Kibera Women

January 31, 2008

Today we went to Kibera to meet with an amazing woman named Amina who runs an organization for women and girls. She had gathered together a group of women from a variety of backgrounds to speak about their experiences since the election. The women spoke in kiswahili but their strength and determination to speak their truth transcended language.

Next, Amina gave us a tour of the "toy market" which used to be filled with stalls selling fruits, clothing and everything the residents of Kibera could need. Now the market is a burnt out shell filled with the charred remains of a once thriving community center. There were several vegetable vendors with a few collard greens set out at their feet. They told us they were simply to hungry to not come out to sell their offerings. One elderly woman hid from the sun under a piece of cardboard, we learned that she was the oldest woman in the market and had been selling there since 1948.

We also encountered a man selling tin travel trunks who had a clear message for anyone who would listen "we don't want peace, we want war... because you can see that peace has not worked for us." As he stood among the deserted stalls under the hot sun it seemed to us that he was speaking the truth.

We then got word that another opposition MP had been shot and tension was building. We were told that we had to leave before "the boys" took to the streets to loot and burn again. What was amazing to us was how these women were at the mercy of their (male) children who they could no longer control. One young boy who we hired for security told us that the election should never have happened: "If our votes don't mean anything, why don't you just admit you are a dictator and just let us get on with our lives."

Then news came that the killing of the MP was reported as a "crime of passion" because the shooter suspected his girlfriend was having an affair with the MP--they were together in a car and both shot dead. Seems infidelity and love affairs still continue in the midst of the turbulence--in fact, personal stories of love and lost love and affairs, etc are swirling all around us with friends who are trying to save their marriages as well as their faith in the country. Crazy.

The way in which things go from calm to bad in an instant (what we experienced today in Kibera) is increasingly a common experience for all Kenyans. One moment it is life as usual with traffic jams and hawkers in the street, children running to school and the next moment people retreat into their homes sensing that something terrible is about to happen. This instability is emotionally exhausting, particularly to people who need to be out on the street to earn their next meal. It is invariably the poor who suffer the most in this climate of fear, though Kenyans try their hardest to continue with their everyday existence it is obvious that this conflict is not going to end until the deep-rooted causes come to the surface. Unfortunately the politicians seem totally disconnected to the reality on the ground.

One more thing: the gangs in the slums do seem now to be controlled by some higher force, and outsider "Mungiki" or Kikuyu-militias have been seen in government uniforms. There are also rumors on the other side that ODM youth gangs continue to terrorize their own neighborhoods and people out of some twisted notion that the "change" they had voted for will be had at all costs...

Then there's the slum artist Solo 7, who has painted signs of peace all over Kibera--"Kenyans for peace" in crude white paint on the curbs and metal sides of shacks...we hope to meet and interview him...