September 26 2009

I’ve been in Nairobi for almost three weeks now, but this is my first blog entry with SFD. You can check out my earlier reflections on my university blog, under Kenya: http://web5.uottawa.ca/ssms/blogs/international/category/kenya/

So far I’ve found my stay in Nairobi very comfortable and enjoyable. The family hosting me is so gracious, my fellow colleges are very professional and welcoming, and the city itself is exciting, interesting and for the most part, I have access to everything I could ever need. However, there are a few negative things about Nairobi you can’t help but notice. There’s the traffic, the pollution and the poverty. Almost every day one of my host family members or my colleagues mentions how the number of cars in Nairobi has probably doubled in the last five to ten years. There were hardly any two-lane roads in the country not too long ago. It’s pretty astounding anyone can afford a car, considering the price of a comparable vehicle here is about double what you would expect to pay in North America, because the tax on cars is close to 100%.

I was a little surprised by the number of high-end cars on the road, especially the prevalence of SUVs.  I had previously considered those vehicles a fetish of the over-consuming (compensating) North American, which by the way, has recently fallen out of favour with the average Canadian consumer, with rising fuel prices and increasing awareness about climate change. To the dismay of the “Big Three” automakers in North America, the bulky SUV production lines quickly needed to be converted into high-efficiency-good-fuel-economy car production lines. This was only made possible with financial rescue packages from government. However,  the need for an SUV, most of which look like battering rams with metal cages on the front, has yet to dissipate in Nairobi. As Uncle George’s brother so aptly put it, “It’s hard to take the jungle out of a Kenyan,” meaning there are very few road rules abided by in the streets of Nairobi. We see mutatus drive on the median, over sidewalks and nearly run over people, just to get ahead 3 or 4 cars in the jam.

After last weekend at Lake Naivasha, I’ve noticed the air pollution in the city more this week. The sky is permanently tinted grey even when it’s sunny. Kenya’s Nobel laureate, Wangari Maathai, has warned against the negative consequences of urbanization, plunder and destruction of flora and fauna for decades, and the evidence is rich in Nairobi, there are many polluted waterways, and not much green vegetation and many people are struggling to subsist in the massive urban slum dwellings of Kibera.

I heard Nairobi referred to as “Man-Land” before I left Canada, and the name rings true. As I drive to and from work each day, the sidewalks are lined with men in worn and dirty clothing, walking from Kibera in search of work. There are about 15 men for every woman we pass. The men are usually migrants from rural farms, which are dependent on rainfall and desperately dry at this time. The men are trying to earn wages, to send back to their wives and children. Uncle George explained to me that many of these men will walk to construction sites every day to see if there is work, and there is no formalized employment contract. This leaves them vulnerable to unsafe work conditions, as there is seldom sufficient safety equipment for the informal workers, and they are more likely to accept unsafe and under-paid jobs. Another common means of employment for the men is working in the mushrooming supermarket centers, such as Tusky’s, Uchumi’s, and Nakumatt. These African-ized Wal-mart knock-off retailers are owned by Asian firms, and hire staff for 10 days at a time to avoid paying full-time wages and other contractual benefits. While the stores offer the same modern conveniences I’m accustomed to at home, only a small pocket of the Kenyan population can afford to shop there.

On the news a few weeks ago, was a positive announcement that the government had built a subsidized apartment building for slum dwellers to move into, as pressure increases to “clean up” and “develop” the slum land. While the building would house about 500 residents, the slum population is in the thousands, so needless to say, it’s a drop in the bucket. What’s more likely driving the government’s “good will” to slum dwellers, (who are reluctant to move, since they know the price of the subsidized houses- although more comfortable with electricity and running water- is more than they can afford without stable employment prospects) is the sky-rocketing real-estate market. Expensive apartment buildings are shooting up everywhere, side by side with the slums, because they are affordable for the relatively wealthy Kenyan Diaspora who send money back home, to purchase property and rent it out at high prices, in order to retire comfortably. Another popular source of real-estate finance is Somalia pirate booty (I just had to write “pirate booty!”). One of my co-workers told me successful pirates take their ransom money and invest it in expensive Nairobi real-estate, and also profit handsomely from renting out units at prohibitively high prices. The Kenyan government knows there is profit to be had by attracting foreign investors, and clearing the urban slums for expensive real-estate is a simple cost-benefit analysis.

My research participants will mainly be from another large slum, Dandora, which also faces some urban land reform legislation. Many buildings are unsafe, and informal structures made from scrap metal, wood and canvas, which serve as retail outlets for a myriad of cheap items, will be removed by 2010. This may mean improving the organization and safety of the urban environment, but it will threaten the meager livelihoods of many poor people from this area. I anticipate that early next week I will embark on focus group discussions with Deaf community members from Dandora. Unfortunately, there was a tragic bus accident, involving a Deaf man, the week I arrived in Kenya, and he died a day after he was released from hospital. This has been a major loss for the Deaf community, and Deaf Empowerment Kenya (DEK), the organization I will be working closely with, has taken on a lot of responsibility advocating for a proper police investigation, and offering support to family and friends of the deceased. For now, I am outlining the types of interview questions I would like to ask Deaf persons related to HIV and AIDS education, treatment, and care, and setting up meeting times with DEK.

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