Ghetto MirrorISSUE 32 Ghetto Mirror ghettomirroronline.wordpress.com @GhettoMirror_KE

Real life stories from slums

FREEDo not buyAugust 2016

Breastfeeding Champions changing lives

Police and Kamkunji residents partner to counter violent extremism >>> Pg 6

By Kaluki Katanai

Teresa Muteti has learned the ben-efits of breastfeeding the hard way.

With three children, she did not exclusive-ly breastfeed her first two children. As a result, the sec-ond-born developed frequent illnesses, including a chest allergy which often leaves him in coughing fits.

By the time Muteti realized that her son’s allergy was triggered by low immunity, she was expecting her third baby. Luckily for her, she had already joined a commu-nity breastfeeding programme where mothers were being trained on the critical role of breastfeeding their children.

As soon as she delivered her baby, Muteti began ex-clusive breastfeeding for the initial six months and went on to breastfeed until her baby reached two years of age. Ac-cording to her, this is the best decision she has ever made.

“My youngest baby is smart, she is brighter than

the others,” Muteti says of her daughter who is a class 1 pupil at the Olympic Primary School. “Her health is also good and she doesn’t fall ill like the other two chil-dren. I believe this is because of breastfeeding,” she says.

Muteti is among 600 peer supporters cov-ering three regions of the sprawling Kibera slum.

They operate in Soweto West, Kiandaa and Gatwekera villages where they train mothers on safe

continue on page 3

STORY >>> Page 5

Mubuyuni Youth Group making a living by selling potato and banana crisps

Story Pg 7

Tourney to lobby the youth against drugs and substance abuse launched

Story Pg 8

Slums celebrate the youthClose to 100 youth from Kibera and

Mathare joined thousands globally in participating and celebrating the day.

This year’s IYD was themed: The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and

Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Government is set to launch an online platfrom through which the youth and women would access business loans in

not more than 48 hours.

Ghetto Mirror | 2 ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

TALKING POINT We welcome letters on topical issues on the stories we publish and com-ments on ghettomirror@shininghopeforcommunities.org. You can also drop them in our offices at Gatwekera near PAG Church.

Parents’ fear as schools closeEditor’s Note

A publication of Shining Hope For Communities

Editor Joyce Mutheu & Charlene Mutali

Illustrations Victor Auma

Contributors

Everlyn Njeri, Johnstone Musau, Tonny Oluoch, Veronica Kaveza, Fred Maingi, Charlene Mutali,

Philip Ocheche, Kaluki Katanai & Love_Life

Technical Assistance Albanous Gituru & Rose Adera

E-mail: ghettomirror@shininghopeforcommunities.org

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

Quote of the month

Franklin D. Roosevelt

For a long time now, the youth have received the back-end of society’s attention.Children and the aged demand full-time attention while adults fend for themselves. But who takes care of the youth, particularly those

between 10 and 24 years?These are the most neglected members of society, yet they occupy the largest

space. The world has around 1.8 billion youth between 10 and 24 years, which has been recorded as the largest world population ever. In Kenya alone, there are about 10 million youth.

But even with these staggering numbers, the youth are the most neglected. They face various challenges including unemployment, lack of access to education, finan-cial instability and in the current world, lack of attention from their caregivers. Unlike years past, they are hardly taught how to grow up responsibly and how to take care of themselves.

Parents are too busy eking a living that the time they spend with their young ones is becoming more limited by the day. This leaves the youth to their own devices.

With nobody to guide them, peer pressure becomes their leader. And in this age of technology, smart phones and high-speed internet, the youth have found solace in the web.

Unfortunately, the web is also the main source of misinformation. It is here that the youngsters also access pornographic material and skewed advise from their peers. It is no surprise that the highest HIV infection rates are among youth aged between 10-24 years, what with their early sexual debut and unsafe practices. These are grim statistics, and they need to be arrested as a matter of urgency before they claim our future generation.

As the world marks International Youth Day, let us take a moment to reflect on the plight of our youth and how we can take advantage of this sensitive age to mold them into world changers instead of quietly watching them slide into oblivion.

The school is a signifi-cant personal and so-cial environment in the

life of every child because children actually spend most of their time in school. This is why it is import-ant to make schools child-friendly.

