KochFM - the first ghetto-station in Nairobi

2011-02-09T12:32:00.001+02:00

What If The President Dint Make The Nominations.
Consultation is mouthfuls word no wonder all our politicans, legal experts are falling over each other trying to clarify whether indeed the President and the Pm did consult. On their part the two principles seem to have a different understanding of the word consult. For the president consultation is the act of seeking advice before arriving at a solution, while the prime minster believes consultation is seeking advice and coming up with a joint solution. Let’s live it at that but make a point of looking up the word in the dictionary. At this point allow me to make a Hypothesis, what if the two principles did indeed consult, bounced a few names here and there and left the matter at that to pick it up later.Considering the president was leaving for the Au summit that same day that’ makes lots of sense.It has been said that the president wanted to make the nominations before presenting Kenya deferral case before the Au,and that’s why the nominations were made then,for all its worth I don’t think that could have influenced any decision,it’s a nomination with a long process to follow. Back to my hypothesis From this point some back office team picked up the consultation and came up with the final list. Looking at the kind of politicians that surround the president that may not seem like such a big deal. It does not take a political scientist to figure out that the two principles may both be right.Picture this the president is backing on a smooth implementation of the constitution to secure his legacy and making such a gaff doesn’t seem like something that he will do.On the other hand the prime minister is a man under seige with an excellent Pr team which am sure has warned him if the nomination row ends up in parliament the Pm may face an embarrassing defeat which may cause him some political mileage.. That leaves us to the conclusion someone else made the nominations and who ever it is or they: they are the same people who have Mr kalonzo running errands to save the ocampo 6,apparently to clear the way for some form of alliance that will lock the prime minister out os State house in 2012.Thats just me either am watching to much Csi or we are in big trouble. for now I will look up the word consultation and see what it really means.

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2011-02-02T12:14:00.003+02:00

2011-02-02T12:14:00.001+02:00

presentation to Ford Foundation

2008-12-02T09:13:00.000+02:00

KOCH INITIATIVES:
PRESENATTION TO THE FORD FOUNDATION DELEGATION
BY
OBONYO RAPHAEL
02-12-2008
______________________________________________________________________________

Introduction
Allow me to congratulate the new Vice President of the Ford Foundation and to welcome her to Korogocho which is a place we call HOME. This visit comes at a time when Kenya is recuperating from the post elections violence that rocked the country after the disputed presidential election results of 2007. The violence was characterized by death, displacement and destruction. In particular, over 1,500 innocent lives were lost while scores of people were injured. More over, about 400,000 people were internally displaced and a myriad of livelihoods were punctured. Sad to note is that the violence was mainly consigned to areas inhabited by the poorest of the poor like urban slums that include Korogocho. Currently, the soaring food prices and escalated cost of living are making life unbearable for many poor Kenyans especially those in the urban slums.

On a more positive note, this visit comes at a time when Kenya and the United States have provided the world with a remarkable symbol of HOPE through the President-elect of the United States Barack Obama who is a son of a black African from Kenya. Obama’s victory as the 44th president of the United States of America gives us a sense of pride. Our pride for Obama’s victory also springs from the fact that he is a purveyor of hope who endured insurmountable challenges to occupy one of the world’s coveted positions. His victory provides humanity with HOPE and an opportunity for change that the world yearn and need. On a personal note, I feel empowered by Obama’s victory which affirms to the human race that our problems are never beyond our powers to solve them and that we can be what we want to be, we can shape our own destiny.

In this respect, we are elated by the gesture extended to us by the Ford Foundation who has yet again accorded us the rare privilege and opportunity to host one of their senior officials in our humble HOME at this time when the whole world is hopeful that a new dawn has come. Such solidarity is what the whole world and in particular the people of Korogocho require. I am told that her interest to visit Korogocho was spurred by the inspiring stories that she received from some of her team members who had visited us earlier. Doubtlessly, her visit today is confirmation that the many guests who visit our Initiatives have become our great ambassadors who are telling our story as it is. They are telling the whole world the true story of Korogocho, they are telling our story of HOPE.

Korogocho
Korogocho is one of the over 25 slums that are estimated to provide shelter for more than 60% of the Nairobi City’s population. Sad to note is that the 60% occupies just over 1.5% of the land as the rest of the land is occupied by a handful of affluent people. A charismatic and outspoken priest by the name padre Alex Zanotelli who lived in Korogocho for a decade has described Nairobi as heaven and hell side by side as it reflects the inequalities of the highest order. Indeed, the economic apartheid that characterizes our country and urban areas has spawned enormous slums like Korogocho that have become a nightmare. More over, residents of the slums like Korogocho are regarded as illegal squatters by the Government. As such they are denied essential services and permission to grow and develop.
Korogocho was founded in 1950’s when residents were brought from different parts of Nairobi to create room for the ‘expansion and development’ of the capital city. Today, Korogocho hosts a dense population of about 100,000 people and is the third largest slum in Kenya after Kibera and Mathare. Like is the case in most slums in Kenya, Korogocho that houses over 100,000 people is characterized by overcrowding, lack of basic infrastructure such as roads, inadequate essential services such as education and health, substandard sanitation, and widespread violence and insecurity. A wide range of governmental policies and public sector programmes have particularly failed to address problems experienced by a majority of citizens who live in the slums. Most of the residents do not have access to public social services and basic amenities. In Korogocho residents suffer the indignity of poverty and are either unemployed or survive on irregular/informal jobs and trading. A majority of adults living in Korogocho are casual labourers earning poverty wages in the Export Processing Zones and othr industrial factories. Some of the residents are self-employed selling food and vegetables at the Korogocho market and along the pathways of Korogocho. No doubt, unemployment is rampant particularly amongst youth who lack education and life skills to fit in the dynamic job market. Most of them are desperate to make a living and end up engaging in illicit and illegal trades a fact that explains the high crime rate both within and outside Korogocho.

Insecurity
The aforesaid factors would perhaps help us to contextualize and understand the causes of insecurity in Korogocho. The problem of insecurity is as old as the history of Korogocho and complicated as the problems related to land, inequalities, poverty and a litany of other problems. For a long time the name Korogocho echoed insecurity. This is because of the high levels of crime, substance abuse and other forms of violence, violations and exacerbated poverty in the area. However it is vital to point out that Insecurity in Korogocho is brought about by the struggle for survival by the residents most whom are consigned to poverty and a myriad of poverty related problems. Insecurity is not the real problem; it is in fact a manifestation.

As I have discussed prior, the problem of land and in particular land tenure is a time bomb that cause insecurity. In addition, lack of employment opportunities for young people, lack of basic services and exacerbated poverty. In addition, bad governance, lack of necessary Government presence, inefficient police service & Government agencies amongst others form the bulk of the problems that perpetuate insecurity. Nevertheless, the high levels of inequalities & imbalances in the country especially the gap between the rich and the poor could be singled out as one of the factors that fuel insecurity in Kenya and more so in Korogocho.

A great son of Kenya once said that the greatest problem in Kenya is that it is a society of 10 millionaires and 10 million poor people. Consequently, he paid dearly with his own life. But that is the bitter reality that continues to worsen by day. In fact I can safely say that the number is today 10 billionaires and 30 million poor people. No doubt, the people of Korogocho form the bulk of the 30 million Kenyans who languish in poverty and experience unprecedented levels of insecurity. But is this really acceptable?

Human Rights
Human Rights and Security are inseparable. Insecurity is not only a Human Right violation but it also perpetuates Human Rights violations. Insecurity denies human beings the opportunity to enjoy all their Human Rights. It denies people a requisite environment and ingredients to grow and develop. In situations of insecurity education and all other essential services remain inaccessible, lives are lost, people are maimed, property vandalized, development is hampered and more violence is manifested. Not to forget the fact that people remain susceptible to a litany of other problems and violations. This explains in part the politically instigated clashes that have been witnessed in Korogocho in the past and most recently during the post election violence of 2007/2008.

While it is true that insecurity has major repercussions on all facets of the society, Korogocho Youth have suffered immensely both as victims and as the alleged perpetrators. They are constantly harassed and tortured by police to confess ‘sins’ some they never committed. Some of those who commit the ‘sins’ lose their lives to bullets, mob injustice and so on. Statistics by various authorities including the Kenya Police show that Korogocho is one of the leading urban areas in crime and is also regarded as a den of criminals. This explains in part the high levels of police harassment in the area and the high numbers of youth from Korogocho who have died in the hands of the police or the bulk who occupy the prison cells. This is because we have a confused system of governance that blames people for being poor. They assume that insecurity problems can be resolved by the bullet. This explains why the budgetary allocation for security continues to heighten to purchase sophisticated weapons to fight crime. The money would be invested in construction of more factories, markets and other worthy investments to create more opportunities for young people and further remove them from precarious activities that cause insecurity. No wonder dozens of young people from Korogocho are today behind bars, others form statistics of those shot by police or lynched by mob, some are joining sects where they feel they can find redemption; others have eloped and migrated to other areas where police harassment is dismal and so on. Is this the solution to insecurity?

Human Rights defenders are not spared either. They are regarded as enemies of the State and are at times forced to bear unbearable burdens and to pay immeasurable prices for their activism. This happens when you have a Government that is afraid of the voice and will of the people, a Government that does not have people’s interest at heart and is afraid when people mobilize and organize. To exemplify, in July 2006 Francis Ngira who is one of our luminaries was arrested by Police after leading a protest against forceful eviction of innocent residents by Administration Police in Korogocho. All this was meant to scare and to silence him and other progressive and reasonable voices that were arising to campaign against impunity. Similarly, in May 2008, Charles Kimathi Wambugu who was a progressive youth leader and a Human Rights defender in Kasarani constituency was picked by police officers and has hitherto gone missing. Such cases whereby youth and in particular Human Rights defenders are arrested, intimidated and disappeared with by police are today very common in the urban slums.

The foregoing is a catalogue of some of the gross violation of Human Rights that people in the urban slums continue to court and are forced to live with everyday. In addition, to their impoverishment and poverty, they are forced to pay dearly for their poverty.

Community Togetherness as Social Security
But that is not the end of our story. About a decade ago, the youth of Korogocho set on journey to rewrite and tell the full story that Korogocho is not all about suffering, poverty and insecurity. Like Obama, they emerged in tens, hundreds and now thousands to mobilize, organize and to give Hope to the people. It is delightful to note that Korogocho is today referenced as a symbol of hope and an inspiration by many people. Agents of change like the Miss Koch Initiative, Koch FM, Koch Monitoring Team, Cup Kenya and more recently the Kasarani Youth Congress have contributed immensely to the transformation and search for better services and dignified livelihoods. They have helped the community to realize that they (community) have a fundamental role and power to seek and find solutions to their problems. It is probably true that the residents of Korogocho are today more empowered and better organized. They have taken the front seat as the survivors and wearers of the shoe who know exactly where it hurts. They have refused to die! They are using their togetherness to cope with harsh realities and define new possibilities. They are committed to the renaissance that will see the whole of humanity rejoice and enjoy their human rights.

The real hope that was sowed by Initiatives like Miss Koch has today become the magic bullet that is doing wonders in and to the community. There are positive indicators that the efforts are bearing fruits. Today another name for Korogocho is hope and determination to survive. It is then no wonder that people who visit Korogocho today more than ever before come to show solidarity not charity and sympathy. People no longer visit Korogocho to mourn poverty and insecurity but to celebrate the people’s power ad how people’s unity of purpose can be a social security.

Koch Initiatives
Koch Initiative is a forum that brings together specific groups from Korogocho that are united by a common vision of a better Korogocho, a better Kenya & a better World for all. Currently it is composed of selected groups that epitomize the Hope desired by the urban poor like those inhabiting Korogocho.

i) Miss Koch Initiative
Miss Koch Initiative is a renaissance of the Korogocho youth founded in the year 2001 as an intervention against socio-economic and political problems that robbed people of their Human dignity, Human rights and freedom. No doubt, Miss Koch Initiative is today referenced an epitome of people’s determination to define their own destiny. Its four substantive programme include: WADADA- Girl rights, empowerment & education, DARAJA-Human rights, governance, & peace, BADILIKA-HIV/Aids, Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health & Child development, BURUDIKA-Talent, skill and capacity development. True to its mission, the Initiative has inspired the establishment & growth of numerous initiatives in Korogocho and elsewhere.
ii) Koch FM
Koch FM is the first community owned ghetto radio in Kenya. It was founded in 2006 by the youth from Korogocho. The radio is an extra ordinary innovation by the community youth who are truly committed to provide the constituents with the requisite information that is needed for their effective participation in the socio-economic and political processes for greater achievement. The radio inspires community pride and confidence as it amplifies the voices of the people and ensures that they are clearly heard. Its editorial focus includes human rights, governance, gender, health, environment, entrepreneurship, religion, sports, child welfare amongst others.
iii) Koch Monitoring Team
Korogocho Monitoring Team was established in 2006 by people of Korogocho to enhance citizens’ participation in the search for good governance, development & freedom. The Monitoring Committee is today registered as the first Residents Association in the urban slums. It has done a remarkable job of entrenching accountability and transparency in Korogocho. The team has been undertaking an intense campaign that seeks to emphasize the significance of people’s participation in making decisions that affect their daily lives is vital as it ensures shared responsibility, sustainability amongst other benefits.
iv) CUP-Kenya
The Coalition of the Urban Poor in Kenya was founded by youth from Korogocho and currently runs four programmes key programmes with focus on poverty reduction and wealth creation, Human Rights & social justice, HIV/Aids & Reproductive Health, Information Communication and Documentation The organization has played a key role in informing and emancipating the community in various ways through the community newspaper Koch Mirror.

v) Kasarani Youth Congress
Kasarani Youth Congress is a youth Initiative that seeks to strengthen unity, connectivity and collective action amongst youth in search of new socio, economic and political order. The initiative envisions a society with new socio-economic and political order that acknowledge youth identities and freedoms and deal appropriately with their needs.

e) Challenges
i. Though Initiative is meant to strengthen and drum up support for community in the national affairs, it is at times quite difficult to do this in view of inadequate capacity and funds. The initiative would achieve much more if they were adequately supported with the requisite, financial, human, material and technical resources.
ii. The initiative is also constrained in terms of capacity. Capacity development like training, skill promotion and talent nourishment would be essential for the sustainability and growth of the initiative.
iii. The Initiative lacks adequate functional base. Our wish has been to put up a magnanimous centre in Korogocho that would house the initiative and accommodate the ambitious ideas, growth and the overwhelming demands. This is constrained by our squatting at the community centre that also houses various other institutions.
iv. The initiative requires more strategic and programmatic partnerships with like minded organizations. Most organizations are only able to support activities and not programmes proposed by the initiative.
v. Though the Initiative has been able to do a remarkable job in Korogocho it lacks the much required exchange programmes and exposure forums that would provide the initiative with the opportunity to learn and share experiences with other people.
vi. Forging closer links with service providers and other people in authority to deliberate pertinent issues that affect the people of Korogocho remains a major challenge though important for our initiative.
vii. Youth and girls in much of Kasarani Constituency are still virtually absent or poorly represented in the decision making of any kind. They are excluded and at the same time they exclude themselves. There is need for constituency wide conscietization.

f) Way forward
We deeply appreciate the role that people of Korogocho and numerous organizations have played and continue to play to rebuild human dignity and ensure enjoyment of human rights by all. We pay special tribute to members and cohorts of the Koch Initiatives that have made remarkable contribution as purveyors of HOPE in our community. We salute their efforts and solidarity. Finally, we are inspired by the affinity and commitment that has emerged from Ford Foundation. In particular, we are grateful to the Ford Foundation for the honor and the rare privilege they have bestowed on us to host their Vice President. We trust that you shall continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges that deny us the right to live dignified lives. THANK YOU ALL!

Yes We Can by Rapho

2008-11-11T01:06:00.000+02:00

YES WE CAN!
I TOO CELEBRATE OBAMA’s VICTORY
By
OBONYO Raphael[1],
Nairobi, Kenya
________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday the 5th of November 2008 will forever remain a historic day in the human calendar. It is a day when the whole world rose to the good news of the election of the first ever black president of the undisputed powerful nation in the world. It is on this day that one Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America after a resounding win. Doubtlessly, Barrack’s candidature for presidency had received resounding endorsement not only from Americans but the rest of the world and as such his victory is celebrated far and wide.

Obama ascent to Presidency is a fulfillment of the dreams of his predecessors who fought hard to ensure equity and justice in America and the entire world. Some of them who did the painstaking job as pace setters, some who fought and condemned injustice with boldness resilience and some who launched the dream of a more equal and just society. The litany has names of Rosa Packs, Martin Luther King Jnr, Malcom X, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko amongst others. Obama joins this rank as the epitome of the achievement the black history.

Prior to his election and out of immeasurable curiosity, I read the two books that give a snap shot of Obama’s history and his dream for the future. I first read his autobiography, the audacity of hope where he outlines his dream for America coherently. It is in this book that Obama interrogates and shares his views on how he thinks America should review, reconstruct and face the insurmountable challenges that it faces as a nation. What I liked most in this particular reading was his candidness, boldness and insightfulness. One thing that is outstanding in his articulation in this script is that any person who aspires to lead at any level must have a dream and vision for his or her project. Martin Luther King Junior summarizes this so well when he says that ‘a man or woman who does not know the reason why he or she is alive is not worth living’.

