Youth Gangs

Idle youth, minimal education and lack of government policies make for a strong brew of illicit activities. Thus far, I have mainly posted about all the positive choices the youth of Kenya are making. They are forming co-operatives, NGOs and self-help groups, working to uplift the community. However, there is certainly another side to the coin of youth choices in Kenya. In Kibera and Dandorra, there are networks and networks of gangs which circulate around theft, murder, armed robbery, drug addiction and weapons trading. I have never felt unsafe walking through the ghettos, never felt worried, never recognized that indeed, dangerous does exist here.

I was walking down to Kibera to collect some water samples that I was preparing to distribute around Dagoretti corner. I brought Shuba along with me to help carry some water. We were walking the scenic backroads down behind the Nairobi show grounds. Soweto Academy is located in the Soweto area of Kibera, and is right on the outskirts of Kibera where the slum ends and Ngong forest begins. Having walked this route several times before, I proposed we take the back road into Soweto. The back road is made up of dirt roads where cars pass and apartments are constructed, a place that was allegedly reported to be dangerous. However, there were women collecting firewood, children passing through, men carrying water jugs. It was a beautiful day and I was practicing my Swahili as we walked and talked down to the school, I felt safe.

The back road dividing Ngong road from Kibera

Out of nowhere I look up and the next thing I see there are 4 youth men surrounding us with guns. Right before he spoke, the leader cocks the gun, bullets are visible: “get down! Get down!” Shuba knows exactly what is going on and gets on the ground first, I follow. The men are speaking fast and excitedly in Cheng “where’s the money, where’s the money?” Unfortunately, I had only brought 50 shillings (about seventy five cents), and immediately regretted that I didn’t have more money to appease our robbers. They went through each and every pocket looking for money “where is it, where is it?” Looking into their eyes, it was evident they had taken substantial drugs. They stepped on Shuba’s back so he couldn’t move and checked all his pockets also. Not satisfied with a mere 50 shillings, they took my backpack and left us sitting there by the road. I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Should we run out of here? They took my phone and my keys. Shuba told me they would drop my keys, and we could pick them up as soon as they had walked a considerable distance away. After waiting a few minutes, we went back to the road so I could pick up my keys, which sure enough, were waiting in the dirt. Still shaky, we begin walking away from the back road towards Kibera. Thank God they didn’t do anything else to us. Here, there are no limits to what youth gangs, high on drugs, conscience compromised, will do.  

We start walking back to Kibera. I look behind me and spot four young men. “Are those the same four youth?” There were four men quickly coming down to the hill towards us.  “Yes, just keep walking, don’t run…” so we walk trying to maintain calm, I look back again and the youth are now running towards us. Shuba grabs my hand and yells “we go, Jahwil, we go!” I lose my sandals and attempt to keep up with Shuba who has a death grip on my wrist. We are running flat out down hill through bumpy rocky dirt roads. I knew I couldn’t keep balance and thought that if I fall, they will surely catch me. Too late, I fall and roll hard. Shuba picks me up, grabs my hand “we go, we go”. Again, running downhill, full-out, with one hand being pulled by a super fit Kenyan youth, I lose my balance and fall again hard. This time we have reached the bottom of the hill. Shuba stops, sees me on the ground, comes back to pick me up and we run. Barefoot, we reach the base of the slums. We hear shouting in Cheng behind us. The translation “Now its your turn, first we are going to deal with you (Shuba) and then we will get to her, now you are not going to get off so easy, this time we are going to do bad things”. Luckily I couldn’t understand what they were saying at the time.

Outskirts of Kibera

The people on the outskirts of Kibera have seen what is going on and are scared. Everyone looks wild eyed as we pass them. They run inside their houses and close the doors. I can sense their fear and how powerless these people feel. We hear someone yelling behind us “you can stop now, they are not coming after you”. Shuba looks behind, they are just trying to trick us, they are still coming, running, guns in the air. My clear headed friend takes us through a labyrinth of slum houses and trenches. Both my feet are bleeding and as I run I step in dirty sewage, though I don’t care, I am scared. “Can we hide somewhere” snaking in and out alleys and trenches, Shuba telling me “don’t stop”. He later explains to me that if you try to hide, they will find you in someone’s house and they will be able to do whatever they want with you. Also, you can’t run straight as these gangs are known to shoot, you must zigzag until you are out of danger. Looking back, the youth are no longer within our sight. Thank God, we make it up to Kibera drive, the main road in Kibera.

My feeling is that the immediate danger has passed; nonetheless, we are not about to stick around long enough to know if the gang was still looking for us. Both of us are coughing hard after that extreme burst of activity. The lungs don’t know what hit them and I am wheezing and sweating, and feel the pain of my sprained hip and scratched up feet. Limping, barefoot, covered in dirt and blood, we walk out of Kibera. Now that the danger has passed, concerned citizens are inquiring as to what happened “what is wrong? You are hurt? Let us help you”. Shuba brushes them off, we are fine, Jahwil, let’s get out of here.

I don’t feel safe until we hit the main road ‘Ngong road’ and I see the abundance of cars and even police (whom I don’t normally care for, but am grateful for now). After a long walk back, we finally make it to Dagoretti. Walking through the doors of my house, we tell my roommate, Mai, what had happened. She takes care of us for the rest of the afternoon. We clean-up and though I am incredibly sore, I am incredibly incredibly THANKFUL. Thankful for this opportunity to be in Kenya, for my friends and family, for Shuba who saved me that day, thankful for LIFE.