A child-friendly school ensures every child learns in an environment that is physically safe, emotionally secure and psychologically enabling.

Teachers are the key play-ers in creating an effective and in-clusive classroom for their pupils.

First and foremost, a child-friend-ly school is rights-based and inclusive.

This means that no child should be excluded from education because of his or her gender, race, culture, lan-guage, ability or social status. Howev-er, this is not upheld in many schools.

Recent research, including Out-of-School Children’s Initia-tive (OOSCI) studies, carried out by UNICEF and UNESCO indicates that efforts are often skewed in favour of children from better-off families and those who live in urban centres.

Gender sensitive

Vulnerable children such as those living with disabilities and those from marginalized communities re-main invisible in many countries.

Another core principle of Child Friendly Education is that it is gender-sensitive. This ensures that both girls and boys learn in an environment that is free from gender bias and stereotyping.

Education systems and schools should strive to provide gender-sen-sitive facilities, curricula, examples, teaching materials and textbooks, and address issues such as gender-based violence and gender equality.

Child Friendly Education is

supported by strong violence pre-vention policies and innovative mechanisms that allow pupils to safely report any form of abuse.

This is particularly important when assisting children affected by natural and manmade emergencies.

All school students have the fundamental right to learn in a safe, protective and supportive environ-ment and to be treated with respect.

A safe school provides a sup-portive learning community where all learners feel safe and are actually safe. Where the risk from all types of harm is minimized, diversity is val-ued and the entire school community feels respected and included and can be confident that every member will receive support in the face of any threat to their safety or wellbeing.

The community is an important stakeholder in the education

sector. Community engagement

plays a role not only in academic success, but also in life success.

However, parent engagement remains a challenge for many schools.

Effectiveness, transparency and accountability in schools are en-hanced by strong partnerships be-tween parents, teachers and children.

Teachers are the single most im-portant resource in children’s education.

Child Friendly Education pro-motes purposeful teaching and learn-ing, including interactive, child-centred and gender-sensitive teaching methods.

Despite this, studies show that most children in East and South Africa are taught through drilling method, and that teacher absenteeism and lack of proper training are also critical issues.

Children cannot learn properly if they are sick, hungry or stressed. In or-der to boost children’s capacity to learn, schools need to provide nutritional and health support, including health checks, immunization, de-worm-ing and vitamin A supplements.

Availability of clean wa-ter and sanitation also contrib-utes to children’s well-being.

So, what are we doing to make our schools child friendly?

The Importance of Making Schools Child-Friendly

Everlyn is the ECD Coordinator at SHOFCO

Everlyn Njeri

Ghetto Mirror | 3ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

By Philip Ocheche

Who is Misty?I am a self-motivated hip hop art-ist who believes in change.

What is your genre of music and when did you start recording?My main genre of music is hip hop but I am also open to any other good music. My first production was back in 2010 when I was still in high school. I used to attend shows at British Council here In Nairobi where I witnessed: poetry, rap bat-tles, cyphers and graphic design that various artists used to show case.

What motivated you to become a musician?I am very passionate about pover-ty and the lack of proper education in the community. This is what pushed me to start music so that I can spread mes-sages which will help to build the community.

Who inspires you musically?Locally I admire Kalamashaka and K- South who were Kenya’s pioneers of hip hop, and interna-

tionally I admire Nasir Jones aka Nas, Immortal technic and Cas-sidy that’s why my fans call me Cassidy.

How many tracks have you re-corded so far?I have two mix tapes with 12 and 14 songs respectively and I’m still working on my first album.

Have you done any music colla-bos?Yes, I have produced two tracks with Labalaa and O-Mae, and I’m working on some more collabos which I can’t reveal now but I will be releasing them soon.

How do you fund your music?From well-wishers like family friends and the little I gather from my hustle as a matatu tout. I also get paid from rap and cypher bat-tles.

How can you describe the hip hop industry in Kenya?Hip hop in Kenya is not fully ac-cepted by many people basically since they don’t relate with it. There’s this notion that hip hop portrays and encourages violence

and drug abuse, but from my experience this is inaccurate be-cause there is a good side of hip hop as an educational tool.

What challenges do you face in music industry?Money is the main challenge, my music is also complex due to its poetic nature, so it takes a longer time for people to understand the lyrics.

