani of True Col-ors Sportive was awarded the top scorer of the tournament with a total of 15 goals while their goalkeep-er Marvin Avoko was awarded the golden glove as the best goalkeeper. Kevin Njuguna of Julius Burgerwas awarded best player of the tourna-ment with his great dribbling skills.

Joseph Muinde,the tourna-ment’s coordinator said that it was a great success. “The tournament was a great success and we thank our partners the Daedal trust company for supporting this tournament by

awarding the players with bags. I hope we will have more partners come in for the Decem-ber tournament,” Muindesaid.

He also promised that great-er things were on the way as they hope that during the next tourna-ment they will be able to play both boys and girls teams under 12 and also increase the prizes by award-ing jerseys to the winning team

True Colors win MYSA tourney

Documents

Ghetto Mirror issue 21