In his second autobiography entitled the dreams from my father, Obama narrates his history and gives the readers a glimpse of what he is made of. It is in this book that Obama narrates his divided history, his youthful dreams and seeks to give meaning to his life. He accords the reader the ingredient that causes him to tick. He embodies all virtues of incisive leader interalia brilliance, diligence, insightfulness, optimism, humility, boldness and so on. It is in this book that one realizes that Obama lives in the future and not the past. He is a forward looking gentleman who faces the future with hope and buoyancy, he is an initiator who has made history throughout his life. He began his career as a humble community organizer with a passion to transform the desperation and the disorder of the down trodden people in the society, he was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, he was once the U.S senator from Illinois and is today the first ever Black President elect of the United States of America. Like Winston Churchill would put it, Obama draws from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

Obama’s victory as the 44th president of the United States of America gives me a sense of pride. This is a man who is a son of a black African, a Kenyan and a luo from Alego where my auntie is married. Notably we share the O factor because we are all from the Lake region but do I say! My pride for Obama’s victory also springs from the fact that he is a purveyor of hope whose painful and perverse black history on provided him with more calories to yearn and work for a better future. He embraces the notion of justice and freedom for all and trod the rugged path and endured a gallery of weighty episodes with humility and optimism, diligence and focus and overcame surmountable challenges to accomplish the great dream. His victory provides humanity with an opportunity for change that the world has yearned for centuries. Indeed, I feel empowered by Obama’s victory which affirms to the human race that our problems are never beyond our powers to solve them and that we can be what we want to be, we can shape our own destiny. Yes We Can!

[1] The writer is the convener of the Kasarani Youth Congress and can be reached through Email: raphojuma@hotmail.com or Cellphone: +254 725 278 758

Regards
Obonyo raphael

KochFM inside Radio Clave

2008-09-14T06:57:00.003+02:00

Yenny at Radio Favela in Brazil

2008-09-12T05:01:00.003+02:00

Yenny with the crew at Radio Favela in Brazil..let the talks begin.

Oti

Spot the guest@KochFM

2008-09-11T07:07:00.003+02:00

Stevo and Isabel giving Fumi some hands on.

Oti

KochFM @WSF Brazil January 2009

2008-09-10T03:58:00.003+02:00

Hot on the heals of the Swedish visit KochFM will pitch tent in January in the Favelas in Belo-Horizonte in Brazi. In my humble opinion this will be a historic meeting given the inspirations we draw from Radio Favela! The fact that the WSF will be in Brazil once again will provide KochFM with the opportunity to connect with the global movement...

As details fall into place we invite you to join us in this journey.

Oti

KochFM representing in Sweden

2008-09-08T15:31:00.003+02:00

Our friends Shiko, Toto, Roba and Raphael are alle representing KochFM at the Informal Cities Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden.

Goto radioclave.se and leave a message to the messengers.

KochFM live on Radio Clave in Sweden today @5pm Swedish time

2008-09-07T10:46:00.003+02:00

Radio Clave is guested by Koch FM!

Radio Clave has invited the Kenyan radio station Koch FM to broadcast live on September 6 and 7. Roba, Shiko, Rapho and Big Toto from Koch FM will be broadcasting live in Sweden, from Dieselverkstaden in Sickla as a part of the exhibition and meeting: Informal Cities (www.informalcities.org).

Listen live for the first time online

www.radioclave.se

We are in Solidarity

Oti

Message to the Miss Koch Assembly 2008

2008-08-21T08:37:00.001+02:00

Message to the Miss Koch Assembly 2008

Otieno Wandei
Perth Western Australia
22 August 2008

Certainty of Purpose

Two events stand out today that embody the chosen theme. First is the Olympics’ being held in China, initially there was a lot of scepticism as to whether China could indeed pull it of - what with their human rights issues and a major outcry on pollution? But China has given the world the most memorable spectacle the world has ever seen so much so that Britain is now questioning itself whether the budget allocated for the Olympics is adequate. If that concern were to be unpackaged it means the Almighty Britain is questioning whether they can achieve what China has done or more so do even do it better! What the Chinese have proved to the entire world is that if people have certainity of purpose and then they will be un-stoppable. The fireworks at the opening ceremony perhaps signify how high China has pushed the Olympic legacy. Not so far from China though there are different kinds of fireworks as Russia pounds Georgia in what appears in my view to be a warped sense of purpose. The unfortunate occupation of Georgia is a pointer of lost purpose, lost cause.

These events might seem so far removed from the reality of life in Korogocho but I point them out as important and significant lessons of what can happen if we are to commit ourselves to our given objectives and aspirations. They also paint a context of the times we live in, times when it can be very difficult to define what we believe in, what we stand for and how we want to achieve our goals.

When Miss Koch emerged as an idea/concept it was viewed by some as un-achievable dream. We were saying that we the youth of Korogocho will take the centre stage in addressing our issues. This was at a time when the image of the youth of Korogocho was at rock bottom. It was during the era where the relationship between the youth and the community was characterized by suspicion this is aptly captured by the interaction between the police and the youth. The situation was so dire that every young young person was percieved giulty untill proven otherwise. But over the years I believe we have contributed in changing the image of the youth by addressing some of the fundametal assumptions that were held by the community and the young people. Miss Koch was also viewed as counter culture for we were reconstructing the notions of beauty and how young people relate to their identity. We were allowing the people of Korogocho to project what they held dear and once this was achieved we moved to embrace our beauty and used it as the basis to treat ourselves with respect and dignity and expected the same from the community. We realized that once we redfined who we were it would be possible to rally people to defend what we had defined as precious and worthy. Our work was also viewed as subversive as we were targeting the centre of political power, urguing for a paradigm shift. Asking difficult questions about governance and providing evidence of how things could be done differently to address the imbalance that had lead us to untold suffering and misery. We were presenting an alternative model of responding to issues like distribution of bursary, relating to people, communication e.t.c. We had numerous run ins with the powers that be, but I am reliably informed that the administration is now waking up to the reality and embracing some of the ideas we put forward.

With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to say that our analysis of the situation was correct and our response justified because over the past seven years we have continued to grow and make an impact at local, national and international level. I want to believe that we have achieved all that because we have certainty of purpose.

It would be misguided to assume that we have grown without pain, or that we have travelled without holding our breath or looking back and even at times despairing. The biggest challenge in my view has been internal harmonization and the recent loss of organization money. For me the priority of the organization must be to ensure that the membership is walking at the same speed and pace otherwise those who are running fast ahead will get tired of pulling the weight and in the process may be burnt out or worse bruise those who are moving slowly. The reverse is true that those who feel are following from behind also can be disillusioned and lose sight of the gaol, they could also be so heavy so as to drown those ahead. So as an organization we must periodically listen for feedback with sincere and earnest will to accommodate each other.

The reported loss of Miss Koch money again points to the fact that there could be a weakening of the trust we have bestowed on each other and a need for greater scrutiny of how we are conducting our financial affairs knowing that anyone who handles money is at great risk as there are so many forces at play to corrupt our souls. If one was to take a quick look at other agents of change in Korogocho one would be able to appreciate this fact. The St Johns Catholic Church for instance had its fair share of incidents at the beginning, so did the Tumaini Clinic (am not updated of recent events). That is not to say that it is excusable for anyone to work against the collective aspirations of the movement but I use these cases to illustrate that we are working in an environment that is quite unfavourable and any success we achieve we must guarded religiously.

It takes people of great courage and determination to achieve purposeful existence and I see all of us in Miss Koch born with that capacity. While there is need to acknowledge the people who sat around the table and brought into existence the organization, time has come now when we need an entirely new breed of leadership at the helm of Miss Koch. This leadership in my view should be individuals who joined the organization after inception and thus in theory have been mentored. Having new leadership is also strategic as it clearly shows that as an organization we have taken in the lessons we have learnt seriously-that given an opportunity and right structures we can all be leaders. I speak from a general point of view as I do not have the benefit of knowledge of day to day affairs of the organization....

Miss Koch continues to provide for me so much more than just a social gathering, it has provided for me over the last seven years with radical ideas, a place to sharpen my wits and I am better at what I do today because I am surrounded by people who we share a purpose.

INVITATION TO THE MISS KOCH ASSEMBLY 2008

2008-08-21T03:03:00.001+02:00

19th August 2008

Greetings to you all!

The Co-Founders of the Miss Koch Initiative have the pleasure to invite you to Miss Koch 2008 Assembly which will be held at the Miss Koch Community Resource Centre on the 24th August 2008 from 2 to 4 p.m.

The theme of the meeting is: Certainty of Purpose

The assembly will feature presentations and discussions from the co-founders, invited Government officials and other distinguished speakers. This will also provide participants with an in-depth perspective on lessons learnt and the future engagements of the Miss Koch Initiative.

Your participation will contribute to enhanced effectiveness, sustainability and advocacy of the Initiative.

Thanking you in advance.

Yours Sincerely,

Obonyo Raphael

CO-FOUNDER

Building a Reading Culture in Korogocho Slums

2008-07-25T02:44:00.001+02:00

There is a common joke in Kenya that if you want to keep your money safely, keep it not in a bank but a book! Nobody will touch the book to get your money! This joke illustrates how far the reading culture is from many Kenyans. Those who study do it merely to pass examinations and forget about the hell of reading. It is therefore not surprising to hear students who passed their final national examinations a few months ago swear that they would fail the same examinations if they repeated them today. Why should they pass again when most of them burnt the mid night candle to save notes in their heads to pass their examinations and once this was accomplished, they deleted everything from their minds and donated their notes and text books to friends?

One institution is out to put an end to this culture of being allergic to reading. The St. John Community Library is in the fore front in encouraging communities in Korogocho not just to read for examinations but read for life too. The library located at Korogocho Slums in Nairobi stocks about nine thousand text books relevant for curriculum coverage and general reading fort life. Every day, hundreds of readers from Korogocho, Dandora, Baba Dogo and Kariobangi estates throng the library to read. Over eighty per cent of the readers are in primary and secondary school students though the numbers of students from higher institutions of learning are on the rise. The readers have not been disappointed with the services offered since four librarians are always available to serve them, listen to them and answer to their requests of new text books they need purchased.

While the library has grown rapidly in the last ten years, it is still underused according to the librarians. While the turn up of students using the library is overwhelming, few adults out of school turn up to read. This is because the community has not yet understood the larger role the library plays in transforming their lives. They have not come to terms with the richness of acquiring widespread knowledge which shapes their global perspectives in looking at things hence empowering them to participate competently in national building. To most of the adults, the library is a God sent messiah which has saved them from buying text books for their children but it has nothing to do with it.

Aware of this misunderstanding, The St John Community Library has organized a library day to sensitize the community about the services available for different classes in the community and how they can acquire knowledge through these services. The day whose theme is ‘Usomi Ni Ujuzi Na Uwezo’, will be marked on Saturday 26th July 2008 at 9.00am at St. John Catholic Church play ground. Several activities have been lined up for The Library Day which has been sponsored by Concern World Wide. The main activity will be essay writing and poetry competition on the topic ‘Importance of The Library to the Community’. Winners in the categories of primary school pupils, high school students, elders, women, teachers and youth out of school will be awarded. Other activities will include video shows, exhibitions, dances drama and speeches from invited guests. The Library Day has targeted readers from different backgrounds in the community to create awareness among them to read for life even among those who have not been to school.

By Oluoch Japheth
The Writer is an employee of The St. John Catholic Church.

Tsvangirai's Daughter speaks out

2008-06-24T05:43:00.003+02:00

It is a sunday afternoon am in the middle of Perth Australia outside a church biulding. A small crowd is already gathering, there are a couple of television crew setting up their gear.

Rimbidzai Tsvangirai is dressed in a white tshirt with MDC slogans written all over. She is twenty two years old and today for the first time she is here to make a statement on the political situation back in Zim. The atmosphere is electric.

The rally starts with heated Zimbabwe chants..

New Zimbabwe!

Mugabe Out!

MDC a new beginning!

The convenor of the rally narrates how Zim has fought against oppression for a long time and the songs that they used to sing when ZanuPF was spearheading the independence struggle are still relevant today. He invokes the spirits of the ancestors to join in the liberation of Zimbabwe...

The next speaker is a representative from the Workers Union of WA who points out that the struggle of the people of Zim is the struggle of the worker, it is the struggle of men and women who desire and wish for peace...There is a mock election held to gauge the view of the Zimbabweans present in the rally...

We then sing the national anthem of Zim and Rimbidzai is invited to address the rally. We all inch foward with anticipation.

She strides and reads out a prepared speach. She talks about the countless times that they have prayed for the safe return of their father from the hands of police. She pledges to campaign for democracy in Zim for as long as she lives. She urges the Australian government to tighten pressure on the Mugabe regime and also extend aid to those suffering as a result of the violence.

"I will soon return home once we attain democracy" the crowd cheers at every pose...

I leave the rally wondering why history is so cruel, repeating itself albeit in different countries. Mugabe blatantly refuses to conceed defeat. He points out the freedom struggle and yet today majority of people in Zim are worse off than ever. It does not matter if you are killed by a bullet fired by an African soldier or by a white farmer both kill..It does not matter that you are bashed by a black Mugabe supporter or a racist white farmer both intimidate, maim and intend to oppress.

MDC has pulled out of the elections and this might be the last straw..but we must commend the oppossition for containing their supporters and for being peacful during this tyring times..

MDC and the oppossition should now seek massive support locally so that even if Mugabe wins it will be with the smallest number of votes ever..One danger though is that MDC supporters might be targeted if they do not go out and vote..my be they should still go out and spoil their votes..

I am reminded of the road that Kenya has travelled and how little the Mugabe regime seems to have learnt from other happenings the world over..

The best description of what is happening in Zim is that the regime has eaten the fruits of independence now they want to eat the indepence itself!

Wake up and smell the rain!

Oti

KochFM featured on Swedish TV

2008-05-07T23:00:00.001+02:00

Check out this feature on Korogocho on Swedish TV

Kawive's take on Participatory Theatre in Kenya

2008-05-02T05:41:00.004+02:00

©kawive, wambua

The Artists as the Managers of the
Political
Transition in Kenya*
A paper by
Kawive, Wambua

*First presented at the KOLA Conference on East African Oral Literature,
Kisumu, Nov. 2005
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 2 ©kawive, wambua

Background
(a)The Kenyan Experience
Kenya, once described as an island of peace, has indeed know very little peace for the
man and woman of conscience. This individual has been faced with the task of society
mobilisation for change and development. The process of conscietisation of a community
or a nation must take in to consideration the “important questions about national or group
exclusivism and the impossibility of avoiding of syncreticism” (Ashcroft et al, 30).
Though here they refer to language appropriation, it is important for us to look at it in
relation to the political space in Kenya.
Some communities (and inevitably classes) were evidently left out in both the discourse
of community development as well as the material and resource mobilisation.
When the communities or groups of individuals rose to assert themselves, then there was
Kamiti, there was the Nyayo House cells, and there was a number of other outlandish
government sponsored atrocities. Consider here the crackdown on Mwakenya, on FERA
and that on the perpetrators of the 1982 coup that came before. The country was steep in
a plastic silence akin to that of isolated graveyards.
This was against the background of constitutional amendments that saw the declaration of
a one party state, the withdrawal of the security of tenure for judges, and the banning of
any other political activity apart from the praise to KANU –institutionalised as Mother
and Father of the nation.
Moi was a culture. He traversed the political, social and economic landscape like a
colossus. There were Nyayo Tea Zones, Nyayo bus, Nyayo pioneer car, Moi schools and
university…Moi this, Moi that. The state broadcasting station KBC took about one third
of its prime news time talking about the exploits of Moi. The whole country was
hypnotised by the presence of Moi. At one time when he had to leave the country to seek
medical attention and there was no reporting, the country was gripped by tension. People
demanded to know his whereabouts. It was not out of love, but out of conditioning.
Pavlov could not have done better.
Take for instance the Nyayo philosophy. It was not that there used to be no love or peace
or unity in this country, but when the president made those three the rallying point of
Moism, it started looking as if he was the one that had invented the words. In the advent
of multiparty democracy, he warned that there would be chaos, ostensibly because the
country was not ready for multipartyism. And indeed there was violence. The ethnic
violence that rocked the country in 1992 and 1997 (significantly around election time)
lend credence to his word. And he was re-elected on both cases to take charge of a ship
that could have sunk were it not for him.
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 3 ©kawive, wambua
Pressure from the international community and human rights watchdogs led to the
repealing of the Chief’s Act in 1991 and the subsequent adoption of multiparty politics in
Kenya. This paper does not intent to cover the political rigmarole of the period preceding
and after. But for two five year terms, it was a multiparty of a single party, otherwise
called “Multiparty ya Moi”. This image was very important in that it captured the irony
of democracy in which one individual/party dictated the trends. This was occasioned by
the question of resource mobilisation and the use/misuse of state machinery and resource
in politicking. And thus the jinx had to be shaken off and the land cleansed.
This was the thought in the heads of civil society leaders and politicians who had been
locked out of power. They each had tried to go it alone and failed or made insufficient
impact and now they had learned their lessons. This led to the formation of four main
bodies in the civil society: CRE-CO, ECEP, CEDMAC, and the Gender Consortium
Out of these it is CRE-CO that adopted theatre as the foremost tool for implementing
civic and community education. The others also had theatre components but not as
significant as in CRE-CO. The mandate was to work towards sensitisation of the people
away from the characteristic lassitude. It took advantage of the expanded political space
to make it a reality for the people to achieve what they had yearned for and had not been
able to actualise.