Does your family support your choice of career?My parents appreciate my talent although they are still funding my education. but my friends are completely supportive of my mu-sic and I regard them as family too

Where can we get your music?You can download it on You-Tube, mudundo.com and you can also listen to my music at riverb-nation.com

Future plans?Starting from this year I’ll be re-leasing some more tracks, I hope to reach a wider audience and to be successful in my music career.

one on oneMisty

Breastfeeding Champions changing the lives of Families

From page 1

breastfeeding practices and other ma-ternal issues including danger signs during and after pregnancy as well

as preventing communicable dis-eases such as malaria and diarrhea.

As the world marked World Breastfeeding Week which ran from 1st to 7th August, the contribution

“Mothers leave their babies as young as one month old to seek em-ployment. These babies are then fed on porridge and other foods because the mothers have to work,” she says.

Hassan recalls an inci-dent where a mother in Sowe-to West village left her newborn infant with a maid and went to work. However as the maid was force-feeding the baby with por-ridge, the baby chocked and died.

“These are some of the is-sues which we train women about,” says Hassan noting that they en-courage women to breastfeed until their babies reach two years of age.

In their campaigns, the peer supporters also target men who she says play a critical role in pro-viding support to breastfeeding mothers. Besides financial sup-port, the peer supporters also en-courage men to help their wives to raise children in a family unit.

Jackline Achieng’, a single mother of one says she faces the burden of raising her baby sin-gle-handedly. “I think if the ba-by’s dad was around it would have made a big difference,” she says.

of these peer supporters cannot be gainsaid. New evidence from the UK Medical Journal shows that ex-clusive breastfeeding could save the lives of 823,000 babies worldwide.

In Kenya alone, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding has grown from 13 percent in 2003 to 61 percent in 2015, according to the National Demographic and Health Survey.

Part of this growth can be attributed to two programmes set up by the government to encour-age breastfeeding, which include the Baby Friendly Hospital Initia-tive and the Baby Friendly Com-munity Initiative. Through these, the government aims to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeed-ing to 80 percent by next year.

Even so, challenges for breastfeeding mothers are still rife.

Habiba Hassan, also a peer supporter says that women face many setbacks which compromise their ability to breastfeed their chil-dren. Among these is financial in-stability. Hassan says that women, especially those in urban informal settlements often leave their young ones in order to seek employment.

For Achieng’, the mental and emotional stress of bringing up a child alone has negative-ly affected the flow of her breast milk, which at times frustrates her and her five months old baby.

Hassan acknowledges that the presence of an active husband greatly contributes to the eventual success of breastfeeding. “We have noticed that men still do not sup-port their wives because they do not care, they view child-care as a woman’s responsibility,” she says.

Hassan notes that part of the campaign is to encourage men to provide well-balanced meals for their lactating wives, as well as to assist in household chores for the first six months after birth in or-der to encourage mothers to ex-clusively breastfeed their babies.

Mr. Oliver Othuno, a father of three says the most crucial support a husband can give to a lactating mother is time and financial support.

“A man should also have the skills to monitor his wife in the first six months to ensure that she is doing the right thing, like hold-ing the baby correctly,” he says.

A mother breastfeeds her baby. Breastfeeding has numer-ous benefits for both the mother and baby.

By Kaluki Katanai

Kennedy Muhando aka Misty is a budding musician

whose passion is to end poverty and to promote education through his

music. He spoke to Philip Ocheche.

Ghetto Mirror | 4 ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

Life in the Ghetto through the lens

A section that features creative pieces written by youth in Nairobu Slums

Pic Speak

Creative Corner

Fazul Mahamed, CEO of the NGO Coordination Board shares a light moment with a pupil of the Kibera ECD Programme, during his tour of SHOFCO.

Photo | courtesy.

Abdul Juma peels a banana which will be fried into crisps. The crisps are made from bananas, potatoes and arrow-roots.

Photo | Veronica Kaveza

Oliver Othunoh holds his nephew during celebrations to mark World Breastfeeding Week at Bombolulu in Kibera organised by Carolina for Kibera.

Photo | Charlene Mutali

U.S. Embassy Cultural Attachee and IICEP Coordinator Rehema Zaid engage with members of the Kamukunji community.

