Infrastructure to help build an economy
Even as violence and poverty wash over their country, some entrepreneurial Kenyans are getting the economy back on its feet with the help of a government program. Sarah Nics has the story.
Kenyans rebuild a stall in a burned market in the Kibera slums of Kenya in an effort to revive the economy after widespread violence. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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TEXT OF STORY
Bob Moon: Police fired off tear gas to break up a street demonstration in Nairobi this weekend. Hundreds gathered to protest the sharp rise in food prices.
The high cost of food is just another depressing obstacle to overcome in a land where 5 million people live in slums and more than 80 percent of them have no steady employment.
But there's a government program aimed at turning Kenya's poorest residents into thriving business owners and building the East African nation's domestic economy.
From Nairobi, Sara Nics reports.
Sara Nics: In the heart of Nairobi, you'll find the sprawling slum of Kibera, population 700,000. It's the largest slum in East Africa and one of the most densely packed, with more than 1,000 people per acre. Entire families live in one-room mud brick houses along garbage-strewn footpaths.
Despite the poverty, Kibera is also a hive of business activity. Over the noise of hammers and saws, Michael Ongaga Adhiambo shows off a hand-carved piece of furniture that was built in his Kibera workshop.
Michael Ongaga Adhiambo: This is a couch. It is a sofa. It is called a skeleton sofa and we are selling it 120,000.
That's about $2,000 U.S., a steep price in a country where the average wage is about $1.50 a day. Adhiambo says he's able to sell high-end furniture only since he moved his shop to one of the few roads through the slum. Despite the mammoth potholes and heavy traffic, customers from wealthy Nairobi neighborhoods can drive in to look at the goods he has displayed on the roadside.
Leah Muraguri is director of the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Program. She says many people living in slums are hardworking and entrepreneurial.
Leah Muraguri: There is a lot of activity, especially on carpentry, soap making, bread making, bakeries...
So Muraguri's program works to provide roads, electricity and other basic infrastructure for small businesses. A new road in Kibera is already having some results.
About a mile from the new road, Joyce Awino sells fruits and vegetables from a small stall in front of her house. Here, the slum's footpaths are so steep and muddy that Awino has to carry all the produce in on her back. She says a little infrastructure could go a long way.Muraguri: You can already see a lot of traffic, unlike just a few months ago.
Joyce Awino: [Speaking in Swahili]
If there was electricity, Awino says, she could keep the business open after dark. Streetlights would also help to keep her shop and her seven children safe, and safety is a big concern these days after riots, rape and arson broke out across Kibera following last year's elections in Kenya.
Muraguri says the chaos delayed some of their projects, but has not changed one of the program's main goals: helping people create their own jobs and businesses so they don't have to rely on handouts from the government or international aid programs.
In fact, furniture-maker Michael Ongaga Adhiambo says a paved road in front of his workshop would bring in more business. Then he'd be able to employ more workers, including the most desperate Kiberans, those who have been orphaned by HIV.
Adhiambo: Even right now, I have three orphans inside here. I am teaching them.
Employment for one person at a time -- that's how the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Program hopes to improve the livelihoods of the poorest Kenyans. If the 5 million people living in slums are able to buy, sell and produce more, the entire economy may grow with them.
In Nairobi, I'm Sara Nics for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From Raleigh, NC, 06/06/2008
Check out the work of the organization, Carolina for Kibera: http://cfk.unc.edu/
From GA, 06/02/2008
Hello, when I learned earlier that you would be doing a story about residents of Nairobi's low income Kibera district of Nairobi using entrepreneurship to improve their lively hood I was very excited.
Sara you did a wonderful job in presenting this story. My favorite part, was when you spoke with Leah Muraguri of the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Program. She made some very valuable point, especially regarding the weak infrastructure found in this part of Nairobi. The contributions of Awino and Adhiambo were also very relevant.
One thing that can be said that would not be an exaggeration is that this story is not unique to Kenya. There are similar stories of entrepreneurship bursting at the seems across the nation. It has made a very tangible impact upon the lives of many in the country. I think that your bringing awareness to programs such as this one that address infrastructure gaps do a great service to developing nations. Because if someone wants to do something to help they can support a program such as Leah's, they can purchase from some of the vendors that you mentioned, or they can support local efforts through websites of Kenyan entrepreneurs like mamamikes.com.
Thank you for the excellent story.
Benin "Mwangi" Brown
Editor
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African Path
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