(b)Something About the Civil Society Movement.
The civil society movement in Kenya had been bogged down by intellectualism and
extremism. The former gave birth to the later. The players in these societies saw the entry
point as the rampant abuse of human rights by the government and its organs. And so,
like the arrogant intellectuals that they were, they focussed on the extremist conceptions:
reviving the call for a second liberation, resurrecting the freedom fighters creed of
“Uhuru na Mashamba”.
They missed the point that the people’s apparent complacency had been brought about by
the continual betrayal by their leaders. Again, the most immediate need for the people
was reclaiming their lost space in terms of identity, that is, redefining their environment.
It is only after this necessary step that the impact of the environment on the person can be
addressed. Therefore, it was difficult for this crusade to be successful for it is only when
the affected people see the need to change their status (not when they are shown or told
about this need) that viable and sustainable change can be realised.
Many workshops and plays on educating the people on their rights have remained just
that: “supplantations” of information. Not that this was useless. No. It was a useful stage
/process in the conscietization of a disenfranchised people. But change is not external.
You cannot change people. People have to see the need to change.
Human rights activists, either went far too back in history or far too ahead of the people
into the present social dialectic (in regard to universalism and the locus of world trends)
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 4 ©kawive, wambua
and hence were not in tandem with the target groups. Illiteracy has nothing to do with
this. Kenyan’s are a very resilient people. The question was whether the people had
enough will to act. The mundane issues of earning bread and the business of having sex,
giving birth, bringing up children and burying the dead were greater concerns than human
rights. An abstraction cannot beat the simple/usual things of life. Indeed it bores people.
The prevailing need was that the link between these mundane issues and their causality
relationship with human rights and the socio-political and economic situation had to be
made. And by the people. This was the entry point of IPCET.
Theatre in the four organisations named above, and especially CRECO, was a key
element. Its mandate was to adopt a language, mode and image whose metaphor would
be that of a people disenfranchised and which would then incite the people towards
taking control of the political aspect of their lives. It had to be simple enough yet
sufficiently complex to evade the still simmering heat of KANU’s tyranny.
The Power of Theatre.

(a)Cultural Expression and Identity
Kenya, on emerging from the dark ages of colonialism has never been able to find its
identity. The almost blanket adoption of westernisation has received more support than a
cultural renaissance. But for the postcolonial country, the reality of cultural hybridity in
the country’s expression is as inevitable as the presence of other artefacts of the
previously dominant culture. The artist is thus charged with finding the locus of culture
without necessarily antagonising the society. One of the things that the artists delicately
did was the choice of the forms of expression. C J Odhiambo’s observation in a paper
“New Wine In Old Wineskins: Exploiting Indigenous Folk Art Form In Our
Contemporary Pedagogical Practices In Kenya” that
the (con)temporary pedagogical practices must indeed, with all intent and
purpose, take cognizance the import of approaches of the “past”. For without the
past, the present and the future will be bereft of any meaning and significance
(118)
seems most significant in the CRE-CO play design, for it was an integration of forms that
the community had in their lore. In the nationwide campaign, the drama kept on remaking
itself. A skit that was ideally an offshoot of the original play was permanently called the
“Matrix” and could not get a Kiswahili replacement. This is what Ashcroft et al call the
use of code switching and transcriptions: a “most common method of inscribing alterity
by the process of appropriation” (72). Though in their book they talk of vernacular
transcriptions, it is clear that here the vernacular (strictly used here to mean local
language) appropriates and transcribes the English (foreign language). The skit was
performed in Kiswahili but the word was constantly repeated and never translated. It is an
uncommon word even among the elite. For non-academic set-ups like a village in

Mavindini where the people who are learned are teachers and the chief (and mostly the
word is not in their active vocabulary) this word worked wonders. Toothless old women
would see a drunk man talking nasally deflected English to his wife and would
immediately and unreservedly laugh at the stupidity of men, soon recoup themselves and
either give him a name or declare for all and sundry that such a man is wont to do ill to
the family.
The image of the learned individual as a leader and a community development mentor is
then interrogated vis a vis his quality as a person on the ground (not a heavy-vehicledriving-
grinning-son-of-so-and-so-who-wants-us-to-follow-him). In this case it was a
celebration of cultural bastardisation and or interrogation of cultural identity and the
acceptance of hybridity. Thus the learned and the “other” felt at ease in the interactive
space.

Larry O’Farrel in a landmark paper, “Building a Better World Through Drama
Education: Educational Drama as a Catalyst for Cultural Identity and Community
Development” explores the use of ritual drama in community development. The school
model he uses is in tandem with idealist development agenda: the reinvention of the
society. He argues that:
the renewal of community is central to postmodern epistemology. The individual
exists, not in splendid isolation, but as an interactive member of a diverse
community, embedded in a matrix of traditional values and practices. In such a
complex the structural imperatives inherent in humanist thinking – the cult of the
creative genius, the judgemental bias of education, the strict separation of high art
from popular culture – all prove hopelessly inadequate as means to achieve even
their own central goal of liberating the individual. (5)
And thus the role of theatre as a cultural tool of reinventing the individual and of
reconstructing identity becomes imperative. The culture of hero worship and of fixity to
channels of communication that are ideally external, i.e. not in the interest of the person
to whom the communication is directed, had to be eliminated so that the community
could get a new lease of life.
Dan Isiko Kisense in his paper “A Theatrical Approach Towards Attaining a Barrier Free
World” argues: “theatre obliterates boundaries, cultural norms and offers the most
desired and most effective communication not only (to) the masses but also policy
makers” (77)
The cultural situation in Kenya was (and is) no different from the one that Mzo Sirayi in
a paper “The Impact of a Cultural Bomb in South Africa” saw in South Africa. He says
that cultural groups were mobilised on short notice to perform on official functions, to
give them a face of inclusiveness whereas these people had not even been sufficiently
facilitated. And then when they performed, they played to the political axis and are not
essentially aware of the fact that that “delicacy” they give to state players can be their
own weapon of cultural reorientation. He says “South Africans have to be challenged
and conscientised about the importance of decolonising the mind and the indigenous
cultures and link them with development.”(42)

And this can only be done in educational drama. The reason is simply that drama
provides a situation in which the protagonist and antagonist share a space in which they
conflict and reconcile. Decolonising the mind, though it has often been used in the West
versus Orient dialectic by such scholars as Homi Bhabha, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and
Edward Said, in this case it applies to the challenge to the organs of discourse
“origination”. Mumma, in his thesis, observes that
Above all, in educational drama, the language of drama is accessible to the
participants themselves so that there is a certain understanding (on) how
they are progressing. Within the educational/theatrical/context (this)
provides for a vehicle of participation and a forum and focus for raising
and analysing problem; decision-making and collective action. (433).
Change is the product of the latter. Positive transformation of society is indeed
occasioned by the simplification of the points of conflict and the fragmentation of the
areas of difficult. The society therefore is able to view each vis a vis the social will power
and ability to handle them. Since it provides the opportunity to challenge dominant and
accepted values, drama thus is important in the creation of a counter culture.
(b) Theatre: Some Theoretical Precepts and its Practice in Kenya
Bill Ashcroft et al, in their book The Empire Writes Back, see the multiplicity of
linguistic and cultural forms of literary expression as the onset of a system of
conscietisation, a way towards the reclaiming of the empire from the self-imposed
emperor, a way of creating space for self-identity. Referring to new writings from
countries of the third world, they argue that, “Their literatures could be considered in
relation to the social and political history of each country, and could be read as important
images of national identities” (17)
This is important in the discussion of the artists as the managers of the transition. In the
first place, community theatre as has been explicated in the Boalian ideal is the negation
of the tetrarchial, and Aristotelian inundation of theatre as a whole, the removing it from
the monarchical and ruler orientation to its original place in the hands of the people:
Aristotle formulated a very powerful purgative system, the objective of which is
to eliminate all that is not commonly accepted, including the revolution, before it
takes place. His system appears in disguised form on television, in the movies, in
the circus, in the theatres. It appears in many and varied shapes and media. But its
essence does not change: it is designed to bridle the individual, to adjust him to
what pre-exists. If this is what we want, the Aristotelian system serves the
purpose better than any other; if, on the contrary, we want to stimulate the
spectator to transform his society, to engage in revolutionary action, in that case
we will have to seek another poetics! (Boal, 1979: 47)
These poetics are those of Community Educational theatre. Community theatre has its
inception in the postulates of epic theatre as envisaged by Bertolt Bretcht. Epic theatre
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 7 ©kawive, wambua
entailed the defamiliarisation of the theatrical space, a reorientation of the theatrical
conception of the Aristotelian time in which the role of catharsis was a hallmark of the
tragic to the translation of theatrical images to the reality of the audience member who
becomes an active participant.
Community theatre as envisaged by Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal constitutes a devising
and or creation of theatrical scenarios by members of the community that are used to
launch inter and intra-personal dialogue on issues that affect the community with an aim
of correcting an anomaly or initiating a process of action and thus change.
Ngugi’s experiment at the Kamiriithu centre in Kenya has been oft quoted as a leading
example. Opiyo Mumma in his paper “Drama and Theatre as Modes of Creative
Learning” notes that
education for transformation will help people to become critically creative, free,
active and responsible members of society. In participatory education, participants
are recognized as thinking, creative people with capacity for action and hence it
poses problems in its dialogue and communication. (30)
He explores the Kenyan theatre scene from the 70’s upto 90’s. He notes the kind of
reception that Ngaahika Ndeenda and Maitu Njugira by the Kamiriithu Community
Drama (KCECC) got from the government forces who saw these texts as an affront to the
rule of (unjust!!!) law.
He further explores Aminata and the frustrations that the writer and artists went through
in the 90s when the democratic space was seemingly wider. This goes to show the plan
by the government, like all oppressive governments the world over, to thrive on the
ignorance of the people.
Mumma observes that, Francis Imbuga’s play Aminata “took a leading role in getting
artists together for debates on ‘the role of the artist in time of political change’”. The
Free Travelling Theatre (FTT) and Kenya Drama in Education Association (KDEA)
“formed Aminata as an argument to mobilise artists and cultural workers in the quest for
political change. In this set up, Aminata became a launching pad for futuristic action.”
(Mwangi et al 39)
This “futuristic action” that Opiyo Muma talks about is interpreted as the effort the
actor/teacher/learner and audience/teacher/learner, as participants in the process of
performance and creation of the theatrical piece, take to remedy the issues affecting their
lives (for this matter the political anomaly) that they find themselves in. Perhaps
deserving a special mention is a performance by Theatre Workshop Productions;
“Drumbeats on Mt. Kirinyaga”, a monumental play that used the symbol of the Gikuyu
and Mumbi story as a call for unity to the diverse ethnic communities of Kenya, a call for
reevaluation of our values as a people and to eat fruits together.

Other plays that were significant in the 1990’s were such as Kivutha Kibwana’s Kanzala,
Wakanyote Njuguna’s Kabla ya Dhoruba, Kithaka wa Mberia’s Kifo Kisimani, Wahome
Mutahi’s Mugaathe Mubogothi, Makaririra Kioro, and Mugathe Ndotono among others.
Though these plays lack specific merit as PET or even IPCET texts, they were
unconventional (some even compromising style for messagism) and they interrogated
difference and diffidence in community leadership. These writers as well were prominent
figures in the intellectual and human rights movements and hence had a lot of influence
in the course of action on the educational theatre scene. Their plays, among others, were
the precursors of the underground NGO movement that came up with the IPCET play.
The individual and really forceful activities of civil society organisations like Citizens
Coalition for Constitutional Change (4Cs), Centre for Governance and Democracy
(CGD), and Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) and a plethora of other organisations
suffered the same fate of being but information points for the community. Information,
we should note at this point, empowers, but it is only communication that liberates. And
this key issue was never sufficiently addressed. Art was severally massacred at the behest
of militant advocacy. The exploration of whether or not these interventions led to the
development of a unique form of art necessitated by the milieu of the time is beyond the
scope of this paper.
I would like to isolate the 4Cs and say the following. The organisation started off as a
loosely structured lobby group for constitutional reform. But for three years, its single
programme was theatre. The theatre group used the rich history of oppression in the
country to create a play “Five Centuries” later to become the name of the group. The play
was an interrogation of the suffering and pain the people of Kenya have gone through in
the hands of selfish leaders, the fact of an independence that never was, and the need for
this century to be a century of nation reconstruction and a new constitutional order. This
trend has survived across the years, at times faltering at the intersection of artistic
expressionism and political advocacy.
Towards behaviour change, the clarion call of Kenya Drama in Education Association
(KDEA) was either not well understood or treated as suspect. But on organising a
congress of world artists in the country, a new wave of change was envisaged.
Commenting on the activities of IDEA Congress in 1998, the then Kenyan Minister for
Education Kalonzo Musyoka in a Paper “Powers of Performance: What Theatre has in
Store for Educationists” said:
What I witnessed is testimony that drama is being used as a powerful
medium of communication to expose pertinent and sometimes disturbing
experiences in our society. For instance issues such as corruption, bribery,
immorality, jealousy, misguided ambition, treachery and so on, which
have featured in this congress, educate and challenge the society to
seriously review their attitudes and values. The aim of the student artists is
noble. (Mwangi et al 1999, 12)
Kalonzo also observed that Educational theatre had demonstrated “clearly that forging
unity and a sense of nationhood can easily be achieved”(12). It is in my opinion that the
artist educators were well aware of this and took the opportunity to actualise it.
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 9 ©kawive, wambua
J B Okong’o, in a paper, “Fictional Constructs, The Theatrical Process and African
Communities in Development” observes that the “ participatory aspect between
facilitator and community enables for a fictional process that builds an understanding
through the cooperative construction of an imaginative world…in the process, the
creation becomes an inbuilt feedback system that tests whether communication is
effective.” (286). The artists therefore in the adoption of the IPCET model discussed
here, were sure that the message of change, the element of education had been shared by
both the actor educators and the audience teachers.
Theatre as a Tool in Kenya’s Transformation.
And thus the work of seeking to orientate the Kenyan people towards behaviour change
(from complacency/inactivity to active and effective decision making and
implementation). For this, the following theatrical modes were adopted and duplicated
across the country:
· Story telling
The story of the Lion and the Sungura and their conspiracy in the digging of a well.
In this story, the gullible animals are duped to dig a well and later the lion with the
help of Sungura as a think tank, repossess the well as a private property. The
dilemma is whether the animals should be silent and die in the drought or fight for
their right to access the well. This story was in over 90% cases cited by the audience
teachers as a case of the government fleecing the citizens. Every four out of five
people saw the lion as Moi. In a performance in Machakos, a team of artists was
arrested and spend a long time in the District Commissioner’s office pleading
innocence by asking the officers whether they had never heard the story before. They
had of course, for it is a common story. But they insisted to the chagrin of the artists
that it was mockery to the government. And then one lady artist asked whether her
great, great grandmother, who had told the story to their mother, had lived during
Moi’s era. They were released. Hurrah to the power of the story! In lauding the story
as a future form of Educational theatre, Opiyo Mumma said that:
The storyteller links incidents and events into a narrative construct that
echoes with similarities and a certain meaning. It allows the participants to
at once become the story, the constructors of the story, and the people
living through the story. (412)
· Simple Scenario Skits
1. Based on simple domestic violence against workers.
In this skit, the lady owner of the home gives just too much work to the house
help, including bathing between sessions) so much so that it looks
kola2005/Paper/Kawive/docu 10 ©kawive, wambua
melodramatic. When she goes out, her son makes sexual advances at the girl
and when rebuffed offloads his own share of work on her.
2. Marriage of a beautiful girl: “Mschina Mzuri”
Here a learned and beautiful girl who can’t apparently get a husband decides
to marry the village buffoon without consulting anyone. It was based on the
story told in a popular old song. This skit was useful in appropriating both the
old people’s political space and tradition and/or cultural interrogation.
· Song /dance — eliciting the joy and pain for the people who went down memory
lane, interrogated why we fought in MAU MAU, and catapulted them to the pain
of the present. As well it captured the positivism and negativism of the present
socio-political ethos.
These theatrical pieces were strung together with the use of the Joker- a common
phenomenon in Forum Theatre and the Facilitator commonly used in TIE and TFD. The
multiplicity of form was to ensure maximum output. And indeed there was a great
impact. Theatre was voted the main (best) tool for education by the implementing
partners. Steven E. Finkel, et al in a paper “The Impact of The Kenya National Civic
Education Programme on Democratic Attitudes, Knowledge, Values, and Behavior”
observe:
“NCEP activities were effective in changing many important democratic
orientations, values, and behaviors; coupled with the findings from previous
assessments, there can now be little doubt that civic education can be an important
instrument for democratic change” (vi).
Educational Theatre was a major component of these activities and although the
programme was initially designed after a workshop orientation, the observation is that:
NCEP activities such as drama presentations, puppet shows, and public lectures,
also contributed significantly to changes in engagement and
competence…roughly equal, and in the case of efficacy and intentions to
participate, larger for the other NCEP activities than for NCEP workshops” (34)
This kind of deduction, coming from an assessment of a workshop oriented evaluation
matrix, is indeed a testimony of the fact that the people of Kenya remembered more the
theatrical symbols and images than the rhetoric of the

read enitre document?

A Moment

2008-04-21T15:25:00.001+02:00

A MOMENT!

By Mwashi Litonde Peter.

Think, Think for a Moment,
Of the abilities within you to change,
To change not a moment,
But the world we are at the moment!

A Moment is here for us to create,
And to contribute, at least for a moment,
That which is needed for precious moments in future,
Even if it’s a comment in moment!

At least you and I share one thing, This Moment!
A moment that gives us hope for the next,
Shall we set this moment for positive?
Can we dedicate this moment for change?

This moment comes with a story,
A story of shared- past moments,
Those which are deep within us, for us!
Moments that has made who we are today,

A moment like this can only be special,
It’s new but lives with us forever,
It awakens us to rise up to the occasion!
In a moment, this one will be over!

But imagine how it would turn in a moment,
To utilize the potential within you,
In sharing your wisdom and creativity,
So to have this moment marked and treasured!

Of the Billions of people in the world,
How many moments are those?
At this moment, we can decide to overcome!
And finally at one moment we shall say,
“It’s a moment worth remembering”

Mother Peace

2008-04-21T15:15:00.001+02:00

MOTHER PEACE!!

By Mwashi Litonde Peter

You are said to be a healer,
Or should I say a reconciler?
We are told you comfort and console,
You heal and cure the broken hearts!