Photo | Courtesy

President Uhuru Kenyatta views a brochure at one of the stalls displaying their innovations during the 2016 Innovation Week held at the University of Nairobi.

Photo | courtesy

Members of Kamukunji Constituency during a peaceful procession from Eastleigh Police Post to 3rd Avenue.

Photo | Kaluki Katanai

Love is like being admin-istered a concoction.

This concoction consists of both being in a state of con-stant pain and a state of con-stant happiness and aliveness.

Being in love with some-one is like drowning in a large body of water for example the Indian Ocean.

Drowning in the deepest

part of the ocean and there is no one to rescue from it; not even a lifeboat. Tragic, right?

One feels like they can-not breathe and they are being pulled deeper in the mass of the ocean by some force.

The force is not gravity. It is a powerful force that grabs you by the leg whenever you try to get out of the ocean of the

cannot get out. It is painful to love someone.

At the same time it makes one feel alive. Love gives the person in love a sense of being young both inwards and out-wards.

It also gives one the feel-ing of responsibility.

By this I mean one has the

love that you are in; it pulls you further back in.

Then at once one feels vulnerable, exposed, and na-ked whenever he or she stands close to the loved one.

One cannot hide anything from him or her.

One feels like there are in the deepest abyss and simply

automatic need to protect and care about their loved ones; to provide for them physical-ly, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically.

Money is not a problem

because either party is willing to spoil their loved ones silly. Literally to make it rain on them.

Love_life

Ghetto Mirror | 5ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

Feature

By Johnston Musau

The online platform, which is still under con-struction will enable

youth to send applications to kitties including the Youth Enterprise Fund and Uwezo Fund among others.

This was revealed by Kev-in Juma, the Kibra Sub-County Youth Fund Officer who also said that the Ministry of Public Ser-vice, Youth and Gender Affairs was working on several enhancements which will ease access to the funds.

Juma was speaking at an event where close to 100 youth from Kib-era and Mathare slums had joined thousands of others globally to cel-ebrate the International Youth Day in a community outreach walk.

The walk brought together youth from five Kibera villages in-cluding Gatwekera, Darajani, Lindi, Kisumu Ndogo and Kambi Muru.

Juma, who presides over the youth fund kitty in the constituency also noted that the uptake of gov-ernment funds such as Uwezo Fund is low among the youth and wom-en, owing it to ignorance and the fear of taking risks by the youth.

Juma encouraged women and the youth in slums and urban infor-mal settlements to take advantage of these funds to better their lives through income-generating initiatives.

“The government is com-mitted to empowering the youth, but they must come out and up-take these services,’’ he said.

Kevin Ashiundu, the Mathare Youth Programs Coordinator at Shin-ing Hope for Communities (SHOF-CO) said that youth in urban slums and informal settlements still face numer-ous challenges including unemploy-ment, drug abuse and poor education.

“We have also noted that our youth are recording high levels of in-fection with sexually transmitted dis-eases,” he said, noting that many slum youth live in a dire situation of igno-rance and confusion, an issue which needs to be addressed with urgency.

The International Youth Day (IYD) is an awareness day desig-nated by the United Nations with the entire purpose to draw attention to a given set of cultural, economic and legal issues surrounding youth and also to bring stakeholders to-gether to address these concerns.

This year’s IYD was marked on 12th August themed The Road to 2030: Eradicating Pov-erty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Rebuilding Life after Devastating Workplace InjuryBy Charlene Mutali

Eric Ochieng’ leans on to a mud-walled house, chatting with his friends as he sells peanuts to passers-by. A metal crutch lies beside him.

The peeling metal crutch is a painful reminder of what transpired back in 2011.

“I was in class 7 when my broth-er, friends and I went to a construction site to work a casual labourers,” he says.

His mother at that time was an alcoholic and could hardly sup-port them, so they resorted to ca-sual labour to eke out a living.

Unfortunately for Eric, what was to be a normal working day was in fact the beginning of his problems. He says his friend threw a heavy door frame towards him and the frame hit him on his knee.

“I was in pain, but I assumed the pain would go away,” he says. Once at home, Eric performed basic first aid on his knee using a hot compress of salt and water but it had not dawned on him how serious his injury was.

Barely a week later he had to rush to the nearby MSF clinic for treatment as the pain had become worse. MSF referred him to St. Mary’s Hospital for further treatment.