April has come

I am wishing everyone a thoughtful Easter weekend this year. In Kenya, the churches have been celebrating since Friday morning. You can hear them worshiping from the early morning way into the night. The church in Kenya is big business. In fact, for individuals who have no means of supporting themselves, some will write sermons and then deliver them on the buses. People will pay 10 - 50 shillings after the sermon has commenced and the bus preacher can move on to another vehicle. I always find it somewhat amusing that one can be a preacher hustler. That aside, whatever your faith or religion is, there is great value in taking some time and recognizing the creator, respecting life, respecting the great fortunes you have in being born in this world, and accepting the huge responsibility that each person has been given.

I am very excited to report that my Satelite group: Kush-Ites Family is now a fully registered CBO (Community Based Organization). There were several layers of bureacracy we had to wade through in order to achieve this goal. It involved writing up a constitution, establishing a mandate, holding an election, and running around from office building to office building to get permission from the Chief and the District Officer. I spent many mornings waiting in long line-ups to talk to the Chief. When I finally got the chance to speak with the Chief, I was, thankfully, full prepared. I had all the documents and details that we needed to register. I met him with the Chairman of our CBO, Joseph Maina, and we diligently explained what the CBO was setting out to accomplish. The Chief was looking for a bribe and was trying to make us look bad. This is how our conversatin went:

You must have three copies of the members list
Yep, we do
Well you can't just register, you need meeting minutes and a Constitution
Yes, we have it here
You need to get an application form
Yes, it is right here
Well.... you need to go and buy some folders for us to store it in
..... Right

We spoke to the Chief on Friday who told us to come back on Monday so that he could review the Constitution. ... Right. Anyways, on Monday we returned with folders in hand, only to find out that our original copies, that we had left with the Chief, were misplaced. Several hours later - they were found and away we went to he Ministry of Social Services to send in all our documents for registration. Fastforward two weeks: we received our certificate and are a fully registered Dagoretti CBO. We are now undergoing research to establish some income generating ideas. We have discussed and looked into various businesses such as: Building and renting out trappers (forms for building), outside catering (tents, speakers, etc...), garbage collection, car wash, restaurant, chicken/goat/guinea pig rearing, charcoal businesses, among others. We have yet to come up with an idea that we want to follow through on, but the research and ideas keep coming each week. There is a saying in Swahili: Subira kuvute heri. Patience brings success. Of course, at some point patience turns to stagnation, and nothing gets accomplished.

While I am never short on things to do, a new project has emerged. A project that I just couldn't say no to. I was walking through Kibera and stopped to buy some sakuma from a mama selling from her kibanda along the main drive. Being a mzungu (foreigner), I regularly hear pleas for assistance. This particular mama told me she had a daughter who had finished Form 4 (Highschool), but had no job, no opportunities, and needed some help. She asked if I could help her daughter out. I told her that I would be back tomorrow, and to bring her daughter so that we could talk. Sure enough, the next day, her daughter (Lucy) is waiting for me at her mom's kibanda. I tell Lucy that if she is serious about doing something, she should bring 5 friends together and we could pool our resources and discuss some options. We decided to meet the following week.

Lucy (foreground) and Mwendi (background)

I made up a members form to get the girls contact information, interests, abilities, skills, and limitations. I handed the forms out at our meeting, and sure enough, there were 5 young women (all young mothers) eager and willing to do SOMETHING. At that first meeting, it was revealed that the women were interested in forming a self-help group. A self-help group is a formally registered group in Kenya whereby its members work together to help one another out. We are now working on registering the group, we are short 3 members for registration (total members is now 7). We have already written our Constitution and have established regular meetings and weekly dues. Once we find three more members who are serious and willing to join the group, we will start the bureacratic process of meeting Kibera's Chief and ministry offices. We have also come up with a number of income generating ideas. The women have been diligent in doing their business research and we have struck many businesses off the list that are not looking profitable. Currently we are looking into three ideas: making charcoal briquettes, opening a cereal shop, making and selling soap. In fact, this morning, I am heading out to Karioko market to see how feasible it will be to make charcoal briquettes.

At Lucy's house in Kibera (our meeting place is a little cramped)

Though I have spent considerable time with my two community organizations (Kush-Ites and Kibera Ladies), I am still very much a member of Shiriki organization. In fact, I have some very exciting news to report. I previously mentioned that we had entered a blog competition about Youth in Agriculture. I found the blog competition online, and thought it would be an interesting way to record our progress, train staff on blog creation all the while sharing our ideas and methods with the world. The competition has now closed and though we didn't win, we were the runners up in East Africa!!! This means that they are going to pay for one of our members to travel down to South Africa to network about agriculture, meet other youth with similar mandates, and receive the runners up prize. Praises to the Most High... I am so excited about this outcome. It is always nice to see projects come to fruition. I am off to the Maragua farm this Easter weekend to see the progress that has been made there.


The water is running over at Soweto Academy. The water pump has now been fixed, and I have been helping Elsie market the water to different shops, stores and Health clubs in Nairobi. I have not spent too much time in marketing before, so this was new territory for me. However, I found it enjoyable to talk about Soweto Academy, and how the water profits go back into the Kibera community. I have signed up many new shops from my Dagoretti community with the HELP of several KUSH-ITES members who have taken me around, exhausting their connections in the Dago community.

Mama making mandazis Dago

For those of you who follow my updates, I know it must sound like I am involved with many different things. I have used this year as a time to scope things out, learn about the language, culture, lifestyle and challenges of living in Kenya. I have more that I wish to update, but this morning, I must get going. Wishing everyone many many blessings.