But where were you mother peace,
When things went out of hand,
When brother turned against brother,
When “Killing” overpowered you,
It is the moment we needed you most oh peace!

We longed for your presence and control,
When helpless children were mercilessly killed
When women and sisters were being raped,
When neighbors cared no more for each other,
A time when houses were being torched!

Where did you hide yourself peace?
When gun shots flared all over,
When the fire was burning day and night,
When the stones rained all over
And cries filled the air oh peace!

Not to imagine when they shot dead my brother,
When through the sword demise met my mother,
When they stoned to death my dear dad,
When my sister stopped breathing,
After they misused her every opening,
When my family perished in fire!

How come you didn’t show up mother peace?
When grannies were running for their lives,
When the thirst for human blood rocked,
When hate dictated our moves and actions,
More than ever the time we craved for you!

But I have heard the whispers and rumors,
That you showed up on several occasions,
That you knocked on our doors and mind,
That you always clinked in our conscious,
But we decided to ignore you peace!

You only needed our attention and support,
To overcome the ills within us,
You needed us to realize your potentials,
And ability to conquer the unfortunate,
But we were too busy with revenge!

Your voice would be heard calling,
Yelling loudly to us to stop and think,
Asking us to care and reason,
Pleading to us for tolerance and patience,
But we took it as noise and distraction peace!

But now we call upon you mother peace,
That you may forgive us for our ignorance,
And that you remain with us and never leave,
Guide us through your steps, walk with us!
Help us to know you oh peace!

Fill our hearts with your character,
Come to our minds and souls,
Befriend our brothers and sisters,
Let the children respect you always!
Accompany our parents when they go and come!

We cannot afford to be without you any more,
Having you assures us of the future,
You offer yourself to us and between us,
Remind us of your strength regularly
Be first in our differences oh peace!

With you we can laugh and hug,
We can argue and never fight,
We can differ and never be enemies,
For you draw your strength from forgiveness,
And our children can bravely face the future
Leaning on you and referring to you always!

And at last we shall live in freedom,
With confidence to swim out safely,
From situations of anger, hate jealous and revenge,
To the land where you rule and dominate,
Only if we know and embrace you mother peace!
For with peace, we win!

Peace to all!!

Pen and Paper

2008-04-21T15:14:00.002+02:00

PEN AND PAPER

By Mwashi Litonde Peter.

My Son, You are now a grown up Boy,
Although you have come up not with Joy,
There is still hope for you to Enjoy,
Only if you fight not to Destroy,
Make use of this Pen and Paper!

I give you this Pen and Paper,
That you may write of your Past and Future,
Don’t shy away from the huddles you’ve come through,
Write of the forgotten Heroes and Heroines of Our Nation,
Write about their efforts for freedom,
Write about Dedan Kimathi and Tom Mboya
Write My Son with this Pen and Paper!

My Son this should be your weapon,
To highlight of the social injustices you’ve come through,
Write of the Human Rights violations witnessed,
About the children dying from Hunger in the land of plenty,
Mention about the neighbor who defiled your sister,
Write about the impunity with which they Killed!

With this Pen and Paper, You will let the world know,
It will be known of the sleeping teacher in your class,
Let it be known of the cheating and stealing politician,
Don’t forget of the careless local leaders,
Who share the sweat and the blood of innocent,
Write and write with this Pen and Paper!

But again my son,
Be fare with your writing,
Write about the beautiful sites of Nature,
About the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru,
About the Great Rift Valley and Mt Kenya,
Jot of the Kenyan coast and Lake Victoria,
Never forget the Tsavo and the Mau forests!

In your writing, include this Paragraph,
About the Richness in culture of our 42 Tribes,
On this Paper you can draw,
Draw the cows in Rift Valley and North Eastern,
Paint the farming in Central and the Fishing in Nyanza,
Outline the Hard work in western and the hunting in Eastern,
Why not color the tourism in the coast?
Frame all this with the Business in Nairobi!

Continue writing of the abuses in the Industries,
Of the poor wages and Harsh working conditions,
Don’t forget of the commanding and abusive language
Write these in red!
Write about the illegal detentions at the expense of justice,
Write on how you were brutally arrested with no offense,
All these with this Pen and Paper!

Remember on how you were denied a chance,
A chance to compete in a music contest, Your crime?
You don’t have a God farther even though you are talented,
Remember also when you could not join the National team,
Write my Son of the Auditions you never managed,
Full of talent, But you are not known,
Write my son with this Pen and Paper!

Write of the Organization,
That gave you 200 shillings to Riot,
I know you my Son, you are a Defender,
You did this with a passion to change and,
To let your Voice be heard and not for the 200 shillings
But what happened when you were badly beaten by the Authorities?
The Organizers were taken to Nairobi Hospital,
And you were taken to a poor Local clinic!

In your writing, mention this,
Mention on how they preach water and take wine,
Write of the few hypocrites in the name of Religion,
Hiding their real character during the day,
Make sure you include their immoralities,
Write on how they speak of richness in Heaven,
When they seek theirs on earth!
Write my Son, with this Pen and Paper!

Write on how you would like it be,
Wouldn’t life be better if we lived in Freedom?
Freedom to enjoy our Human Rights and Democracy,
How about letting the prevalence of Justice?
Justice despite of our political, economic or social Background,
How better would it be to fairly share our National resources?
It would be a heaven on earth if corruption would actually,
Burn in eternity, It is the heaven we may want NOW!
Write it down My Son, with this Pen and Paper!

But before you write all these, my Son,
Make sure you have enough Ink,
The Ink of Courage and Determination,
The Ink to Overcome Threats and Intimidation,
The Ink full of Energy to Change the World and,
To save Our Nation!

Check if the Ink is enough to Motivate our,
Fellow brothers and sisters to join in,
And guarantee your generation and the future ones,
A better place to live in and a hope to Overcome!
Go on my Son, and write with this Pen and Paper!

Dedicated to the Youths of Kenya!

My Bike

2008-04-21T15:14:00.001+02:00

MY BIKE
By Mwashi Litonde Peter

This poem is inspired by a story of a small boy living as an internally displaced person in the Rift valley Kenya after the post election violence witnessed in the country as a result of disputed results of the presidential election, announced on 30th December 2007.

The violence left over 200,000 people displaced and more than 1000 dead. The worst affected area was the cosmopolitan Rift valley. Women and children suffered the most.

The boy was in the Kenyan media on the material day he went back for his bike. I can only imagine his feelings as he awaits what the future holds for him and many in the camp.

I once owned a bike, a good bike,
This bike was part of me,
A treasure that I can’t measure
It perfectly, suited me, served me!
A bike that no one couldn’t like!

It would take me to school,
I would use it to go to the shops,
And more so to visit my friends!
With my bike we all shared a ride,
One after the other, together we enjoyed.

But I left my bike behind, out in rain,
When everyone was running for their life,
How come I didn’t remember
That with my bike I would be faster?
My bike, I undermined its potential!

It has bean worrying me much,
Of what begot my dear bike.
Today I ran miles back to find out,
At this point tears fill my eyes,
And not that my bike is not there,
But of the condition I found my bike!

Full of rust, it is won out,
It cannot function at the moment,
The chain is dry out of oil,
The tires are full of punctures and wholes,
I can only carry my bike on the shoulders!

What pains me, is the neighbor, my neighbor
Who warned me not to dare come back,
I wish he new the pain in me of my bike!
A bike that was well functioning,
But it will need a serious service to serve!

My bike will need a scrub and a new paint,
White I propose, to look new!
A Lubricating oil from the city of tolerance
New tires that can endure this journey of democracy,
And stronger brakes to control the impatience

If possible another pair of peddles of dialogue
A good sit of love and trust will work,
This way I will have my bike back may be better,
To take me to school, and to my friends,
One by one I will carry them,

To a new field cleared of impunity!
The field of truth, justice, and reconciliation,
And more so of a mature democracy,
I will start with my very own neighbor,
For with my bike we shall peddle once again!

The poet is a children rights activist and a thespian specializing with participatory approaches for community change working with an initiative ‘Child PEACE Africa’ currently in Korogocho slums in Nairobi Kenya. (plitonde@yahoo.com)

Proposal to deal with the post election conflict

2008-03-31T05:25:00.001+02:00

THE POST ELECTION VIOLENCE RESPONSE IN THE INFORMAL SETTLEMENT OF NAIROBI PROPOSAL.

Project title: Enhancing harmony and Development among slum Dwellers in Nairobi through reduction of horizontal violence and strengthening of peoples Organizations.

Time Frame: April to May 2008.

Project Goal: Reduction of Horizontal violence among the dwellers of informal Settlements, through organizing of residents into Neighborhood Peace and Development groups, strengthen the existing CBOs and FBOs and use them to protect Rights.

Beneficiaries: Direct Beneficiaries shall be 250 CBOs with 25,000 members Indirect Beneficiaries shall be all residents of the informal Settlements.

Contact: Lawrence O. Apiyo.
National Chairman, Community Organization Practitioners
Association of Kenya.
PO Box 6253, 00200, new Hurlingham Plaza 3rd Floor Room D11
Nairobi - Kenya.
Email:copakenya@yahoo.co.uk,info@copakenya.com

Introduction.

Community Organization Practitioners Association of Kenya (COPA-K) is a professional membership body of social development workers whose concern is community organizing as a key to genuine people’s empowerment, transformation and sustained development. The Association’s main objective is to promote and enhance community organization work /profession in Kenya. It aims at developing the capacity of its members to be more efficient and effective as community organizers. This is also extended to the leaders of the people’s Organizations in order for them to be effective leaders to their membership.

Basically, Community Organisation is a social development approach that facilitates a community driven development processes with a view to enabling people to actively participate in shaping their destiny.

Background
The post –Election Violence prompted Members of Community Organization Practitioners Association of Kenya to engage in direct mobilization of residents of the informal settlements of Nairobi through leaders of Community Based and Faith Based Organizations.

It was on January 1st that a quick consultation through the short message system among the members arrived at an agreement that the intervention of the Association was of vital importance since the areas that were most affected were the same ones where they work and the affected were the same people they work with. At this time, all the mother agencies where members of the Association work were still on Holiday.

The horrifying horizontal violence was/is uncalled for. It is painful to see poor community members who have lived together in harmony for years, turning against one another, killing one another and destroying/burning one another’s properties. The poor people’s attention has so far been turned away from the main issue, the irregularities surrounding the outcome of the general elections, to the horizontal violence and destruction of properties. COPA – Kenya therefore was convinced that it was within its mandate to facilitate its members to positively intervene and promote peace and reconciliation among the poor.

In the last one month, Kenya has experienced an unprecedented violence as a result of the disputed general elections results. Most affected are the Slums where majority poor live. The on-going violence is characterized by looting, burning of houses, and destruction of business premises, forceful displacements, illegal occupation of houses, refusal to pay rent by tenants and Killings. The police have intervened and opened fire, resulting in more deaths. The violence has divided so much the different ethnic communities that have lived together for many years in the settlements along the political persuasions.

Problem Statement.

It is right to say that the violence we are witnessing and experiencing in this post election period was premeditated by a wider section of the Kenyan society. However, it is not true to say it is a result of the just concluded discredited General elections. Kenya’s problems are as old as its independence. When Kenya fell to colonialists, the problems also set in. Some of these problems revolve around governance, and equitable resource allocation among others. The clamor to correct these historical mistakes and injustices began almost immediately after independence, taking different forms. It is therefore the view of
COPA – Kenya that the violence resulting from the election dispute is just a sign of frustrations and of the nipped hope for change Kenyans have long desired. It has remained a belief and tradition that this elusive change can only be brought about through democratic elections that brings people centered leadership, who would create democratic structures/institutions and systems for indiscriminate governance and resource allocation. It is for a fact that the violence was very evident in and around the poor communities. When the poor turn against one another, they turn against those they perceive belong to the side of oppressors and when they turn against the middle class areas, Business places, transport agencies, it means they destroy anything they feel is a manifestation or a pillar of oppression. Of greater concern to COPA – Kenya is the preparation of the grassroots to participate in the coming Truth and Justice Commission and Electoral review committee hearings. We are concerned that the hard truths that will come from these commissions may fuel some disharmony and disrupt the gains already made in creating peace in the settlements. Worth mentioning is the fact that no institution or individual can neither force nor prosecute anyone for hate, but genuinely sustained positive change processes can cause transformation and conversion. Based on this, COPA-Kenya seeks not only to address the violence through peace and Reconciliation initiatives, but also on a longer term community organizing for good governance and asset Building among the poor in our urban towns and cities.

Reduction of Horizontal violence among the dwellers of informal Settlements, through organizing of residents into Neighborhood Peace and Development groups, strengthen the existing CBOs and FBOs and use them to protect Rights shall become the core m mandate of COPA –Kenya in this endeavor.

Beneficiaries: Direct Beneficiaries shall be 250 CBOs with 25,000 members. Indirect Beneficiaries shall be all residents of the informal Settlements in Nairobi.

Target Areas. The targeted Settlements/slums are found in Nairobi city and include: -
Kibera, Korogocho, Huruma, Kiambiu, Baba Dogo and Mathare.

Current priority problems.
• Loss of sources of livelihood.
• Illegal occupation of other peoples houses.
• Weakening Community Based Organizations.
• Insecurity.
• Limited access to adequate basic needs such as food, clothing, and households.
• Fear, Trauma, suspicion and hopelessness.

Please contact COPA-Kenya for further information

Oti

Kochfm response since January 2008

2008-03-17T01:15:00.001+02:00

Report
Koch FM’s Intervention to the Post Election Violence
Community Outreach Department

1.0 Introduction

.

The political violence witnessed in Kenya after the disputed results of the December 27, 2007 general elections is the worst civil violence in her history since the attempted coup of 1982. As in the past women and children were the most affected with youths being accused as the active participants in the violence. In all the occasions it is the poor who suffered most. The suffering the poor underwent was extremely painful for a right thinking person to just see and sit back. It is also sad to note that the largest destructions and killings took place in the dwelling areas of the poor. In Nairobi for instance massive destruction of physical properties and killings was experienced in the peoples’ settlements of Kibera, Mathare and Huruma Ghetto. Kijiji cha Chewa that used to neighbor Mathare 4A is now history as the ghetto was burnt to ashes.

A section of the field which, before the announcement of the results of the 2007 elections, was a home to over 3000 people. This is where Kijiji cha Chewa used to be.

Though Korogocho community was not badly hit by the violence, by this I mean witnessing inter-ethnic violence and destruction of properties, the acts of violence in the neighboring communities impacted negatively to the Korogocho community. For instance the violence witnessed in Ngomongo-neighbor to the east, Kasabuni, Kariadudu and Kariobangi-neighbor to the west highly contributed to acts of robbery within the slums. The idle young adults used the tension and confusion to engage in acts of lawlessness injuring and killing quite a number of people.

The persistent tenancy conflict in Ngomongo almost ignited a bitter violence between the residents of Korogocho and Ngomongo when the latter confronted the other community alleging that youths from Korogocho accompanied the Police and the landlords in an aborted late night operation to arrest those who are alleged to be rent defaulters. Again, the thugs took good use of the tension and confusion robbing many and killing one person.

A good number of victims of the violence from other parts of the country also found their way and refuge in Korogocho. There are a sizeable number of such people from as far as Western, Nyanza, and Rift Valley province who are now considering themselves to be residents of Korogocho.

2.0 Past Experience

The violence witnessed after the announcement of the much disputed election results arouse the past inter-ethnic violence witnessed in Korogocho in the year 1992 and 1997. And like now the fights highly contributed to almost total collapse of security in the area. A number of people lost their lives.

3.0 Koch FM’s Intervention

In line with our objective –to promote peace and peaceful co-existence amongst the various ethnic communities in Korogocho and to defend human rights and safeguard human dignity, we resolved to;

Advocate for peace and understanding amongst our listeners as we believed and hoped that an acceptable solution would be reached through dialogue and debate. We made peace messages and jingles from the community members and regularly played them on air. This is still on-going.
We mobilized for food and clothes through radio appeals. Our listeners overwhelmingly brought clothing items which we took to the over 500 families that were camping at the Star of Hope Academy in Huruma.
In collaboration with other pro-peace initiatives, we managed to mobilize, organize and undertake a call-for-peace procession in Korogocho and Ngomongo. The procession attracted a huge number of participants. Apart from peace slogans, songs and chants, we also distributed handbills and T-shirts with peace and reconciliation messages.

3.1 The intervention’s important dates chart

Date Objective Activity Place Target/Beneficiaries
01/01/08 Appeal to our listeners that justice will only prevail in a peaceful environment
News
Playing peace/justice music
Koch FM studio Our listeners
02 to 19/01/08 Raise materials to support the victims of post election violence
Hourly radio appeal for support in any form
Koch FM studio Our listeners
09/01/08 To show our/listeners solidarity and support to victims of the post election violence
Distribute the collected items
Star of Hope Academy in Huruma 500 people who had sought refuge in the school after their village-Kijiji cha Chewa-was razed to ashes
12/01/08 Reduce political tension and promote peace
Pro-peace procession
Korogocho, Ngomongo Korogocho/Ngomongo Residents
23/01/08 To show our solidarity with the victims/affected
2nd distribution of the items collected
Miss Koch boardroom, Korogocho 85 people affected by the post election violence in Korogocho
30/01/08 To promote peace & co-existence
Radio debate
Koch FM studio Koch FM audience
22 /02 to 08/03/2008 Promote peace and reconciliation
Radio peace and reconciliation message jingles with APHRC
Koch FM studio Korogocho community and the entire Koch FM audience

3.2 Koch FM’s Impact

Koch FM made a great impact to the lives of the residents of Korogocho and her general audience in many ways i.e.