At St. Mary’s Hospital, Eric learned he had injured his knee and femur. The doctors reinforced his leg with a frame to straighten it but the leg did not straighten as expected.

He faced difficulties ma-neuvering around especially in his home area which had nar-

row corridors and passageways. This left him in a state of

hopelessness, as even accessing the basic necessities such as toilets was a gargantuan challenge, par-ticularly during the rainy season.

“I kept on falling, which was worsening my injury,” he says. “One

then months, life slowly moved on in the area, oblivious of the suffering of the young man.

In his mud-walled one bed-room house, he resorted to the bottle which acted as his solace and refuge.

To him, it seemed that he was long forgotten. Worse still, he had to stop going to school, even though he was scheduled to go to secondary school.

“I used to drink myself to a stu-por in order to stop thinking about my problems but soon I realized I was only damaging myself and turning into someone I could not recognize so I stopped,” says Eric, his red-dened eyes staring blankly into space.

The New Year came, and with it he found a support system which included his church, the Kibera Re-formed Presbyterian Church. His mother had earlier relocated to their hometown in Nyanza where she con-trolled her drinking habits. From there, she sent Eric a starter-kit to open up a peanut-selling business.

Blessing in disguise

A case of mistaken identi-ty proved to be Eric’s shining grace when two foreigners from Spain-who were walking through Kibera on a donor mission accused him of robbing them of their valuables. The two had earlier been robbed by someone clad similar to Eric.

Luckily for him, Alexander Nesta the man guiding the Span-iards quickly stepped in because he was familiar with Eric’s plight

time I fell in the toilet and I could not stand up, luckily my friend who was passing by saw me and helped me up and took me home.”

Due to the repetitive fall-ing, his knee snapped, trigger-ing an infection of the entire leg.

Days turned to weeks

and explained his inability to walk, let alone run as they were alleging, due to his leg injury. They sym-pathized and offered to help him.

Myriam Estarrona del Rio, one of the donors, says they took Eric to Kijabe District Hospital where doc-tors removed part of the femur which had been destroyed by the infection. Even so, Eric’s leg still needs more surgery at the hospital to correct that.

“We need to get the money to change the life of this boy,” she says, “so far we have spent more than 600,000 shillings on his treatment and we are trying to raise 160,000 shillings for the next surgery.”

Adapting

Eric points to his feet, showing the area he chipped his feet while playing barefoot for the small league (ligi ndogo).

Staring longingly, he is fully aware that he has missed out on many things.

“I had to stop going to school, now I cannot get married because I will be a burden to my wife. I can-not even secure a job anywhere, I will be a liability,” he notes gloomily.

Despite his challenges, his pea-nut selling business enables him to pay rent and meet the costs of daily upkeep. He says he listens to reggae music as an escape from his incessant thoughts.

“I look up to people like Lucky Dube because they show me that I should not give up, even though life has handed me a bad card. Every season has an end, and mine will pass,” says Eric.

Kibera and Mathare youth in a community walk to mark International Youth Day

Photo | Benard Mavyuva

The government will soon launch an online platform through which youth and women can access business funds just

48 hours after application

Eric Ochieng’ shows the scars his leg after multiple surgeries Photo Charlene Mutali

Ghetto Mirror | 6 ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

By Kaluki Katanai

Police in Eastleigh have partnered with members of the community in a

program that will give a major boost to the fight against violent extremism

and terror-related activities in the area.The program, dubbed Com-

munity Together Initiative (CTI) will see members of the public and law officers sharing informa-tion on criminal activities in order to mitigate them before they occur.

This comes at a time when Eastleigh and the neighbouring in-formal settlements in Kamukunji

constituency have come under the spotlight for violent extremism, ter-ror-related crimes and alleged rad-icalization with recruitment into terror groups such as Al-Shabaab.

The Kenya 2016 Crime & Safety Report classifies the coun-try’s terrorism threat as critical, with more than 50 deadly terror attacks reported in the country in 2015 alone.

Police crackdowns and op-erations are not uncommon in ar-eas described as hotspots, caus-ing bad blood between the police and members of the public.

Dr. Abdukadir Warsame, Di-rector of the Tawakal Medical Clinic (TMC) in Eastleigh says there has been a steadily growing gap be-tween police and the community.

