Kenya: $60 for a slum tour
In Nairobi, local companies offer 'poverty tours' of the city's slums.
By Bethe Dufresne | Correspondent 10.22.09
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
NAROBI, KENYA - No one talks of going on safari, Swahili for “journey,” when venturing into Nairobi’s massive Kibera slum. But a degree of preparation, vigilance, and discretion similarly applies. No flashy jewelry. Wear sturdy but throwaway shoes, as you may wind up ankle deep in open sewage. And no photographs without permission from the guides, most of whom, including William Ogutu Okoth, live in Kibera. Population is estimated as high as 1.5 million, exploding as more rural people flee severe drought, and HIV is epidemic.
“How are you? How are you?” children chant at foreigners, reaching to touch white skin. Tips and treats are frowned upon, Mr. Okoth warns.
Okoth often guides tourists looking for the “real” Kenya or who just want to gawk at one of the undisputed wonders of the slum world. Unlike the Giraffe Park or Karen Blixen (“Out of Africa”) House, so-called “poverty tours” are advertised chiefly on the Internet by tour companies such as Niche Africa Holidays and Victoria Safaris.
Tours are touted as a development tool, playing to customers’ charitable instincts. Alex Ndambo arranges tours of all kinds for Real Adventures Africa from the lobby of Nairobi’s Boulevard Hotel. He says tours took off in Kibera after it played a big role in the 2005 film “The Constant Gardener.” The government calls Kibera an illegal settlement, yet approves tours, Mr. Ndambo says, because they inspire charitable giving. A typical tour costs $60-$80 per day, he says, estimating that 35-45 percent gets passed on to the community.
Critics say slum tourism just helps the government evade its responsibilities, and that some aid organizations use poverty to fuel business. Numbers are hard to verify in Kibera, and no one has polled resident attitudes about putting their poverty on display.
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2. TATSU | 10.23.09
In Africa, the structure of its agriculture is fundamentally wrong due to colonial exploitations. African nations mainly plant cash crops such as coffee, cacao, sesame, pepper, and so forth, despite terrible starvation. UN WFP is distributing developed countries’ aids, theirs own farm surpluses, but it’s just a temporary expedient.
3. Ari | 10.29.09
My wife and I took an informal tour of the slums with someone we met on the street in Nairobi. It was a most remarkable experience! I walked away with this: It is not poverty that makes a place dangerous or even a bad neighborhood. Indeed, it is the probably the poorest place I have ever seen and it was very safe.
To respond to what Katherine said, I felt a little funny about taking pictures and (gawking) the conditions these people live in. However, the general concencus in Kibera is that people on the outside first need to be educated about Kibera. Then perhaps they will help out in some way on their own free will. Come first, worry about the toys and books later.
4. Bernard Pollack | 11.18.09
We [Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg] are currently traveling throughout Eastern Africa and just wrote this two-part column with videos and photos for the Huffington Post on Urban Farming in Kibera.
Here is the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernard-pollack/urban-farming-in-kibera_b_359145.html
You can follow our travels at Border Jumpers [www.BorderJumpers.org] or via Twitter @borderjumping
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1. Katharine H | 10.23.09
I live near Kibera, and most of my friends who live there would find one of these tours repulsive. One of them commented bitterly the other day “we are not the animals of the Maasai Mara for tourists to come take pitcures of.”
Most of Kibera is safe to walk around in the day and if you really want to go slumming it, I’d suggest getting a load of some second hand toys of books (or paper and colouring pencils) for a school in the slums. You could take the teachers for a soda afterwards and walk around with them if you want.