Providing not only a medium of communication but also a platform for Kenyans to contribute and share whatever little they had with their brothers
Cooled down the tempers and tensions of our listener through peace messages and this to some extent kept the violence in the low level witnessed, compared to other slums of Nairobi
Provided a space for the community to pre-empt possible planned attack or revenge through the radio leading to aborting of such plans if at all there were any, after the story goes on air in a reconciliatory manner
Provided an opportunity for the individual residents of Korogocho to speak their mind on peaceful co-existence to the rest of the community members and this greatly influenced the potential peace breakers positively. The community members were impressed and could be heard commenting that they heard so and so appealing for peace through the radio.
Being a media the community takes whatever information they receive from us truth and we therefore play a greater role in shaping their opinion

4.0 Current Plans and Activities to Promote Peace, Justice and Reconciliation

Koch FM, through her Community Outreach Department intends to embark on a myriad of activities to;

Educate people on the importance of dialogue and issue based debate
Promote peace, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence
Establish community conflict management/resolution structure to facilitate peace talks when need arise
Promote nationhood, good governance, democracy and respect for human rights

4.1 Implementation Strategy

Our implementation strategy shall include;

Inter village sporting activities and dialogues
Special focus on youths and women in village leadership structures
Radio talk show/debates
Participatory theatre/drama
Workshops/Focus Group Discussions (FGD)

How did we get here?

2008-02-21T07:19:00.003+02:00

In the streets of Perth Western Australia am sitting in the train, the lady next me is reading the local news paper the West Australian. She looks up with concern and tears on her eyes and she asks me where are you from? I say Kenya and she looks again at the article and asks how did you get here? For a momment am thinking thats idle talk, I came by air, then before I can answer her she points to the article and the pictures jump out. It is a scene that I have seen, smoke raising from a burning house, a man running away with a little girl on his back. And immediately I know what she is asking.

I have no answer, all I can say is we did not see it comming, the elections were very peaceful, there were observers, we had an electoral commission that had the experience having overseen the past elections of 2002. I also muse to my self, that there was a lot of investment in civic education, promoting peace, tolerence and all desirable virtues. I do my best to explain what I think must have transpired.

Painful as it is once again we have been reminded of how fragile peace is and how in one action mayham can be caused. There are those who believe that the violence was premeditated and as such are looking around for the inciters. There is the other school of thought that says the violence was all spontenous a reaction to events as they unfolded.

The first premise of organized response to the election is easy to deal with as it gives us the false comfort that people were acting under orders, it basically shifts the blame on the individuals who violently reacted to what was happening. The second idea is hard to deal us it forces us to squarely look at the reality that amongst us there are people who are ready and willing to kill and maim to make a statement.

In a country with a judiciary and a well ordered way of resolving dispute this is a big blow as it negates all the gains that we had made in advancing democracy and human rights discourse in Kenya.

She then asks why do people in Kenya like living in their small communities even when they migrate in the city? And am thinking right, we got Kisumu Ndogo in almost all cities of Kenya, we got Garissa in Nairobi, for a momment I wonder if that shows how tribalized we are, but then I point out that in so many countries there is a China Town, and I have always visited the China town's to get some Chinese stuff and it is so beautiful. The landscape of Perth City or Sydney would be incomplete without the little china town's. I also remind my self that the Indians almost without exception reside in one area of whichever city or town they might migrate to. So in a sense living with ones own kin should not be seen as a bad thing of itself but the flip side is that when the tension rises this blocks can feul a conflict.

I also tell her that in any community there are people who are just waiting for an opportunity to be disruptive, we have witnessed mob violence in the streets of Nairobi that point out clearly to a complete disregard of human life and due procedures. The lady gets off am heading to the last station from Perth and as such I have the rest of the journey to reflect upon what has become of Kenya..

As I journey in Australia am a walking source of curious looks, talks and discussions, suddenly everyone has realized that there is a country called Kenya and they have issues to deal with.

As dutiful Kenyans we have joined hands here in Perth Western Australia to raise awareness on the plight of people affected by the post election, we are also collecting funds to support relief efforts and hope we will be involved in the long term process of finding sustainable peace.

Hope she reads the message that we are sending out, that we as Kenyan's in Western Australia will work as hard as we assist people to overcome the challanges that have been caused by the conflict..

Oti

Rapho's Take on Post Election Crisis in Kenya

2008-02-19T05:12:00.002+02:00

POST ELECTION CRISIS IN KENYA: AN OPEN WOUND
BY OBONYO raphael
13th February 2008

The open wound!

Kenya is going through moments of unutterable destruction with horrifying statistics and scenarios. The post election protests that were triggered by the announcement of the disputed presidential election results on the 30th of December 2007 have taken a more shocking turn. So far, at least 1,000 people have lost their lives, scores of people have been injured and over 350,000 people displaced in the post election crisis. More over, properties worth billion of shillings have been vandalized setting the Kenyan economy on a free fall.

During the period that commenced on December 30th 2007 to date we have seen unbelievable demise of people’s fundamental rights and freedoms. This include, the right to life, right to decent shelter, right to own property, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement amongst many other freedoms. Killing of innocent men, women and children, extra judicial killings by police, ban of public rallies and protests, ban of live broad casts are what followed the announcement of the disputed election results. Today more than ever our ethnic groups, communities and classes are so divided. Ethnicity has become a defining factor in the way we conduct our businesses, communities are turning against each other and thousands upon thousands of walalahois (the very poor) pour the streets to protest while others engage in looting and destruction of property they perceive to belong to walalhais (elite) and walalaheris(middle class). In addition, impunity and insecurity continue to reign supreme as gangs and militias engage in acts of lawlessness.

While it is true the election results spurred a lot of anger and protests the post election crisis in Kenya is not only about electoral dispute but also about the age old injustices and disquiets. The two problems are inextricably bound to the other. However, we have always swept our problems under the carpet and buried our heads in the sand. Simply put Kenya has been ignoring the wound for far too long. We thought that the wound would heal naturally. We preferred to cover it and carry on business as usual but not any more. The wound has now been opened and to heal proper diagnosis and prescription must be sought. We must go as far back in history as we can for us to resolve the problems once and for all. This is because our roots would define our growth.

What surprises me though is the fact that we are all surprised about the happenings in Kenya as if we have forgotten our history and more so the activities that preceded the 2007 elections. Truly, we have lived with all these problems but like it is our characteristic we preferred to suffer in silence to avoid scaring investors and denting our ‘legacy’ as an island of peace in sea of turmoil. In brevity, the wound has been there all along it has just been opened. While there are several issues that underlie the post election crisis in Kenya, I would like to refer to authoritarian presidency, inequalities, land conflicts and negative ethnicity.

1. Authoritarian Presidency
In Kenya, the executive and in particular the president still wields excess powers. The president is in charge of everything and everyone and can hire and fire at will. I remember a joke about the immediate former president of Kenya Arap Moi that he was farmer number one, teacher number one, doctor number one and number one in a litany of areas. Nothing much has been done to transform our presidency from being a seat of power to that of service. The president is the head of State and the Government at the same time. In addition he has lots of control over a myriad of other institutions including police, National Commissions, Judiciary and even parliament. As a result the seat is not only coveted with passion but every community feels like they are only safe with one of their own at the top. More so this has led to regime institutions like regime police, regime executive, regime judiciary, regime parliament, regime commissions and so on. Everything seems to be revolving around the president and this explains in part the cut throat contest for the position and the dismissal of the judiciary as an avenue to resolve the current impasse. No doubt, the 2007 elections has affirmed the need to cut down the powers of the executive and more specifically the powers of the president. The law should be amended to make the presidency less powerful and hence, less attractive. In this case reform of all key institutions is essential to ensure their independence restoration of public confidence.

2. Inequalities
The deep socio-economic and political disparities in Kenya seem to have also contributed a great deal to the post election crisis. Kenya is rated tops amongst the countries with the largest income gap between the rich and the poor. Some pundits have advanced that the economic growth in Kenya is spelling peril as it is not distributed proportionately at all levels. This is better explained by the high percentage of those languishing in poverty in Kenya and the handful of Kenyans who own immeasurable wealth. No wonder the post election protests especially those staged by young people from the urban ‘slums’ and the rural areas were accompanied with massive looting. For instance, a majority of youth in Kenya are poor, unemployed and untutored. To them the protests were not only about the disputed election results but a demand for dignity, equality, jobs and equal citizenship. In this view any attempts to resolve the current problem must take into consideration the balance between twin goals of economic growth and distribution.

3. Land conflicts
The foundational issue that needs to be understood for a debate on land conflict in Kenya to be useful is the question ownership. Immediately after independence there were sharp differences between the ruling elites and the freedom fighters on issues regarding the distribution of land. While some would argue that history belong to the authors, it has now come to haunt us. Land is an essential factor of production but many Kenyans don’t own land. This is because ownership of land in Kenya has for a while been pegged on ones proximity to power. This explains why the political class in this country own large tracts of land while a majority poor remain landless and impoverished. To crack the stalemate Kenya must address historical injustices in land ownership. There is dire need to implement the land policy which was allegedly shelved because it was perceived to be too radical.

3. Negative ethnicity
With at least 42 tribes, Kenya is regarded as multi ethnic. But the problem does not lie in the number of tribes. The problem lies in the polarization, stereotype and ethnicization of all facets of our country. It is really sad to note that in Kenya discrimination along tribal lines has been so common. Many Kenyans if not all prefer to fall back to their ethnic groups especially when they are in trouble. Worse still many always want to tout their tribes as most superior and the others as the inferior. Kenyans have failed to realize that one can love his or her tribe without necessarily hating the other. The post election crisis has shown that Kenyans have just been coalescing. Nothing binds us together and that is why we break so easily. We are reaping what we planted as recent as three months ago during the campaigns that preceded the general election. During the election campaigns we tolerated and cheered at the aspiring leaders as they unleashed inflammatory hate speeches about other communities. They heightened our hatred and now we are actualizing their dream. To resolve the current crisis we must seek to make Kenya a nation that is bond by common values and not mere amalgamation of tribes.

Search for peace and justice
Kenyans have banked all their hope in the on going mediation talks that are being chaired by the immediate former United Nations Secretary Kofi Anan. Looking at the weight of the problems that were triggered by the disputed elections we cannot afford to treat such an important sitting as a joke. We must all accord the team the support they require. We must move with a sense of great urgency to resolve the political impasse and further the deep and long rooted injustices. That is what would unite, heal and give Kenya sustainable peace.

We have tasted the bitterness of violence and we should not allow anything to plunder us further abyss. Violence as a way of seeking justice is both impractical and immoral and can never bring permanent peace. Whatever the outcome, we must act with maturity and reject, renounce any acts of violence, injustices and amputation of rights. I have always admired greatly Martin Luther King junior who has a towering record of non-violence. He reminded us not to rely on arms and weapons of struggle in resolving our differences. Neither should we seek to liberate ourselves at the expense of the humiliation and enslavement of others.

OBONYO raphael is a human right activist. Currently, he is a consultant stationed at the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) Election Monitoring Centre. He holds a postgraduate diploma in project management and has extensive experience in working with communities.

Save our beloved country

2008-01-09T12:54:00.000+02:00

Shiko interviewed @ Norwegian Broadcast Jan 8th 2008

2008-01-08T13:12:00.001+02:00

Download 1,5 MB

KochFM feature on PBS audio download

2008-01-06T04:16:00.000+02:00

For you guys short of bandwith: here is a downloadlink for the audio from the PBS-feature on KochFM this autumn:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/7c6100/

Sign up to show your support

2008-01-06T02:21:00.000+02:00

This blog entry is ment to be used for all the supporters of KochFM. Please leave a support-message for Toto, Shiko, Jeff, Nyash, Paul, Abdi, Carol, Njeru, Martin, Roba, Patrick and all our other friends stuck in Korogocho, Dandora, Kariobangi and the rest of Kenya to show your support during this time of crisis.

Please sign by clicking the heading, click post comment to tell our friends we are with you in the spirit!

Days of fear

2008-01-06T01:49:00.000+02:00

This is Richard, one of the founders of KochFM, writing from Oslo, Norway.
It´s not with a peaceful mind I´m writing this entry.

This is now:

Chaos, disorder, torture, rape, molester and violent mass-persecution is a reality in the neighborhood of KochFM.

The picture is taken in Koch the 31st of Dec 2007
(Picture taken from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, interviewing Toto, Jan. 4th 2008)

KochFM reaches out to approximately 250 000 people everyday. Reading todays newspapers for those who can´t read, playing songs by local artists and talking live on air about issues concerning the local environment.

KochFM is an incredible story made true by a group of young purposeful people that want to see changes.

KochFM is 2 export containers, some simple audio equipment, a computer and a home made transmitter, everything aired through an antenna made out of 6 meters of waterpipe and 5 weldingsticks.

KochFM is taking the side of the weak in difficult situations and is making everydaylife in the Korogocho slum a bit easier by giving the voiceless a voice.

KochFM is now a much bigger issue than being just a local radio-station in a slum in Nairobi.

KochFM is a proof that if you really believe in something, and maintain that aim, you´ll reach there.

The things happening in Kenya right now makes KochFM even more important!

Keep the fire burning!

The struggle continues!

(Check out the feature PBS did on KochFM this autumn: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/346/video.html)

Most important question today

2008-01-04T07:00:00.000+02:00

Thanks for the Solidarity,

We are being tested once more as our ability to resolve conflict is
put on the line. The recent violence in Kenya is regrettable and
KochFM joins the other peace loving people who have condemened the
acts of violence and lawlessness that has since caused the loss of
more than 300 people in the last week.

The biggest question ofcourse is what is the cost of democracy? What
can we demand of a people who have lost faith in the constitutional
means that have been enshrined in the constitution;those taking to the
streets are obvioulsy showing that they do not believe that the Kenyan
judiciary has the capacity to address the alleged election fraud. Thus in their anger they are letting it known that they are disatisfied by the conduct of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

The second most important question is how bad should things get before the
oppossition adopts another approach of protest? While demonstrations have been widely seen as legitimate means of airing grieviances once they turn violent the purpose is lost and everyone stands to loose. Demonstration and
street prescence of the people is creating the opportunity for tension
and intensification of violence as we have witnessed. The mobs once on
the street assume their own might and not even the opposition leader
or the police will pacify them. So it is my observation that parherps
the way to continue putting pressure onto the government should avoid
any direct action that will bring people onto the streets. Am reminded
of Mahtma Gandthi of India who faced with a similar circumstance took
to fasting to bring about a change of heart. Mybe our people in
Koch/Kenya should approach the situation like that by staying indoors
and thereby effecting pressure of the powers that be.

The last question is how do we heal the wounds of post election
violence? How do we move foward as a community where we have both
victims and perpetrators of violence? Have we not created underlying
tension that will be eating us inside as we walk past a vandalized
shop, or a burnt church, a broken house window. Have not sowed the spirit of division, mistrust and suspicion amongst ourselves, so that when we look over our sholders we will be fearfull of each other?How long will it take
to bury and grieve the victims of post election violence. Who will
take care of their families? who will explain to the children why
their dady never returned from work? or their mumy did not return from
the shop or thier little brother or sister will not play outside the house any
more?

These are question that seek answers and I believe that time will give
us the ability to heal and move foward to build a vibrant nation based
on the goodwill that we have established over time.

As you observe language will be a challange for us between Koch and
Brazil yet we must find a way to let the world know that still in
Kenya despite the animosity that has been witnessed there are pillars
of hope. That the gains made since the World Social Forum last year will continue to be consoldated. We have witnessed families that have gone out of their way to assist people who
would have otherwise been killed by the enraged mobs.

Because of the ban on live broadcasting KochFM has stopped actively
producing programs and is now playing music full time. But the entire crew is actively listening to what is happening in the community and promoting peace through word of mouth.

You can easily follow what is happening through www.eastandard.net.

Also feel free to reproduce what is on the blog for your audiences. We will always be in solidarity.

Regards

Oti

Message of solidarity

2008-01-04T06:58:00.000+02:00

Hi Friends from Koch FM Radio Station,

Since we met during the World Social Forum in your contry we have been
thinking in ways to connect the Favela Radio in Belo Horizonte Brazil and
Koch FM in Kenya. This exchange of information can be dificult because of
the language but isn`t impossible.
We can`t even imagine what you are going thru in this moment and realize how
bad this is for Kenya, Africa and the World.
We have been talking alot in Brazil about your work and we are very glad to
met you during our visit and established this communication.

But we really want to show to the brazillian people what is happening in
Kenya according with your point of view.

We are in talk with the Favela Radio in Brazil to translate and publish the
news available in the KochFM Blog site. Would be very interesting if you
could send images and short videos that give to the public more about what
is going on in Kenya.

And to finish we wanted to request a message for the world and also for the
participants of the World Social Forum 2007 in Kenya. What are the most
important and relevant questions for you this moment?

Best Regards,
Everton Rodrigues and Pedro Jatoba

KochFM still on Air

2008-01-03T03:53:00.000+02:00

KochFM is still on air despite the tensions that is running high within Koch, Nairobi and Kenya at large. Shiko and the crew are working under extreme circumstances to keep the radio running. For the past few days KochFM has been playing only music; the government banned live broadcasting by independent media houses shortly after Kibaki was sworn in as the new president.

Once again I would like to salute the youth of Koch who have shunned violence as evidenced by the relative stable state of things in the area; though calm has not returned we believe that residents will explore non violent ways of making/ airing their greviances. At the same time we call upon the police to restrain themeselves when dealing with the protesters (reasonable force) since their presence seems to intensify the tension.

Peace and justice will shine in our motherland.

Oti

Action without violence

2008-01-02T04:51:00.000+02:00

Having been sworn in as the new president Mwai Kibaki now has access to constitutional means to defend his presidency which puts Raila and those who see his election as fraudulent in a fix. The police have been quick to ban all rallies which has created so much tension given that the oppossition led by Raila are planning to march tomorrow to statehouse. It is no longer a question of numbers, no one doubts the ability of Raila to mobilze 1million Kenyans for the march to statehouse, the question is what will be the cost of such action.