“This gap has become a safe haven for terrorists to breed and op-erate,” he says adding “our aim is to create a bridge to seal this gap so that criminals, particularly terrorists, will not have a place to operate.”

Tawakal Medical Clinic, which has been at the center of community reforms in Eastleigh Ward, recently conducted a baseline survey building partnerships with law enforcement to expand psychosocial services for at-risk communities and police in Nairobi which showed that law enforcers view community members as uncooperative.

Unwarranted arrests

According to the report, police justified incidents of unwarranted arrest, brutality, torture and false ac-cusation on this lack of cooperation. Residents on the other hand cited lack of trust and intimidation as the reasons why they avoided the police.

“More than 95 percent of youth in the survey said that they don’t know any police officer by name, and they don’t have any po-lice friend,” notes Dr. Warsame.

However Clive Wangethi, a community elder from Airbase Ward, blames this standoff on police brutal-ity, particularly targeting the youth.

“Police officers face a lot of incremental trauma from their line

of work and their poor living condi-tions,’ he says adding “this trauma is what builds up then eventually manifests itself through violence.”

He says that CTI has trained 40 trainers, including 20 police of-ficers and 20 community members on psychosocial support and meth-ods of countering violent extremism.

“Our aim is to humanize po-lice to the public and end the sus-picion because the current discon-nect doesn’t aid service provision.”

Little Mogadishu

Kamukunji Constituency Manager Mohamed Nur acknowl-edged that criminal activities are rampant in the area, citing a ‘Su-per Power’ gang which has been harassing residents by committing violent robberies on motorbikes.

He further notes that Eastle-igh, which is also known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ because of its predom-inantly Somali population, was of-ten marred by incidents of bombing and gun violence, which have sig-nificantly reduced in recent days.

“For the area to be safe, there has to be cooperation between the police and the public so that trust and close-ness can be built,” he said while flag-ging off a peace procession at the Eas-tleigh Police Post whereby uniformed law officers walked with members of the community to show solidarity.

The peace procession, dubbed Makarau wanasimama na raia (Police stand with the community), marks the second phase of the CTI programme which will be rolled out in the five wards in Kamukunji Constituency including Eastleigh South, Eastleigh North, Air-base, California and Pumwani Ward.

Society Topical stories on daily happeningsin the community

Police partner with residents to counter extremism

The Deputy OCS of Pangani Police Station George Omollo joins police officers and the public in a dance. Photo | Kaluki Katanai

By Tonny Oluoch

Residents of Kibera and Mathare slums have called on the government to conduct civ-ic education and peace rallies ahead of next year’s general elec-tions to prevent a recurrence of the 2007 post-election violence.

This comes barely two months after six people were killed and scores injured during several violent pro-tests calling for disbandment of the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The demonstrations, or-ganized by the opposition party Coalition for Reforms and De-mocracy (CORD), were aimed at pushing for reforms or complete disbandment of the commission ahead of next year’s elections.

Ghetto Mirror carried out a spotcheck in the two areas which

were hotspots of violence during the 2007 general elections and ac-cording to residents, the current political temperature is pointing to possible wrangles during and af-ter next year’s general elections which are slated for 8th August.

Mass education

Elizabeth Nduku, a resident of Kibera and mother of two feels that rigging of elections is the major factor that could lead to violence.

Nduku, who witnessed the 2007 post-election violence from Kibera says “people are ready to de-fend their political leaders, and some are even ready to die for votes.”

Franklin Bet, a resident in Kianda Village in Kibera says that it is important for different organi-zations to organize mass education concerning peace in the community.

He suggests using sports as

a unifying tool, saying that foot-ball tournaments will encourage the youth to relate amicably with people of different backgrounds.

Media

Danvas Mogire, Chief of Sa-rang’ombe Location has however assured residents that the upcom-ing elections will be free and fair.

“Rumours about wrangles erupting after the August 2017 gener-al election is a misconception raised by the residents who are idle,” he says adding “I believe that everybody has learnt a lesson after the four years that were spent in Hague by some of our leaders. God is on Kenya’s side and peace will eventually prevail.”

He also pleaded with the media to promote peace and to remind the community that vot-ers’ registration is still ongoing.

