Kenyan farmers flock to slums

August 19 2009 at 12:15PM

By Francois Ausseill

Nanyuki, Kenya - In Kenya a bruising and recurring drought is driving huge numbers of subsistence farmers away from rural areas, where they are increasingly reliant on hand-outs, into congested slums.

Full article:

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=87&art_id=nw20090819114625323C286589[/color]

Pippa,

"Slum" is a relatively new word in the Kenyan lexicon.

A few years ago I met an elderly man who was born and raised in Nairobi and I said he must have seen many changes to Nairobi in his life. He looked me in the eye and said, sadly: "Yes, there was an especially beautiful place I used to walk to when I wanted to get outside of the city and experience beauty, peace and nature, it had a beautiful pond and there were beautiful birds, antelope and zebra - a forest just outside of Nairobi - called "Kibera".

Of course he was talking about a place that is now a slum of about 1.5m people.
If that doesn't but things in perspective - I don't know what does.

Kat

Actually Kat this week there is a rather long article in Germany's leading weekly magazine "STERN" about Kibera and the circumstances people are living there.............
Amazing that these folks have - despite everything appears unorganized - a very well functioning structure and admin on Kibera.
Nonetheless - particularly during rainy season people suffer due to infrastructure.

The conclusion in that article was: In the year 2020 half of the world's population will be living in slums like Kibera.

That is more than frightening me.

Humans have all sorts of science and there is an "overkill" not only in atomic weapons but also in wealth around. Humans have managed to almost destroy the earth within 150 years.

We have money to lead wars, send shuttles to the moon and even photograph Mars' surface and take samples from there. At the same time we allow humans to live such a miserable lifes having no access to fresh water, medicine, hospitals, schools.

I guess a major uprise is overdue - not only in poor countries - also in the wealthy Western countries to change the tune.