If people heed Raila's call (which most certainly) and come out into the streets tomorrow we are headed for more bloodshed and chaos, while that might achieve something for Raila's claim to presidency it will cause unneccessary suffering to the Kenyan community. But what other options are there for Raila? Is he to take a backbench and wait for another 5years to run for presidency? Is there a possibility that with a majority of MP he could hold the government more accountable as the oppossition? What would happen if he called for a countrywide boycott?

Elections are about timming and it would appear that Raila sees this as his best chance since ODM was running on the popularity gained during the 2005 referendum, ODM as an entity is not immune to disintergration and as such the longer Raila has to wait the harder it will be for him to marshal a popular party to win the elections with. On the other hand he would still be popular much so because Kibaki will not be vying(unless he changes the constitution).

The other option is for Raila and all ODM MP to keep the government accountable for the next 5 Years which will result in better governance and credibility for ODM and a definate win in 2012.

Kenyan protest as witnessed now and in the past end up in ugly confrontations and it is unwise for Raila to call on people to converge at Uhuru Park for a rally when clearly the police are out to disrupt it. It would be acceptable if Raila and indeed the other eleceted leaders sought other forms of mass action. They could start a hunger strike and demand that an inquiry be held, they could ask their supporters to stay at home and not report to work to force the government to recount the votes. This actions will put pressure on the government without neccessarily creating room for escalation to violence.

Given Raila and other leaders stature it is possible that while they might face the same violence from the police during the march chances are that the police will be trying hard not to hurt them personally as that will create more uproar;the countless citizens will be at the recieving end. Already there are reports of massive internal displacement of people which indicates that the electoral violence is taking a turn into tribal clashes.

While peace and justice go hand in hand we must seek ways to make peace while we fight for justice. My heartfelt condoloscence to the families that have lost loved ones. Why must we travel down this road? How many more have to perish before we can rethink?

As a Kenyan in the diaspora it is disheartening to see imamges of fellow Kenyans being killed, tortured and displaced, reminds me of how volitile politics in my motherland can be.

Lets act but without violence.

Oti

Kenyan Elections

2008-01-01T05:25:00.000+02:00

Today Kenya is faced with a crisis that stems from the results of the just conluded elections that declared Mwai Kibaki to be the new president. The leader of the oppossition Raila Odinga claims that he won the elections and he has at his disposal evidence to that effect. The formal channel is to go to court and petition but from experience such a case would takeso many years to resolve. Naturally his supporters feel angry and frustrated but does that justify acts of violence?

So far more than 147 people have been reported dead since December 27th and unless calm is restored more lives and properties will be lost. In Koch a resident confirmed to us that 9 people had been killed in the clashes.

We call on all citizens to restrain themselves and seek alternative ways for negotiation, the current approach allows the government to send in the police which further escalates the riots.

It is times like these that we can distinguish ourselves as democrats and instruments of peace.

Let peace reign.

Oti

Transcript for PBS documentary on KochFM

2007-12-13T08:18:00.000+02:00

Transcript PBS America documentary on Koch.

After of all this misery and the malfeasance it's often useful to get a booster shot of hope from folks who take action when faced with a community in crisis.

One place that's happening is Nairobi, Kenya, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Africa. It's the story of a little radio station being run out of a shipping container by and for the people of Nairobi's, Korogocho slum. While the three hundred thousand residents there do pay taxes, they don't get much back from the government in the way of infrastructure or services, and that's just one of the things Koch-fm is looking to change.
Dan Logan produced our report.

BRANCACCIO: Nairobi, Kenya is the bustling commercial hub of East Africa.

But of the city's three million residents, an estimated one-third... that's one million people... live like this.

Right in the middle of Nairobi, you'll find some of the most neglected places on earth... massive slums, where people live in makeshift earth-and-metal huts.

One of those settlements is called Korogocho - which, in Swahili, means scrap metal. It's located right next to a massive garbage dump. People mingle with scavenger birds, picking through the wasteland.

With poverty and disease like this, you can't blame someone for losing hope in this place.

But a group of upstart twenty-somethings are stirring up change.

KOCH FM DJ: We are broadcasting live, straight from the heart of Korogocho and remember this is the first ever community radio station to ever hit Nairobi, so keep it locked to 99.9 FM.

BRANCACCIO: Korogocho or "Koch" for short has its own radio station: Koch fm... a new voice, broadcasting in Swahili and English, for a community that has little sway with its politicians.

WANJIKU: It's high time that young people take action. Young people start acting and just changing the mentality of people.

BRANCACCIO: Helen Wanjiku founded Koch fm nearly two years ago when she was twenty-three. She grew up in Korogocho... but when she was fourteen, one of the slum's local gangs threatened her life and her family.

WANJIKU: They would've come. They would have raped us. And then after raping us, they would have killed us.

BRANCACCIO: She escaped Korogocho and got a college education, thanks to an aunt outside the slum who took her in.

But two years ago, she got word that a close friend had been viciously murdered in a case of domestic abuse. Wanjiku decided to return.

WANJIKU: If maybe I had told her, "If your husband beats you up, please get out." Then, this will not have happened. So that's why I came back.

BRANCACCIO: You found it unacceptable to be too far away because you thought you could do some good here.

WANJIKU: If you get out and go, you tend to forget the problems that you have left behind. But being part of those problems, then you can get solutions for them.

BRANCACCIO: Community radio - cheap to produce and easy to access, compared to television - is a powerful solution for the problems of the developing world, according to aid organizations like the World Bank and the U.N. they've increased their support for radio in recent years... Because its efficiency allows places like Korogocho to tune in to civic life.

KOCH FM DJ: You have to stand for your rights, because when you don't do that, you're killing yourself, you're killing your loved ones...

BRANCACCIO: Getting Koch FM on the air was a big deal. Its founding members raised thirty thousand dollars and bought two shipping containers, fitted with a metal roof, to house the studio. Local authorities were resistant... so Helen and her crew used the element of surprise.

WANJIKU: We went and we built the two containers. We had not asked authority. Like, we had not asked permission.

BRANCACCIO: You didn't ask the authority for permission?

WANJIKU: No, this is a chief—I mean, this is a youth camp. They're supposed to put—build things here. So we didn't ask.

BRANCACCIO: So one day the authorities woke up and there were two shipping containers here?

WANJIKU: Yes. And they came and they locked them and they told us that we are not supposed to put them here.

BRANCACCIO: What could you do then?

WANJIKU: We went around. We brought some things and just came and opened them forcefully.

BRANCACCIO: In the confrontation that followed, another Koch fm founder, Francis Ngira, says he was physically assaulted by the police.

NGIRA: They started beating me up. Then I was like okay, you can beat me. You can hit me. You can jail me. But you won't change me into what you want me to be.

BRANCACCIO: Eventually, Koch FM prevailed, as local authorities backed down and Kenya's communications commission gave them a broadcast frequency... After months of protest.

WANJIKU: We didn't give up. We hassled. Some of us were arrested. But by the end of the day, justice was done.

BRANCACCIO: And you have a license.

WANJIKU: Yeah. Now we have a license. We are broadcasting freely. We can say anything we want to say to educate people.

BRANCACCIO: It's estimated Koch FM's signal reaches 300,000 listeners. With a national election approaching next month, there is heated discussion of topics like government corruption.

KOCH FM DJ: Every day of the budget we know there is money which is allocated for that. What happens to this money? Who is supposed to take care of this?

BRANCACCIO: People in Korogocho do pay taxes and are represented in Kenya's parliament. But city services like sanitation remain virtually non-existent.

WANJIKU: The government has neglected us. They think we are not—not people. They have not given us good water. They have not given us proper sewage system. We have to act as people from the community.

BRANCACCIO: Especially crucial for Helen Wanjiku is the issue of women's empowerment... the subject of her own radio show.

WANJIKU: It will take a lot of time. But one day, we will start realizing that if a man can build a house, so can a woman.

BRANCACCIO: And these are some of the issues you discuss on your—on your program?

WANJIKU: On my program. Yes.

BRANCACCIO: The gender program. What's it actually called?

WANJIKU: Strength of a woman.

BRANCACCIO: Strength of a woman.

WANJIKU: Uh-huh.

BRANCACCIO: Koch FM takes on serious issues. But they've found a way to package them in an engaging way, so people actually listen.

WANJIKU: We call ourselves "Edutainment".

DAVID BRANCACCIO: Edutainment.

WANJIKU: Yes. Edutainment. We believe in educating people through an entertaining way.

BRANCACCIO: An interational non-profit called "Developing Radio Partners" has identified benchmarks for community radio. Koch FM meets some, including a clear mission... a defined audience... and local content.

What they need to work on is financial independence. Grants from George Soros and a coalition of Norwegian churches help pay for equipment. But donor funds might not be around forever.

WANJIKU: What if maybe one day they decide to pull out? The radio station is going to fail. And so what we are doing, we are trying to sell T-shirts. And also—we also come up with adverts, which will be selling airtime to people and also programs.

BRANCACCIO: Oh, so maybe you'd bring on advertisements to the station?

WANJIKU: Yes we are—we will bring on advertisement.

BRANCACCIO: There is hope that those money-making plans will eventually pay people's salaries... in what is now an all-volunteer effort to be the voice for a forgotten community.

KOCH FM DJ: For us here at Koch FM, 99.9, the only radio that gives you the whole reality and nothing but the reality. We are signing out.

BRANCACCIO: And that's it for NOW. From Minneapolis, I'm David Brancaccio. We'll see you next week.

Thanks PBS. Oti

Slum Survivor

2007-12-08T07:31:00.000+02:00

AFRICA: Slum Survivors - new IRIN film released

Most slum dwellers never finish school and end up trapped in poverty

Worldwide, more than a billion people live in slums, with as many as one million in Kibera, Africa’s largest such settlement, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Slum Survivors, IRIN’s first full-length documentary, tells some of their stories.

Meet Carol

Meet Carol, a single mother of three, who walks miles each day in search of work washing other people’s clothes. It is a hand-to-mouth existence - sometimes she gets work and buys food, but most of the time she and her children go to bed hungry.

Carol’s situation is so desperate that on more than one occasion she has come close to suicide. With no-one to rely on for support, she’s left hoping for miracles.

“We hope that one day God will come down – we keep on saying that. One day God will come down and change our situations.”

Dennis Onyango fell into poverty when his father left his mother for another woman. Forced out of school because of unpaid fees, he ended up in Mombasa where he found work as a DJ.

Life was good until inter-ethnic fighting forced Dennis back to the safety of Nairobi. But poverty and desperation pushed him into a life of crime.

“Many of my friends had guns. I had grown up in the hands of the police because my father was a policeman. He used to leave his gun on the table so I knew how to dismantle and reassemble guns, so my friends used to bring their guns to me for cleaning - that’s how I got started.”

But these days, Dennis is trying to change. He wants to turn his back on crime and start afresh.

Patrick Mburu says he has lost many friends to crime and believes hard work is the only way out of poverty for him and his young family. His parents were both alcoholics and so he has had to fend for himself from a young age.

Patrick empties latrines for a living. Most toilets in Kibera are privately owned and residents must pay to use them. There are so few toilets that on average each one is shared by more than a thousand people.

Most slum dwellers never finish school and end up trapped in poverty, which is why Patrick is adamant his kids will get an education.

“In Kenya, no education means you can’t get a good job; that’s why I send my son to a good school, because I want him to know that the job that I do is only for people like me who didn’t go to school.

“So, I will struggle - I will carry a lot of shit, I will do anything but steal to keep him in school.”

Abdul Kassim also believes in the importance of education. He works as a telecoms engineer, but puts most of his income into a free secondary school for girls, which he started in January 2006.

“I saw that there was no gender equity between the boy child and the girl child here in Kibera, and so we started a girl’s soccer team. Then all the challenges, all the bad things that happen within Kibera saw some of them getting into early marriages, some of them got pregnant - there was a time when I lost the entire striking force of my team and it brought into question the starting of another alternative, which was nothing but education.”

Christina, 17, is just one of 48 pupils at Abdul’s school but her story is typical. She lives with her mother, father and five siblings in a one-room shack. Her parents’ relationship is fraught and Christina is often left alone in charge of the house.

When she finished primary school, her father refused to send her to secondary school, claiming that educating girls was a waste of money.

“My dad wants everyone to drop out of school. He complains that he has no money, or that he’s sick … I don’t know … I don’t know why he doesn’t want us to learn.”

Christina has a hole in her heart - a serious condition for which she should take daily medication but the cost - US$10 a day - is far beyond her family’s means. School, a job and then a salary might just save her life.

For Abdul, education is the key to solving the problems of the urban poor and that is why he started the school. He has lived here all his life and has seen Kibera change beyond recognition as more and more people flood into the city in search of a better life.

“I don’t see why people are living the way they are living in Kibera, or in any other slums, there is no reason - there is no justification.

“And in Kibera if this issue is not handled at some time this problem is going to come knocking at people’s doors - and those who think it’s not their problem might be surprised one day when this problem comes knocking at their door.”

New film must see! Oti

It's them or them

2007-12-08T06:48:00.001+02:00

For a moment I want to believe that the recent steadman polls are credible and that either Raila or Kibaki will win the elections. That being the case my concern is that we will not have made any significant progress.

Kenyan politics being what they are; we have allowed a culture of defection and manipulation of political parties so that they no longer exists on the basis of ideology but rather as vehichles to get into parliament. During the nomination there was alot of fury as candidates who lost blamed the top leadership of the parties for rigging the nominations. After these incidents candidates switched parties and are now convasing voters.

Consider the situation in Australia where the incumbent John Howard resigned after losing an election, he went with his running mate. He took responsibility for the parties dismal performance. It would have been ridiculous if he had defected to the Greens or crossed over to the Christian Democrats. If he was a seasoned Kenyan politician he would have jumped ship, (we have seen the leader of oppossition in Kenya supporting the government for a second term).

The instituion of oppossition in my understanding means that political parties seek to address issues in a different way and that in most cases they are motivated by different ideologies. In Kenya we have witnessed jumping of ship that can only be interpreted as oportunistic political esurvival tacttics. By allowing people to defect left and right we now have a situation where both leading parties represent the best and the worst politicians in Kenyan history so whichever way the vote swings we will not have fundamental changes.

Take an instance of the Anglo leasing scandal which of the two governments is likely to prosecute the perpertrators? Is it ODM with a former permanent secretary of internal security or PNU with a former minister in the same docket?

It makes no sense that people are fighting and in some areas(Kuresoi reportedly politically instigated clashes) killing each other for 'their' party. Parties which will wellcome defectors without questioning their past and looking if they reflect the parties aspirations. Of what use is it for a party to have amongst its ranks people who have been mentioned or investigated for curruption and abuse of office? We have weak parties whose decision making mechanisms are still one man shows, that are revived every 5 years in time for an election. Because we pride ourselves in democracy we must start by reforming our political parties so that they are accountable to the membership. The membership of the parties must also committ themselves to participate in internal political affairs and through that we shall develop a much vibrant and consiouc society.

For us to have a government that will take action on both pre colonial and post colonial errors we need a breed of leadership that has not benefiited directly from the status quo and on that basis I see the forth comming elections as part of the long journey that Kenya must take as we walk towards a better government. (With due respect to all the people who have blown the whistle while they were still in government).

Am proud that at the end of it all we will have played our noble civic duty, whether the elected president delivers the kind of leadership that responds to the plight of people in Korogocho and Kibera and other marginalized group is another thing.

Oti

The Slum dwellers of Nairobi want to see real change

2007-12-04T08:15:00.000+02:00

Extract from Nation Newspaper Publication Date: 12/3/2007

IN ALMOST EVERY COUNTRY, opposition politics tends to be concentrated in large cities. This is because levels of literacy, awareness and inequality tend to be higher in cities, and therefore it is in cities that levels of dissatisfaction with the status quo are most pronounced.

That is why politicians try so hard to appease their urban poor constituents in an election year. Slums become the sites of rallies and recruitment grounds for voters.

It is the season when idle slum youth find work — as rabble-rousers or disrupters of rallies. Many take on this work because it is the only one they can find.

Many become the main casualties of violence during elections. What they don’t realise is that once the elections are over, and their candidate has won, party manifestos and visions launched during the election period will be forgotten and they will go back to where they came from — slums.

Fortunately, Nairobi’s slum-dwellers — who comprise more than half the city’s population — are fighting back with their own manifesto.

Developed through a series of meetings in eight constituencies in Nairobi, the People’s Manifesto is a synthesis of the aspirations and views of people living in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

The process leading to the development of the manifesto was spearheaded by three community-based organisations — the Nairobi People’s Settlement Network, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, and the Miss Koch Initiative (a youth group in Korogocho).

The demands of the slum communities focus mainly on policy, legislation, and not surprisingly, land, security and infrastructure.

Among other things, the People’s Manifeso calls for the enactment of a new constitution that promotes people’s participation, the reduction of taxes on essential commodities, the provision of people’s participation in the national budgeting process, the establishment of a non-politicised youth fund, the development of a national slum upgrading policy, and the abolition of the shoot-to-kill culture among police,.

They also want the development of infrastructure within slum settlements, and the establishment of a transport system that is free of exploitation.

A visit to a Nairobi slum is not a pleasant experience. Open sewers, filth and “flying toilets” create a stench that is so overwhelming, it lingers in one’s nostrils for days afterwards.

Those of us who do not have the stomach to visit a Nairobi slum should see Slum Survivors, a new film produced by the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs that shows what abject urban poverty does to people.

