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Staff Writers
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Written by Martyn Drakard
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Wednesday, 13 May 2009 16:18 |
The youth of Kibera recently tore up the railway line over the issue of Migingo Island. They’ve found a way to bring Uganda to her knees whenever there’s a spat between our two countries, and a very effective one too. The road system allows for alternative routes to the border; there is only one railway line leading north west out of Nairobi, and it passes through Kibera.
At first sight, it looks like the typical Kibera way of showing disgruntlement. It happened last year over Uganda’s speedy recognition of the PNU “victory”. But is the message they want to send as simple as that?
When this railway line was laid Kibera was a small settlement for Nubian ex-soldiers. A primary school was built in 1952 for their children and opened by the then governor, Sir Evelyn Baring.
Kibera was hilly and the school surrounded by trees, as was the whole area then. In the last decade the hills remain but the forest has virtually disappeared, and replaced by a forest of shacks and illegal power connections and the famous slum has become home to almost one million people. Every available corner is crowded and many young, strong and unemployed males lounge in the alleyways, or act as vigilantes. It is also a hot-bed of ODM support; the Member of Parliament is Raila Odinga, Kenya’s Prime Minister and restless partner in the coalition government. In Kibera any action like this has political connotations, and the anger may not be directed only against the Ugandan government.
Kibera youth can be divided into several categories: those who traipse every morning to the factories five miles away hoping to catch the eye of a sympathetic foreman; those who stay in Kibera and run or are trying to start projects, such as selling water, managing public toilets and showers, disposing of waste; those who stay at home doing nothing; and the others who are ready at a moment’s notice to take to the streets or alleys in pursuit of some cause.
When I was there last two months ago a peaceful demo was taking place. The people were demanding to know why the Habitat director had suddenly been replaced since she was genuinely helping the slum-dwellers. Most Kibera inhabitants are only too aware of their rights and want them respected. But not all demos are so peaceful; and even peaceful ones easily get out of hand. Unemployed youth, with a sense of their rights, whose education has been stopped for lack of fees, able-bodied, bright and ambitious are very volatile. Kibera’s disaffected youth are notorious.
Kenyans, and not only in the Nairobi ghettoes, are not happy with the way their country is being run. Food prices have soared since the violence last year and the drought; more and more people are living on the margin. The government seems out of touch with the people, and their hard work and honesty get little reward. Everyone is complaining that MPs spend their time jostling over power, privilege and higher pay and forget the needs of the little man and his daily struggle to feed, clothe and educate his family.
So, who can be so surprised when they vent their wrath on the establishment by uprooting the railway line? Besides, the youth know only too well that the government will be embarrassed and hopefully shamed into taking positive action for the slum-dwellers.
There’s a further factor. As the railway line snakes its way through the slum, the engine hoots many times so that mothers can safely grab their babies playing on the sleepers and tracks. Dingy shacks where people live; kiosks selling clothing and food; even schools built of mud, wattle and zinc, all crowd a few feet from the track. The ground trembles as the train approaches and passes and activity has to come to a halt, the din is too loud. Besides, the tracks are old and in constant need of repair. In Nairobi, I stay near the same line, but closer to town. Derailments are not uncommon. Miraculously no major derailment has taken place in Kibera. If one did, it could crush to death scores of people, especially children.
Trains pass at any hour of the day or night and the proximity of human habitation to railway line is so hazardous as to defy all safety regulations. Occasionally the railway engineers enforce the rules and demolish dwellings less than ten metres from the line, and this means many constructions are brought down; within days the people have moved back as if nothing had happened. Where else can they set up house and earn their living? Perhaps it is this dangerous situation that the Kibera inhabitants are also protesting about; as well as the constant stench and filth and overcrowding and lack of jobs, and the merciless landlords who squeeze out their every penny.
Ugandans should not take it altogether personally every time the railway line is torn up in Kibera. They may be the unfortunate by-standers in a game of power-seeking and deplorable neglect being played out hundreds of miles away that has nothing to do with them.
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