Day 2- The Dangers of Kibera

Kibera- one of the worst slums in Africa

This morning I drove to Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi and possibly the worst in all of Africa. In Kibera, there are no official documents or anything. There could be anywhere from 700,000 people to a million. Anywhere from one fifth to fifty percent of the people are HIV positive. Kibera doesn’t even show up on most maps. Kibera is also a terribly dangerous place. It is not the place you can just walk into uninvited. I have a tour guide named Nashon Opiyo. Nashon will keep me safe from the dangers of Kibera. He told me that in Kibera, the people do not have running water, electricity, or even a dumpster. They use what they call “flying toilets”. Basically, they go in a plastic bag, tie it up and throw it as far away from their home as possible. Nashon told me that the people in Kibera are lucky if they make a dollar a day and their monthly rent is ten to twelve dollars. Even though that is not much to pay for rent in the United States, it takes about half of their income per year. Unfortunately, we are done with our tour of Kibera for today. We will go meet a few people in the morning and then I will be off to a new place in Kenya.