Slum-dwellers want to see the change that all politicians are promising because their lives literally depend on it. They want free health and education. They want pedestrian pathways, roads and toilets. More importantly, they want the kinds of jobs and salaries that will allow them to move out of the slum.

THERE ARE NON-GOVERNMENTAL initiatives and individuals that are trying to improve living conditions in slums. But while these efforts must be commended, they are a drop in the vast of ocean of challenges facing the average slum-dweller.

The ultimate responsibility of ensuring that slum-dwellers are not condemned to live like animals lies primarily with central and local governments, who have the kind of resources needed to build schools and hospitals on a large scale, not with individuals or with charities.

Central and local governments have the kind of power and resources that few non-governmental organisations have to make significant improvements in the lives of large numbers of people.

One toilet block may improve the lives of people living in a section of a slum, but real improvement in the lives of slum- dwellers will only occur when governments adopt policies and legislation that enable the poor to improve their livelihoods.

Unfortunately, many governments lack the political will to make this happen. In fact, efforts to improve slums are often hampered by none other than politicians.

Some erroneously believe that significant improvements in the living standards of a huge voting bloc could mean loss of votes in the next election (assuming that happier, better-off people tend not to vote). Others have a vested financial interest in slums — as landlords and political patrons.

Perhaps this is why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has decided to bypass governments altogether and give direct support to NGOs working with slum communities

Last week, the foundation pledged $10 million to Slum/Shack Dwellers International, an alliance of NGOs that works with slum federations in several countries, including Kenya.

Funds from the grant will be used to support the activities of informal savings groups within slums to improve slum neighbourhoods.

A press release announcing the Gates foundation’s decision aptly states that one of the reasons for this direct support is because “the urban poor are tired of waiting for governments to meet their needs”.

Ms Warah is currently an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.

Story by RASNA WARAH

About KochFM

2007-11-25T13:49:00.000+02:00

KOCH FM
REGISTRATION NUMBER:11336
P.O.BOX 44427 00100
NAIROBI KENYA.
Account: (details will be provided at request)

LOCATION: Korogocho Community Centre (Kamunde Rd) Nairobi.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Project Director
Hellen Wanjiku

Assisant Director
Geoffrey Muriithi

Finance Manager
Martin Ndungu

Secretary
Caroline Wanjiku

TELEPHONE NUMBER: +254721612736

E-MAIL ADDRESS: kochfm@gmail.com or Helen_shiko@yahoo.com

Blub on Koch FM crew

Hellen Wanjiku
Holds a Diploma in Mass Communication, from Magenta Training Institute (Nairobi). She also holds a certificate in community media and photography. In addition the station manager is endowed with enormous skills in filming of documentaries, video editing, photography, script writing and directing. Further, she has exemplary skills including but not limited to community organizing, management and research skills. Noteworthy, the station manager was part of the team that undertook research on LASDAP in Korogocho that was undertaken jointly by Miss Koch Initiative and Institute of Policy Analysis & Research (IPAR). She has also represented KochFM in international forums.

Geoffery Muriithi
Holds a certificate in Community Organizing and he has worked in several organization focusing on addressing the plight of children, he brings to Koch FM his invaluable experience.

Caroline Wanjiru is a graduate of Magenta Training Institute and holds a Diploma in Mass Communication. She is well rounded with media and people skills.

Martin Ndungu
Is an aspiring accountant and Koch FM provides him with an opportunity to learn how to handle finances while he undertakes to study to become a proffessional accountant.

The management is supported by a team of creative and talented youth who bring life to the radio from the crack of dawn to….

The objectives of Koch FM include:
1. Establishing and enhancing a community-led information process within Korogocho and the environs.
2. Amplify the voices of people who are traditionally marginalized and neglected by the mainstream.
3. Help the citizens in the urban slums to have access to information before, during and post election.
4. Provide a plaform for the community to hear and air their views.

KochFM needs
• Training in radio management and other essential issues on radio.
• Training in editing and programme development.
• Training on leadership and management
• Develop publicity materials on elections citizens’ participation and other thematic issues.
• Hold public forums and civic awareness programmes
• Support for performing artists
• News programmes.
• Artisits providing their performance for broadcasting
• Station sponsors for specific programs

Koch FM has become a powerful tool for educating, entertaining and amplifying the voices of people who were traditionally quite marginalized and neglected. In this respect, the radio creates an opportunity for the citizens to participate more meaningfully in governance issues. No doubt, people's participation in governance will create a conducive environment for better management of the available resources.

Koch FM continues to see participation as an ongoing process beyond voting/elections.

Beyond governance issues KochFM creates an opportunity for the community to engage in dialogue and create deeper understanding of things happening in and out of Korogocho. Koch FM looks keenly at environmental, gender, social and other issues that are of concern to the community

The station also works closely with local performing artists by broadcasting their items and holding outdoor live perfomance.

Koch FM broadcasts at a radius of 2km on the frequency of 99.9. And has a target audience of about 500,000 people in Nairobi Kenya.

Koch FM stands to

Promote and safeguard the Freedom of people's choices for expressing their ideas and views.
Providing access to airplay for underground recording artistes.

Koch FM is the first ghetto radio in Kenya started in the year 2006 by a group of vibrant young men and women from Korogocho. It is situated at the Korogocho Community Centre in Nairobi, Kenya..

Koch FM will partner with other likeminded groups and organizations locally and internationally to continue advocating for the rights of people living in the informal settlements (slums).

Talk to us we are listening.

Oti

Koch awareness day in Austin Texas

2007-11-22T03:41:00.000+02:00

For all the people in America who have been asking on how to support KochFM and the other projects in Koch. Erika in Austin is in the process of setting up an evening where people can have a chat and talk about Koch in the context of the continued reselience.

You can get in touch with Erika Gonzales on P.O.BOX 6237, Austin Texas 78762.
email erika-poder@sbcglobal.net

Shiko the managing editor of KochFM will be posting details shortly on other ways of supporting KochFM. Please email shiko on
helen_shiko@yahoo.com

Oti

One Day-film

2007-11-19T03:44:00.000+02:00

Richard and Inger-Lill have directed a short film - One Day. It is a clever film, through editing and sound design they have been able to make still photographs talk! It is a very efficient way of making a film.

One Day is the story of Munene 14 year old boy who lives with his family in Korogocho. He was adopted a tender age ..(not to give so much away) you have to see the film to know why we were so excited as we watched the preview here in Perth.

The film should be available for distribution soon. Richard will keep us posted about that.

Well done Richard and Il, and Munene and the family are just awesome.

Oti

Koch FM on PBS America

2007-11-19T03:26:00.000+02:00

I have recieved alot of emails from people in America who watched KochFM on PBS program NOW. They were all full of praise for the work that we are doing all are eager to partner with us.

We would like to thank Dan Logan the producer of the show, people at PBS and the KochFM crew who made it happen.

I am in the process of curating a Korogocho Memory project that will showcase Koch as told through the media, hopefully it will culminate in a festival at the end of next year. The collection will have newpaper articles, books films, radio and Television programs, videos and photo exhibitions. It will provide an opportunity for us to reflect about what has been said and seen about Koch.

So if anyone has a collection let me know how to get a copy. email benwandei@yahoo.com

Solidarity

Oti

Miss Koch Dinner a hit

2007-11-19T03:19:00.000+02:00

More than 200 people attend the annual Miss Koch dinner at the Grand Regency hotel, on the 17th November. The music and the food was superb.Once again we demonstrated that even within Nairobi we have alot of people who stand for the ideals that we stand for, and that they are willing to pay for it. The dinner has moved Miss Koch from solely being a reciever of charity to a provider of services. The dinner showcased some of the very best entertainers from Koch. Well established entertainers were not left out and they gave their all.

We would like to thank all those who came for the event, and a big thanks to the people of Koch for once again stepping into the space and providing the Nairobi scene with something different.

Oti

Election Buzz words

2007-11-02T06:47:00.000+02:00

It never ceases to amaze me how creative and innovative politicians can get when we have an impending election. There is the obvious distortion of words, the rendering of words to mean something else. It is like suddenly we have a new language. Growing faster than sheng and only the political savyy can understand what is being said.

Every single presidential aspirant is promising development. Forget the fact that none of them are giving specifics. We have been told about devolved governments bringing development to us. Despite the fact that CDF a distant cousin of devolution has created more gaps than it has solved. The incumbent claims that he has delivered the 500,000 job opportunity to the youths! In Koch I am not aware of 100 young people who have got jobs in the last 5 years.

To be able to move foward our country must move from politics of observation, from politics of upmanship and word bandying to critically looking at what the aspirants are saying. We are still leavin at an era where the politicians talk to us, the platform is so skewed that there is no opportunity to have a genuine dialogue with the leaders. They are arriving in big motorcades, on a break neck speed with enough time to chant slogans ready to move to the next stop.

How can we progess politically if all we hear are statements not backed by facts, or by rigorous study. What would happen to the proponents of devolution if after winning they realize that the economy as it is cannot support the structures that are needed to run a devolved government? What happens to the incumbent if they win and still realize that job creation is not a function of the government but is dictated by economic factors some beyond the control of the government?

Or are we looking for the best debator at the expense of the shrewd implementor. From where I stand I feel let down by both the oppossition and the government that has gone head on to polirize the politics. I feel dismayed by the citizen as well for their zeal to be part of the spectacle.

Ofcourse we have made such significant progress and come 27th November we shall determine who we give the mandate.

Oti

Kochfm to broadcast in Australia

2007-09-27T03:20:00.000+02:00

I was invited last night to a talk show at RTR fm an alternative radio station here in Perth. We talked about the work that is happening in Koch and the way things are chaning for the better. After the show, the host of the Morning Magazine session requested if they could broadcast some of the programs from KochFM! That was very amazing and am looking foward to a day when I will be walking or driving in the streets of Perth here in Australia and listening to familiar voices and familiar music. With this partenrship we will be able to connect with the Kenyan's in the diaspora.

Initially the thought of broadcasting through KochFM was to reach to the immediate population of Korogocho in Nairobi Kenya, but events are now proving that we need to share our stories far and wide, and the ingenuity is that we do not need to change the content. Ithink we are approaching a period of renaissance, we must take the leap.

Good to know that Audhild landed safe and sound in Koch and that she will give some hands on training to the KochFM crew..

All the best.

Oti

Audhild from RadiOracle is visiting KochFM

2007-09-25T01:37:00.000+02:00

yesterday Audhild from radiOracle landed at JKA, she was met by "a whole bunch of people", according to an sms i got this morning. She is attending a conference, and at the same time she will spend 8 days at KochFM. She is planning to throw a radioshow-hands-on-workshop during her stay. I hope everything is fine in Koch, lookin forward to hearing from the workshop!

looming elections

2007-08-13T10:11:00.000+02:00

As the Nation gears for an election at the end of the year already there is considerable alignment and re-alignment.

At the national level its fascinating to see the divisions at ODM becomming bigger and bigger, and the illusion that ODM is to have one presidential aspirant is becomming as remote as ever.

But one should not underestimate the political genius that our politicians have, they have become adept at juggling their careers that I will not be suprised if in the next few months we see major alliances forming. What Kenyan plotics have proved is that there is no diffrence in ideologies and if your opponent has the numbers then the wisest thing is to join camps and have the winning team. That was the case of the Rainbow colaition atleast from my understanding.

Politics at local level are even more fascinating what with the massive civic education that was conducted in the run-up to 2002 and subsequent ones(govt funded) for that matter, so that we are increasingly having more and more people and particularly young people willing to offer themselves as candidates.

That by itself is progess but I think it's time for a reality check, if the pro-active people in Korogocho have more than 5 young people vying for the councillors seat, what chances do we have collectively? Are we not creating a scenario similar to the 1992/1997 where collectively the opposition won and yet KANU was able to stay in power?

What is needed at the momment is greater clarity, greater strategy where we can have one young person vying and the rest of us offering support. It might appear undemocratic, un progressive but the writting is on the wall, we either have one candidate or the incummmbent walks away smilling with a minority win.

Farewell to political activism: Reflections from South Africa

2007-08-13T10:09:00.000+02:00

Mukoma Wa Ngugi (2007-08-01)
Mukoma Wa Ngugi, reflects on the third international Toward an Africa Without Borders Conference and concludes that political activists 'must invest time and energy in developing a Pan-Africanism from below'.

We either value African life, understand a black life as equal to a white life, and the poor as equally deserving as the wealthy – or we do not. This reformulation of Frantz Fanon’s 'a given society is either racist or not'; or better yet of Malcolm X’s 'If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress' are reminders that there are no fractions when it comes to human dignities and freedoms. They either exist in full or they do not. Africans, however, have been prescribed quarter-doses of health and education, one-sixteenth dignities, and piece-meal freedoms for so long that what would not be acceptable elsewhere is welcomed in Africa.

These were my thoughts recently as I travelled back from Durban, South Africa, where I spent the last two weeks of June and the first week of July as one of the organisers of the third international Toward an Africa Without Borders Conference.

This simple recognition, that we either value Africans or we do not, was fuelled by one more frightening thought. The kind of activism that we, the political activists, have been doing is not enough. It can never be enough. Problems facing the African continent, from slavery through colonialism, neocolonialism, and now the hurricane of globalisation that opens up African markets, leaving more poverty in its wake, have never been fully addressed.

Slavery was abolished and the millions who died were swept under the rugs of progress. When colonialism ended, true independence was bargained away at the Lancaster and Paris tables, colonial history and its dead blown away by the 'winds of change'. In the 1970s and 1980s we struggled against neocolonialism; but against our dying and the dead we have globalisation which has swept the idea of social justice under the carpet of a democracy without content.

At what point in history do we simply say what we are doing is not enough? Not because the path we have chosen is bad, or entirely wrong-headed. But simply because the problem is clearly much bigger than the solution we are struggling for? And if we keep doing the same things but expecting different results, aren’t we just a little bit mad?

Whether we are conservatives, World Bank officials, NGO activists, philanthropists, political and scholar-activists, the whole lot of us, we all share the same statistics. We find them indicating that in Africa infant mortality is on the rise (the only place in the world where such indicators are actually worsening). We find that millions are projected to die from Aids and the poverty that feeds the fury of treatable diseases like Malaria and TB. We look at the statistics that find African economies counting foreign aid as part of the national budget; that indicate Africa loses more money through unfair trade than it gets in foreign aid. We find indicators of the extent of environmental degradation, and the human misery caused through exploitation of resources such as oil in places like the Niger Delta. We look at statistics which, like bread crumbs, can be followed back to days of slavery; that show present day exploitation of resources and a rather bleak future if things continue as they are.

Yet, in the face of these enormous problems, based on our ideological professions, we proscribe solutions that have one thing in common – inadequacy. Conservatives launch an anti-corruption campaign, and prescribe more foreign aid, but to accountable governments. World Bank officials call for the opening of markets and transparency. Philanthropists set up more save-the-African-child foundations. NGO activists call for strategic donations and fairer US intervention. Political and scholar activists have their international conferences and alternative world summits only to pass resolutions calling for better representation of Africa in international media. In the meantime, in a most myopic move, African leaders at the helm of this sinking ship gather in Accra to call for a United Africa to be led by one president and a 2,000,000 strong army.

In a word, our various remedies have long been outstripped by the maladies. Cynicism is not mine alone here. Nelson Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid struggle, started in 2003 a joint foundation with the apartheid/colonialism crusader Cecil Rhodes’ Trust. The Mandela-Rhodes Foundation, the website declares, seeks 'to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa'. What could be more cynical? Who is fooling who here? In another context, this would be unbelievable: we could never imagine Jewish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel starting a Wiesel-Himmler Foundation, for example – but somehow in Africa we are willing to suspend our disbelief. With all due respect - is this madness? Have we become this cynical, or are we suffering from collective schizophrenia that allows us launder history through foundations and other self-help projects?

We are in a peculiar position of being behind history. We misread the present. And for it, the future is not ours. Each day unveils what the future will hold – the US Africa Command Centre, wars on terror that, like globalisation, have no boundaries, and an African leadership whose best foot is Mbeki’s embrace of international capital at the expense of the majority of South Africans. We must stop sending one another congratulatory notes after each successful rock concert, international conference, or summit.

These were my thoughts as I stood in the middle of Inanda Township in Durban, as I walked through settlements demolished under the watchful eye of the ANC government. Near a chemical plant, children tickled by our presence broke into giggles; but my laughter died where their feet were discoloured by walking barefoot in chemical soaked homes and playgrounds.

I could trace these thoughts to 2004 in Kenya’s Dandora slums. Sitting under a tree with writer Binyavanga Wainaina, my brothers and sisters, and members of the Kalamashaka Hip Hop band, we could hear random gunshots announcing random deaths a few miles away. Later that evening we left the slum for Runda Estate, one of the richest estates in Nairobi, to visit a progressive Kenyan politician, where we were served food by maids and cooks dressed in snappy white checkered uniforms. Then it occurred to me that our political leadership really do not see the people in Dandora, Mathare or Kangemi slums as having lives with value.

The anger and the most basic humanism that moved the revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries are gone. They have been replaced by 'progressive' politics laced with contempt for the poor; as if history did not happen; as if – here comes another statistic - the 380,000,000 Africans living in dire poverty are stubbornly refusing to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat democracy buffet. These politicians do not have the political imagination or the will to deal with the devastation of extreme poverty and the historical legacies of colonialism.

But in 2004 it had not occurred to me that even we, the political activists, had lost that imagination, if not the will. We too were speaking the same language as the politician. Realising earlier this month that African life lacked as much value in South Africa as in Kenya, that there was nothing more Pan-African than shared poverty, and the many of ways of dying, that Aids is as much a Pan-African issue as African culture, I had to admit that my way of doing things has been wholly inadequate. Not because I was waiting for a magic wand that can be waved (it is locked away in coffers of the global rich in the little drawer titled stop living at the expense of others); rather, my activism was miles away from comprehending, let alone squarely addressing, problems that were multi-generational, sanctioned by history, and local and international at the same time.