Need of civic education before general elections

Tyres burning during recent anti-IEBC demostra-tions

Photo | File

Ghetto Mirror | 7ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

Entrepreneurship Using innovations to generate income

Entrepreneurship the way to go for jobless youth

By Veronica Kaveza

Kevin Odhiambo care-fully slices the po-tato with a knife,

making sure he gets the thinnest slice possible. The slice drops off the edge of the table and into a karai (saucepan) half-filled with hot, bubbling oil as Odhiambo quickly carves out another slice.

Roughly two meters away from him sits Abdul Juma, knife in hand, and busy peeling potatoes from a sack. Juma peels the potatoes deftly, making sure he keeps up with Odhi-ambo’s speed. After peeling the po-tatoes, he will soak them in a bucket of water and slide the bucket next to Odhiambo’s table, ready for slicing.

As he picks his next potato from the bucket, Odhiambo keeps a keen eye on the slices frying in the oil, turning them every now and

then to ensure they do not burn. “The golden brown colour

has to be just right, not too dark and not too light,” he says with a look of precision in his eyes.

Occasionally he will put down his knife and with a slotted spoon remove the now cooked crisps from the oil and serve them into a long, brown flour-bag from where they will drain excess oil and dry.

Joseph Wamsiko, fondly re-ferred to as Jose, then picks the

drained crisps from this flour-bag and portions them into clear bags which he seals carefully by pass-ing the edge slightly over a candle flame. The crisps are ready for sale.

Odhiambo, Juma and Jose are members of Mubuyuni Youth Group, a group of 11 youth who have invested in selling crisps for a living. With their shop based along Kibera Drive, the group has risen above the odds of unemployment to make money for themselves.

Odhiambo, who is the founder of the group, says he was mentored by a man he refers to a Baba (father) who used to run the same business more than 10 years ago. At that time, Odhiambo was in his final year of high school but he helped Baba pre-pare potato crisps as a handyman.

“When I finished high school, I knew this was the work I was go-ing to venture in,” he says. Armed with his savings from the handwork, he was able to open up a small busi-ness and buy his tools of trade. Al-most a decade later, Odhiambo’s business is flourishing and he has now expounded the menu from only potato crisps to include ba-nana, cassava and arrow-root crisps.

He says the crisps are sold in packs of Sh10, Sh20 and Sh30. Wholesale batches are distribut-ed to schools and churches in the area while retail packs are sold to passersby from the group’s shop. Odhiambo reveals that in a good day, the group makes a prof-it of up to Ksh 800 from sales.

Even so, the group still faces many challenges in the course of duty. Says Odhiambo “Sometimes

we have to run away from City Coun-ty officials who always harass us. There is also stiff competition from other sellers and low market pric-es which make the market shaky.”

Unemployment

Mubuyuni Youth Group is among tens of similar enterprises which have come up in Nairobi’s urban slums to counter high levels of unemployment among the youth.

According to the World Bank, Kenya currently has the highest rate of unemployed youth in East Africa at 17.3 percent.

This is higher than Ugan-da where youth unemployment is currently at 6.6 percent, Tan-zania 6.5 percent and Rwanda which is lowest at 0.7 percent.

To deal with the spate of unem-ployment, the government in 2013 launched Uwezo Fund, a flagship programme for Vision 2030 with the aim of availing funds to wom-en, youth and people living with disability so as to promote entrepre-neurship at the constituency level.

This, among other kitties, has enabled groups such as Mubuyuni to crawl out of the desperation of hope-lessness and unemployment to a brighter future of self-employment.

“We chose to learn and teach each other instead of sitting down and complaining about unemployment and blaming the government for our misfortunes,” says Odhiambo add-ing “I would advise my fellow youth to be innovative because as youths we have to create our own jobs. In-volving in crime is not a solution.”

Re-writing the History of Majengo SlumsBy Mirror Reporter

Majengo Slum of Kamukunji constituency has for years had a bad name owing to insecurity, high crime rates and alleged violent extremism.

However, this is soon to change after members of the community joined hands with the United States Embassy in Kenya in a bold move to discuss development opportuni-ties in the area which will clean out the bad image and attract investment.

This was during a historic di-alogue forum at the U.S. Embassy where members of the Kamukunji community met with Embassy officials through the Integrated Initiatives for Community Empowerment (IICEP).

