Slum life a tailor's tale from Nairobi's Kibera

KIBERA, Kenya, Dec 12: Crispian Amolo has no electricity or running water and shares a hole-in-the-ground toilet with about 90 people but at least he does not have to scramble for dollar rent every month.

Evicted before for not paying the landlord on time, the 54-year-old tailor built a one-room mud shack four months ago for his wife and seven children in Nairobi's Kibera slum -- a sprawling area of shanty houses, open sewers and mud lanes.

Perched on a hillside, his new shack is similar to the other tin-roofed homes Amolo has lived in during the 30 years he has been in Kibera.

Just 3 metres by 3 metres the single room serves as kitchen, living-room and bedroom. Amolo and his wife sleep behind a curtain, while the children sleep on mattresses and blankets on the dirt floor.

Plastic sacks cover holes in the walls, which are held up by wooden poles. An iron sheet secures a tiny extension -- covering the alley next to the neighbour's house and giving the family extra space for storing clothes and pots.

''At least this is my own home. There is no harassment as I don't have to pay rent every month,'' Amolo said, warming himself by a small fire that serves as heater and cooker.

''But I would like electricity and a cement floor.'' Power lines run near Amolo's house but he can't afford to hook up to the network. He would like his own toilet but again, the cost is a factor. Instead the family use over-flowing holes in the ground.

Amolo is just one of an estimated one billion slum dwellers in the world. Kibera, east Africa's largest slum, houses over 600,000 people in a packed 3 km corridor.

The world's slum population is set to grow by 27 million per year between 2000-2020, according to the UN Human Settlements Programme UN-HABITAT.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 72 per cent of the urban population already live in slums, and the annual growth rate is the highest in the world at 4.53 per cent.

In many ways, the urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa are worse off than rural populations. Children living in slums are more likely to die from water-borne and respiratory illnesses than rural children.

PROMISES OF IMPROVEMENT

Like the hundreds who flock each month to Kibera for its low-cost housing, Amolo arrived in the ramshackle settlement from western Kenya hoping to carve out a better life -- but his dreams were soon shattered. ''Life is not easy here,'' he said. ''When it rains the water comes through and look at the problem with the latrines.'' Amolo, who suffers from asthma, rents a shop with another tailor. If there are no customers, he goes home where his wife Rhoda carries out her daily chores -- washing in a bucket, cooking on a fire and caring for the children.

Everyday, Rhoda, 43, treks past mounds of rubbish and slime-green waters flowing through the foul-smelling shantytown to buy water by the bucket at a communal tap.

She then lugs it up the slippery muddy trails, past women selling neat pyramids of vegetables or baskets of clucking chickens, and barefoot children playing beside trenches clogged with sewage and buzzing with flies.

''It's difficult for parents here,'' she said, worrying particularly about her daughters and the danger of rape and exploitation.

''There are these boys who come give the girls money and try to lure them away.'' The world's most deprived slums -- in terms of access to basic services and adequate shelter -- are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 51 per cent of the slum population lacks two or more of the following: access to water, sanitation, durable housing and sufficient living area, according to the UN .

The world has promised to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. While some north African and south Asian countries have reduced slum growth in the last 15 years and invested in improving slums, sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind.

GANGS AND ROBBERS

Amolo holds little hope for positive change.

''There is no way any leader can come here and assist us. I have never seen a political leader give us a helping hand,'' he said. ''They should help with security, allocate funds to help the community. They should build more public latrines and taps.'' Security is a major issue in slums, where gangs often rule and police seldom enter except to tackle major riots.

Each night, Amolo's family bend a nail into a door latch and pile chairs in front of the door. They have been robbed before.

''People tend to walk, stand outside your house, sometimes they are armed,'' Amolo said. ''There can also be clashes because people come from different ethnic groups.'' Rhoda wouldn't mind paying rent again if she could have a safer house. She feels exposed on the less cramped plot where their new house stands.

''I don't feel safe here,'' she said looking down on the mass of corrugated roofs below her house. ''I wish for somewhere near a road ... or the water taps.''

REUTERS