KENYA: Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan visits Africa's biggest slum and says it is a ticking time bomb for social breakdown

Record ID: 361723

  • Title: KENYA: Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan visits Africa's biggest slum and says it is a ticking time bomb for social breakdown
  • Date: 10th June 2009
  • Summary: KEMUNTO'S CHILDREN LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAX1NFSUF05XB2FL0M36UE94HQ
  • Story Text: Millions of people living in Kenya's sprawling slums are denied vital services and live under constant threat of harassment and forced eviction and their situation poses a major threat to the country's security, Amnesty International top official has said.
    Nearly two million people live in Africa's biggest slum in Kibera and Mathare located outside the heart of Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.
    Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan recently visited the slums.
    She said that Kenya's slum population had been excluded from all efforts to deal with problems in Kibera slum.
    "The development of slums in urban areas has become the iconic symbol of the forgotten marginalised people living in poverty. Their voices are not being heard, they are excluded not just from the basic services like water and sanitation, but also from the decision making that takes place even about their own lives," said Khan while meeting people in Kibera's Soweto area.
    Filth and sewage run though ditches while pathways are littered with animal waste, garbage and human waste in Nairobi's Kibera slum. Congestion in Kibera is a major problem that has led to scarcity of space where over 800,000 people live on 250 hectares of land.
    "Places like Kibera are ticking time bombs. We see here young people, unemployed, desperate in desperate conditions with nothing to do and these are the kinds of situations that create violence and insecurity. Violent criminality is rampant and the people are living in desperate situations they have no stake in creating stable societies," said Khan.
    Kenya is still recovering from politician violence in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections.
    Both Kibera and Mathare became battle grounds during the post election violence that killed at least 1,300 people in east Africa's biggest economy.
    Khan said that lack of transparency on a political level led to abuses of power and corruption.
    "Corruption is a big issue in that there has been a lot of money ploughed - development assistance has been ploughed into these issues, but these seem to be siphoned off and very few people in power talk about corruption, both corruption in the past and problems that are happening even now where decisions are being made in a very opaque manner. There is no transparency, there is no accountability and therefore it is a breeding ground for abuse of power and corruption," Khan said.
    During her tour of the slum, Khan visited a 35-year old woman who was had contracted HIV-AIDS, been abandoned by her husband and has been evicted by her landlord.
    "I have children. All I want is to be able to wake up in the morning and be their provider just me, not my ex husband. Now I am the husband and the provider. All I need is help for me and my children" said Jocelyn Kemunto who is currently staying with a friend.
    According to Khan, millions of dollars have been spent on government projects to upgrade the slums but there is little to show for it on the ground.
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