KENYA: Women clean up slum to feed their families in aftermath of recent election violence

Record ID: 361077

  • Title: KENYA: Women clean up slum to feed their families in aftermath of recent election violence
  • Date: 6th March 2008
  • Summary: (BN13) KIBERA, NAIROBI, KENYA (FILE) (REUTERS) FRIGHTENED WOMEN STANDING OUTSIDE SHOP WITH CHILDREN IN THEIR ARMS
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA5H8YQ3XKLJ5XYCUPIZVT2AZQJ
  • Story Text: Women left jobless after the violence that followed a disputed election result in Kenya are cleaning up one of the largest slums in Africa to make a living in the face of unemployment and economic uncertainty in the country.
    Political violence in Kenya may have subsided after a power sharing agreement was signed last week between the government and the opposition, but victims of the unrest are still trying to recover their losses.
    In Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, one of the flashpoints of the violence that followed a disputed December 27 election, a group of 26 women are cleaning up to make a living.
    All the women cleaners are unemployed; most of them lost their jobs during the violence.
    Every morning they pick up their brooms and in their white T-shirts and dust masks, they offer a service that the slum has long been without.
    Garbage collection and cleaning in Kibera is the duty of the City Council but since the violence began the service has not picked up to an efficient pace. Some residents say their streets have never been this clean.

    "The dirt in this place in a way has helped me and my child, when my son comes from school, he likes to play on the way home so the streets have to be clean. If i have guests, we can sit outside and relax because it is clean. We are just cleaning our environment, just the way we clean our homes, because women like to live in a clean place," said Arafa Abdulrahim, one of the cleaners.
    In return the women get food vouchers valued at up to 7 U.S. dollars provided by local churches supporting the initiative.
    36-year-old Regina Owino recruited the women to the initiative after realising that many women just like herself had no means to feed their families.

    "We are helping ourselves, so many people lost everything, some people have no where to live. My shop was broken into and looted and I felt lost, but his work is helping us, at least for now as we figure out what to do in the future," said Owino.
    The women also put up a vegetable garden with the women where they can harvest fast growing crops for sale and to cook at home.

    "We plant spinach, kales, tomatoes and onions. We also give the seeds to other women so they can start their own gardens at home. But mostly we plant and take home to eat with our families and we also sell the vegetables in the market," said Owino, looking happily at the small garden.
    Most women doing business in the slum sell fruits and vegetables on the streets but the cleaning job could get some more takers.

    "I think it is good to keep where you live clean, and at least they get money, that is the important thing, and at the same time we have a clean environment," said Catherine Malika, who has been watching the women work.
    Analysts say Kenya's economy is set to rebound mainly because the positive fundamentals of the past few years are still in place. But there is still a growing uncertainty that the recovery will reach the average Kenyan soon.
    Women were among the hardest-hit victims of the post-election violence, their houses were burnt, their small businesses were disrupted, their sons endangered and their husbands missing or killed.
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