Rehema Zaid, coordinator of IICEP says the forum was aimed at availing an opportunity for members of the community to share their chal-lenges and the issues affecting them.

“We undertook a peace train-ing program in Kamukunji and we realized members of the communi-

ty face so many issues,” says Zaid adding “among the concerns which came up were insecurity and youth engagement in outlawed activities.”

She further explains that Ma-jengo community has recently been profiled as a stronghold for violent extremism whereby youth are of-ten recruited into outlawed groups, including terror organizations. As a result, youth from the area are inhib-ited from accessing jobs and they also miss out on opportunities brought on by potential development partners.

“We want to clean out the bad image and most importantly cre-ate alternative opportunities or exit ramps for the youth,” says Zaid.

The forum noted rising enthusi-asm from development partners flock-ing in to the area to explore opportu-nities for partnership with community members. Key among these was the U.S. Embassy in Kenya who ex-pressed their interest to join hands with the community to re-write the history.

Kevin Odhiambo turns potato crisps in the karai (fryer). Photo | Veronica Kaveza

U.S. Embassy Cultural Attachee and IICEP Coordinator Rehema Zaid engage with members of the Kamukunji community.

Photo | Courtesy

Ghetto Mirror | 8 ISSUE 32AUGUST 2016

Sports School goingyouths targettedin tourney

TikiTaka Governor’s Challenge Cup Launched

By Fred Maingi

For the next two months, Nairobians will be treated to a sumptuous

Tiki Taka Governor’s Challenge Cup soccer tournament that will in-

provide a forum to identify those al-ready affected so that the Board can offer them rehabilitation programs.

“During the tournament, we will have strong-themed messages against drugs and substance abuse that will be relayed all the time especial-ly during half time. In addition, ad-dicts will be identified and accorded help where necessary. We are going to work with four rehabilitation cen-tres to reclaim the addicted youths in-cluding Jericho, Mbagathi, Ngara and Ngaira health clinics,” Shimoli said.

Speaking during the launch, Board Secretary Eng. Judah Abekah who is the County Chief Officer for Trade and Tourism called upon the youth to turn up in large numbers during the matches which are meant to sensitize them on the dangers of underage drinking and over drinking.

He observed that Nairobi has one of the highest proportions of substance abusers when compared to the national average. “We will be targeting the youth from all over Nai-robi, from the slums, rich and poor neighborhoods,” he said “We believe we have the responsibility to play a role and contribute to their welfare.”

The tournament slogan is “Punguza tei, sare madree na ja-baa mtaa ingare”. It is planned to be a 7-aside tournament involving both girls and boys. The tournament will also be used to identify those already affected so that the Board can sponsor them for rehabilitation.

Speaking at the function, Con-federation of East & Central Africa football Association (Cecafa) sec-retary General Nicholas Musonye said there was plenty of talent in the counties including the Ghet-tos that needs to be nurtured. The two months event is sponsored by the County Government of Nairobi in conjunction with the ministry of Trade, Industrialisation and Tourism.

The Ghetto Mirror is a monthly newspaper published and distributed for free by Shining Hope for Communities as part of its pro-grams aimed at empowering slum youth by developing their media skills and also to bring attention to the issues affecting the resi-dents of informal settlements. All the work that goes into production of this newspaper is done by youth from the slums. Correspon-dence should be addressed to ghettomirror@shininghopeforcommunities.org. You can also visit our facebook page www.facebook.com/ghettomirror for constant news updates, photos, and videos. For news and advertising call 0727 502 939

Eng. Judah Abekah, the County Chief Officer for Trade and Tourism speaking at the launch.Photo | Courtesy

GhettoMirror

volve over 120 teams from all 17 sub counties in Nairobi County.

The tournament that will fea-ture boys and girls between 7-15 years both in and out of school was launched at the Panafric hotel on August 4th and will be played at six locations

including Jericho’s camp Toyoyo.According to the Nairobi City

County Alcoholic Drinks Control and Licensing Board Chairman Vincent Shimoli, at every game there will be a team to sensitize the youth on the dangers of alcohol abuse and also to

“During the tournament, we will have strong-themed

messages against drugs and substance

abuse that will be relayed all the time especially during

half time.

Vincent Shimoli(Chairman - NCCACLB)

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