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Guest Writers
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Written by Martyn Drakard
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Wednesday, 18 March 2009 17:36 |
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In Nairobi two weeks ago, I traveled State House Road a couple of hours before hired killers assassinated Oscar Kamau King’ara and John Paul Oulu, two human rights activists, in the same place and in the middle of rush hour traffic.
King’ara was carrying out studies on corruption among the Police and Prison services, and Police brutality against the urban poor. A vocal critic of extra-judicial killings, which have become a talking point in Nairobi, he has been wrongly associated with the Mungiki sect, and has made plenty of enemies.
During my few days there, I came across a couple more friends who had been car-jacked, and survived to tell the tale. One, Micky Weche, a soccer star in his time and now one of the coaches most in demand, was robbed of his car right outside his flat. A 35-year old man shot him three times at close range. Miraculously, he only grazed his right hand and both legs. This indomitable fighter wrestled with his assailant and is already back on the soccer pitch wondering how he survived. The car was stolen and left a couple of miles away, absolutely intact. The other, a recent graduate, a Kenyan of Somali origin, went to Somalia to work with Oxfam. One day he received a threat, which he knew was serious: to leave the country within 24 hours since, having worked with White people, he “could no longer be considered a true Muslim”.
Back in Nairobi, having survived the mayhem of Mogadishu, he was car-jacked, robbed of his ATM card, mobile phone and loose change, and left to walk home half-naked. His consolation was that they didn’t harm him. If Nairobi is turning into a Chicago of the Prohibition era, there must be good reasons why. The cost of living has shot up over the past year, owing to food shortages and the price of petroleum, and basic commodities are barely within reach of the average slum household. I also went to Kibera, the huge slum of about one million inhabitants, to visit the projects of a youth group which Omondi, another friend of mine, has set up and is running: clean toilets and showers, and running water, all at an affordable price. To generate money and keep youth usefully occupied the group cultivates and sells “sukuma wiki” within the slum; they also have a soccer team, and a makeshift “hall” where they perform plays, dances and recite poetry – and are always thinking of new ways to keep down the crime level among the local youth, restless and bitter with life. As we emerged from the steep, rutted, fetid alleyways to go back to the car, he introduced me to one of the members of his group, called Peter, on vacation from a college up-country. Peter, he told me later, had survived lynching, somehow. He and his brother were caught stealing red-handed, and the Kibera mob has no mercy. Peter was lucky; his brother was not. He was beaten to death. Shaken by the experience, Peter reformed his life, and now his future looks promising. There are thousands of his generation in the Nairobi slums, rabble-rousers and cannon-fodder for politicians: strong, energetic, intelligent, and exploited.
Security guards in Kenya are not allowed to carry guns, so they make do with what they know best: a rungu or poisoned arrows. More and more private compounds have electric wire, and remote control to open entrance gates from the car. Motorists lock their windows and doors when they stop in a jam or at traffic lights. I heard of one man who carries a machete under the driver’s seat, and another a rubber whip between his and the passenger’s front seat. But these are not solutions. As long as two thirds of Nairobi’s almost 4 million people, neglected and despised, barely manage to survive in infra-human conditions, and until the gap between the wealthiest and poorest begins to shrink, and slum-dwellers can live decently as families, these economic, psychological and moral sores will fester. Nairobi’s sub-class is losing faith in its leaders, having seen few improvements since they took over. They have become disillusioned with the NGO world too which, with few notable exceptions, they feel exploits them and, at best, can only provide temporary relief. The faith-based groups contribute what they can, but lack resources and personnel.
Given the magnitude of the problem, it’s a wonder there aren’t many more car-jackings, robberies and murders. Nairobi is quite safe for the average visitor or resident, but its recent history of sporadic violence is a lesson for all major cities in the developing world, including Kampala which is growing fast, both at the top and bottom ends of the economic ladder. It would be a pity if in five or ten years’ time Kampala has the same reputation Nairobi now has. We are in time to stop that happening. Martyn Drakard, The author is a
Kenyan journalist.
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