My guide does not get many requests to visit Kibera. Amazingly enough, another guide in his office knew an ‘elder’ of the slum. An elder is an elected official. They contacted the elder, and the next day we met him to ask permission to visit Kibera.
As in Mali and most other places in Africa, it is necessary to ask the chief of a village for permission to visit and/or work in his village. That is exactly what we did. The elder brought me, my 2 guides, and the driver to meet the chief. Now Kibera is actually more than a ‘village’. It has a population of between 800,000 and 1,500,000 people (estimates vary widely). But the chief is the head elected official over. We waited about 30 minutes to meet him in his office (refer to pictures here). Although the official language of Kenya is English, and I tried to speak clearly using simple language, the guides said that the chief did not understand me. I showed him my Peace Corps (PC) ID card, but he did not know what the PC is. He did not trust me, and he would not give me permission to enter Kibera. The guide said that white people regularly come and offer absolutely no good. He did however say that we could speak with his supervisor, the District Officer (DO). The DO is a government appointed official. We went to his office, waited another 30 minutes or so, and I presented my case. After seeing my Peace Corps ID and listening to me for 1 minute, he gave his permission for me to visit Kibera. He was very literate and knew exactly what the PC is.
I proceeded into Kibera with my group of 2 guides, driver, and the elder. It was very important to proceed with the elder. Without him, I may not be safe, and I certainly could not take any pictures. With him, I felt completely safe and I could take as many pictures as I wanted. I mentioned to him that I wanted to learn about the experience of small businesses in Kibera. He introduced me to 2 small businessmen. One made jewelry from metal. He was not particularly friendly. The guides think that he had been taken advantage of by white men in the past. He said that his greatest challenge was getting raw materials for his work, and finding markets to sell his products. Now, he uses his cellphone to make marketing contacts. He also walks to a cybercafé to use the Internet to use email.
The 2nd businessman also made jewelry. He name is Raphael Otiri, and he uses discarded animal bones from local restaurants to make bracelets and necklaces. The name of his business is “Kibera Recycled Bone Products”. As part of the work of the business, he teaches widows and orphans the skills they need to make the jewelry. There is a very high mortality rate in Kibera due to aids, tuberculosis, and diarrhea. In fact, his own sister and brother-in-law died of aids, and he is now supporting their 2 children.
His successes are many. He has a fabrication area, he is teaching people less well off than he how to try to earn a living without turning to prostitution or other less safe pursuits, and he makes very beautiful jewelry (of which I bought several pieces). He also has several challenges. His biggest problem is that he wants a fair share of the sales price of his products. He has an idea of what his jewelry sells for in the USA, Europe, and Australia, and he gets only a very small share of that price. He wants to work with honest middlemen.
Honesty – a big concern in business. I mentioned to Raphael that many people in the US do not trust businessmen in Africa. He said that honesty is a 2-way street. Within the past year, he met an American in Nairobi who expressed an interest in his jewelry. The gentlemen said that he did not have the money then, but if Raphael would send the jewelry to him in Washington DC, the he would send the money back to Raphael. Raphael sent about $2000 worth of jewelry to Washington. He never received a cent.
Raphael had several other needs. He wants a better workshop, a display area to better sell the products, and help with funding school tuition for orphans. He is even concerned with obtaining patents for his work to reduce the chance that the intellectual rights will be stolen from him. Raphael also wishes that community banking and micro-finance loans were available to him to help improve his life and his business. But he and everyone else in Kibera is at a huge disadvantage with regard to banking. They are squatters; therefore they do not own the land that they live on or the homes that they live in. Therefore they have no collateral to use in securing bank loans, even if they were available. Raphael does not know how to get around this problem.
With all of the problems that he and his family faces, Raphael was very warm and friendly to me. He was reaching out in a brotherly way, and included a request for help. To give you another sense for life in Kibera, several of the opening scenes in the movie “Constant Gardner” are filmed there. I have asked Peace Corps Kenya for small business support in Kibera. Perhaps we can all reach out in some way to support our brothers and sisters like Raphael and his wife.