Understanding the problem, history not withstanding, lies in comprehending when and why the revolutionary became a political activist. The activist, as I understand it, was born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the revolutionary died. Revolutions under the banner of Marxism had degenerated to coups and counter-coups which produced paranoid movements and dictators. By the early 1990s, even the thin banner of Marxism was no longer being hoisted. It was war for power, one group against the other for the state house. Communism in the East collapsed; and with the chaos and deaths that followed, it was no longer fashionable to talk about the masses, classes and revolution.

But movements of trickle-down economics and welfare also produced the same results – war for profit, coups and counter-coups, paranoid dictators. Only the left took the blame. So when Margaret Thatcher declared that there was no alternative to capitalism, not only did the conservative, liberal and radical politicians believe her, but so did the would-be revolutionaries who, looking to the East, only saw chaos and turmoil.

Political activism as the mainstay of change rose out of the ashes of revolutionary activism. And imbedded in the idea of political activism is the belief that there are no other alternatives. Herein is the paradox: we, the political activists work within a closed system of no alternatives even when we think we do not. Anti-globalisation will not make a dent on globalisation; and anti-capitalism cannot counter movement of massive international capital. We simply have to break way from this closed system; offer, and fight for other alternatives.

If we are to stare boldly at the problems facing the African continent, we must dare to say that there are alternatives not only to how societies are arranged but to how we can bring about those changes. We must return to these two twin aspects of change: the boldness of revolutionary thinking and dreaming and the boldness of action. People power movements in Latin America, exemplified by Chavez, are one alternative. We must speak about their potential as well as their limitations. We cannot turn our back on what is happening in Latin America. It is our duty to keep Cuba alive, that star the United States has been trying to dull, so that it remains an example of what is possible. But if we see potential in Latin America, we must use it to jump-start our own ideas and approaches to change, not as a template to be blindly copied.

In Africa we must invest time and energy in developing a Pan-Africanism from below, one that recognises we are not uniting governments but the people; one which is revolutionary, in that it will unite the people as it frees them from local and international exploitation; that sees the emancipation of women as an integral part of its vocation, and has the content of social and economic justice. The only way to make sure of this, contrary to the July African Union meeting in Accra, is by a people’s mandate.

Pan-Africanism cannot be a lofty idea that comes from an enlightened leadership. The days of the missionary, the small glorious band of men, the talented tenth, the revolutionary van-guard are gone. Pan-Africanism will have to travel through the same borders as refugees, breaking down barriers and borders along the way. It has to travel through African languages, dynamic cultures, and the shared politics of anti-colonial struggles (after all, anti-apartheid was a pan-African struggle), and resistance in this day of globalisation. Only then shall Africans become visible to each other. And it is only when Africans are visible to each other that African solutions become possible.

There are collective questions that cannot be answered by one person in the same way a solution cannot be an individual affair. And what do the African people want? What would the economy of a united Africa look like? What kind of political systems would we create? What kind of culture would pan-Africanist frameworks produce? What kind of social-gender relations should the Africa of the future embrace? What would a borderless Africa look like? In trying to answer these questions from our various locations, we will be creating the much needed alternatives – and implementing them.

Political activism would not dream of changing governments or unifying African people. Revolutionary thinking that is cognisant of the world as it stands will. In this 21st century of a thousand changes: we are either revolutionary, or we are not.

* Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Conversing with Africa: Politics of Change (Kimaathi Publishers, 2002), the collection of poetry Hurling Words at Consciousness (Africa World Press, 2006), and editor of the forthcoming New Kenyan Fiction (Ishmael Reed Publications, 2008).

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

KENYA: Inspiring young people in slums

2007-08-13T04:23:00.001+02:00

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Willis “Booster” Mbatia, 27, who hopes to become a councillor in Mathare
NAIROBI, 23 July 2007 (IRIN) - Kenya's general elections in December hold special promise for Willis "Booster" Mbatia, a resident of the sprawling Mathare slums, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi.

Mbatia, 27, hopes to be one of the local councillors: "It is about time the youth, especially those in the slums, had one of their own in a position of leadership.

"I have successfully been a head boy and a youth leader. I do not see why I cannot represent the rights of the youth as a councillor," Mbatia, a primary-school graduate, told IRIN.

“I would address the issues of insecurity, access to healthcare and a clean environment, ethnic division, and the lack of education opportunities because most of the crime is due to this,” he said. “I would also ensure that the beneficiaries of bursaries are the genuinely needy, not those related to the leaders," he said.

"My lack of higher education does not discourage me from vying for political office," he said. "There are many professors in Kenya, but the country is still not developing as it should."

With most youth in the slums often lacking the opportunities for a good education and training, programmes run by or targeting young people are filling an important gap - providing skills and hope.

Vocational training

Mbati, a freelance estate agent, has been a leader of various youth groups in the slums. "When the people have a problem, they send me to talk to the local councillor," he said. "I owe my leadership skills to having joined the Mathare Youth Sports Association [MYSA] instead of being idle at home."

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, one of the biggest slums in Africa
MYSA, created in 1987, has 17,000 members from 16 slum areas in Nairobi who are involved in its various programmes, including vocational training, environment clean-up campaigns and awareness-raising of children's rights, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health.

"I joined MYSA after completing primary school," said Mbatia. "I was the coach of the under-12 and under-18 football teams. We were also trained in socialisation and leadership skills.

"As an individual youth in the slums, it is hard to get recognition for your efforts but being in a group provides more opportunities to improve one's life," he said.

He said most youngsters who joined the association with him now had jobs or were playing professional football.

According to John Ndichu Ng'ethe, a former chairman of MYSA, direct involvement of the youth in the programmes either as peer counsellors or participants gave them a sense of ownership over the projects.

"Engaging the youth in such activities gives them hope," Ng'ethe said. "The youth are empowered with decision-making skills."

Facing discrimination

Sarah Odeke, one of the beneficiaries of such a youth initiative, said the youth in the slums would have an even greater chance of success if they faced less discrimination.

"If you are a youth from the slums you are either viewed as a prostitute if you are female, or a thief if you are male," Odeke said. "It is about time people put an end to this stereotyping."

"Discrimination against people from the slums should stop. We are like everyone else only that we do not have similar opportunities," she added.

Odeke, who is a member of a women’s football team, has also benefited from training on HIV/AIDS behaviour change.

Her friends, however, have not been as lucky: "Most of my friends in the ghetto are dying of HIV/AIDS or are on their way towards being infected by engaging in prostitution," she said, "Others have gone abroad with tourists for the same thing."

A community-based organisation sponsored Odeke's secondary education. "I am viewed as a role model by the other children in the slums," she said, "I feel honoured. My mother, who is jobless, is also very proud of me and I am glad I am able to help my family with the money I make," she said.

In addition to a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with the youth, the Mathare valley slum has four youth groups involved in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, environmental hygiene, education, children's rights, and drug-abuse awareness that use video, theatre, music and photography to convey the message.

People power on the airwaves

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Martin Ndungu (right), the financial manager of KOCH Radio, and Abdi Hussein, the deputy human resource manager, hosting “Wasanii Panel”, in Korogocho, Nairobi
In the neighbouring Korogocho informal settlement, 10 youngsters established a community radio station known as Koch FM in 2006 to enlighten slum dwellers on how they could improve their lot.

The radio station, whose motto is ‘Educating through Entertainment’, is run by 23 volunteers who produce programmes showcasing youth talent on governance, gender and children’s issues.

According to Martin Ndungu, the financial manager of the station, who also doubles as presenter of a popular show, "Wasanii [artists’] Panel", people in the slums are often ignorant of issues of importance to them.

"For example, they are not aware that the national budget also affects them directly," Ndungu said. "There is a need to break the ignorance."

Koch FM, which broadcasts to an audience within a 2km radius, reaches at least 200,000 people in Korogocho and neighbouring areas.

Some local leaders were against the idea and its founders had to lobby for support from the provincial administration. Others wanted the radio to promote their personal interests, according to Ndungu.

To raise funds he sells souvenir T-shirts and greeting cards. "We are able to pay for electricity and maintain a stand-by generator," he said.

"It is sad to see most of our friends using drugs when one can see their immense potential," he said. "We need to reach them with a message of hope. We are also looking for support so that the community radio project can become more sustainable," he said. "We do not want our dream to die with us."

Mbatia said young people from the slums who had succeeded in various fields served as an inspiration to others.

"There is a wealth of talent in the slums but leaders have failed us. Funds allocated to benefit the youth do not easily trickle down to the slum youth who need them most," he said.

peter in HongKong

2007-07-24T10:15:00.000+02:00

Peter represented Pendo Theatre at the just concluded IDEA conference in Hong Kong.

The response he got from his presentation was overwhelming and he was able to show how the youths of Korogocho are using theatre for transformation.

He was also able to learn from other leading theatre artists and activists who were present during the conference.

Peter was able to forge links with artist from notably Tanzania and Germany.

At the conference Peter also had the opportunity to meet with Profesor Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Kenyas leading literature guru and he got alot of insights from that encounter.

Peter left Hong Kong a happy man having played the historic role of representing us and thanks to everyone who made it possible. special thanks to Jaime and Fish from RRAF Australia who made Peter's stay in HongKong more intresting.

Oti

Invitation to HongKong

2007-06-22T10:06:00.000+02:00

Pendo Theatre a a group of youths from Korogocho has been invited to participate at the International IDEAS conference in HongKong during the month of July 2007.

That is yet another milestone and an indication of the efforts that the people of Korogocho are putting both at the local and at the internationa level.

At the International IDEAS conference 2007 Pendo Theatre has the opportunity to discuss with the participants Participatory Education Theatre that has worked considerably well in Korogocho in exploring and enhancing dialogue amongst community members who would otherwise not engage in mainstream forums.

The strength of Participatory Education Theatre as practiced in Koch draws from past experience by guru's like Agusto Boal who was able to contribute immensly to policy issues in debates in Brazil using communty theatre.

Pendo is on the track and in collaboration and with partnerships with other people from the world the feauture is bright.

Reach plitonde@yahoo.com for further debate on theatre as a tool for education in informal settllement.

Oti

KochFm we hold the mirror

2007-06-22T09:50:00.000+02:00

For a long time people have considered journalism to be like a mirror that reflects things that are happening, what has not been acknowledged though was that the person holding the mirror influenced the reflection that was seen, and so for a long time the people of Korogocho and indeed people from the informal settlements excluded/minorities have had to bear the burden of watching a reflection from a distorted vantage point.

It's like looking at your face on a mirror only to see the reflection of your foot as good or bizare as that might be there is a sense of misrepresentation, there is a sense of momentary disorientation and bewilderment.

So the opportunity that KochFm brings to us today is tenfold, we will be able to see the whole of who we are, we will be able to highlight and abitrate issues for we will have the means.

The way I see our family, our school, our shops, our roads so different to someone who is visiting for a few days, being residents of Koch we are aware of the seasons we are aware of some of the dynamics within the community and it is that knowledge that we want to use to drive KochFm and indeed the initiatives of the people of Korogocho and other informal settlements.

And so as we journey in the new direction of creating a space for public dialogue we know our goal, we know our desires, we come with a bias, we come with an agenda, an agenda to harness the community efforts, an opportunity to biuld a stronger and vibrant community.

We are united by the universal committement to a just world.

Oti

Pictures from the KochFM launch!

2007-06-20T23:43:00.000+02:00

Roba of Kalamashaka in Oslo, Norway

2007-06-03T23:04:00.000+02:00

Our KochFM-brother, Roba arrived in Oslo May 25th, and left today (June 3rd) after 10 hectic days in Oslo. Roba hooked up with a lot of Kenyans staying in Norway and also alot of rappers and producers, and he has been buzy recording new classics in a studio, doing radio interviews and concerts. Wish he could have stayed far longer he didn´t get to see town much and we got too little time to hang out, but last night we were partying until 5:30 am, so we had some fun after a legendary K-shaka concert at Fabrikken. K-shaka brother Jivinji was also in Oslo keeping the fire burning...

koch documentary in the Making

2007-04-24T09:44:00.000+02:00

Hi am delighted to let you know that we have been working on the doco that we shot in Koch in mid January and you can see the video trailer on myspace.com.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2024487508

We are hoping that the final doco will be 50minutes long exploring issues from young peoples perspective, at the momment am chasing footage from the mainstream medei to biuld the context.

Oti

radio donations!

2007-03-22T03:06:00.000+02:00

Yes good people, we finally recieved the radio donations from Free Play foundation!

And with the characteristic zeal of the team 20 pieces were distributed immediately to the community-shopkeepers, barbershops and schools to enlsit more listners.

The radios are so cool they do not even use batteries you just wind them and tune in to KochfM. The reminder of the radios will be given out to listners of other programmes, the team is designing games where listners will call in and win the radios.

We want to thank the Free Play Foundation for its generosity and their fighting spirit:the radios were stuck at customs in Mombassa for ages and alot of paperwork, advocacy and determination was the what made the governement release the radio's. Leaves me wondering who sets customs priorities, that makes it easier for the big fish to import their goods while goods destained for communities are neglected.

So thumbs up for the Free Play Foundation for sticking to the game.

The radio's will go along way in strengthening KochfM audince.

Mapambano

Oti

Go Girl

2007-03-22T02:41:00.000+02:00

Hi, Shiko,

Great to see you on the snow in Norway, does it sting like the dust in Koch?

Hey you are doing great stuff biulding the reputation of KochfM and the people of Koch and utltimately young people from disadvantaged and mirginalised communities all over the world.

The new world as I see it will be run by people who have traditionally and historically been left out of the decision making, and what we are creating in Korogocho through the radio station and other initiatives is the platform for that to happen.

Am pleased to hear how well you articulate the challenges faced by women in Koch and it tears my heart to pieces to hear how part of men in these civilization have chose to take negative aspects on our culture to dominite and subjugate women. If you look at it keenly you will realise that the said men are not aware of what culture says in terms of confilct and how punitive action should be taken if any...So while we deal with young people we must endevour to learn all the best cultural practices and shun all retrogressive aspects to it.

As a woman you are best placed to articulate the issues of women in Koch and indeed the world, its such passion that has propelled the world foward.

Was looking recently at an exhibition of moments in humanity and the have a pciture of a young girl partly burnt by Napalm bomb in Vietnam running down a road, today the woman is a goodwill ambassodor for peace at the UN, her experience places her at the heighest pedestal to campaign for peace, when Mandela speaks of reconciliation people listen beacuse he spent half his adult years behind the bars: Most people would have been consumed with thoughts of revenge and getting even with their captors, but no he embraced them and stemmed the wave of a backlash that would have tipped South Africa into a civil war-white against blacks or poor versus rich!

So in that long standing tradition I want to say that the whole world is litening and watching you, lead them to action, action to stop the senseless poverty that the peole in the slums have to endure each waking day.

Its the call of the century.

Mapambano

Oti

Two more interviews

2007-03-20T13:33:00.000+02:00

Shiko has been all over Norway, and everybody wants a piece of her. As she was passing trough Trondheim last week she was interviewed by a local radio-station named Radio Adressa. Here you can hear this interview. (It´s introduced in Norwegian, but the rest is in English):

She also visited the Norwegian Broadcast Corporations radio-studios in Trondheim, where she was interviewed in a program called "Osenbanden". Osenbanden has interviewed me (Richard) half a year ago, and when Shiko was on her way, they were eager to interview her as well. The guys at Osenbanden are really supportive to our project and therefore curious to meet Shiko. Here it is as well:

Shiko and host at RadiOracle

2007-03-12T17:47:00.000+02:00

This is a picture inside the studio at radiOracle. Jathusiga Raja is the host, in the background you can see the engineer trough the window too.

Shiko at RadiOracle pix

2007-03-12T17:43:00.000+02:00

From the left it´s Audhild, Mona and Shiko at RadiOrakel in the attic of the Blitz youth-house in Oslo. We are hoping to send Mona and Audhild to do some workshop-training in Koch. These guys are really experienced when it comes to radio and training. They have been working in many African countries. Mona works as a teacher at Sogn mediaschool in Oslo and Audhild works as a soundengineer at Sun Studios in Oslo, dubbing Cartoons.

Radiostation donates audio-maximizer

2007-03-12T17:39:00.000+02:00

Shiko is a guest at a radiostation (I didn´t get the name) and the station wanted to donate a audio-maximizer to KochFM. This is a machne that maximizes the sound out of our mixer so that the transmitter gets as hot signal as possible. We hope we will get some technical personel to install it as soon as she comes with it. Am in Norway, so it´s a bit far...

Shiko interviewed at radiOracle in Oslo March 8th 2007

2007-03-12T12:38:00.000+02:00

Finally I managed to stream the interview with Shiko from womens day at radiOracle in Oslo.

Shiko in the snow

2007-03-12T11:55:00.000+02:00

I was trying to put this out the right way, but it wouldn+t work, so I had to put it out the wrong way around. I guess you like it anyway. This is a picture of Shiko and her travelling-mate, Mohammoud. When I took them to the snow in Oslo their first day in Norway.

Shiko is in Norway!

2007-03-08T02:31:00.000+02:00

Shiko landed safely in Norway yesterday after an exhausting trip with hold-up in security at Skiphol due to passport-trouble (ink running from the picture, cause of bad print and moist) - strange thing is, she´s got the norwegian visa, you can´t fake that, but she was hold up for 2 hours and almost missed her flight. But anyway. Yesterday we had a joyful reunion in the hotel-reception and then we went off. I wanted to show her everything at once, so we started with a brief introduction to snow. We went by car 20 minutes away from the Oslo City-centre, up to Holmenkollen, a huge skiing area, with a ski-jump and lots of snow. Where you can see Oslo "from above", if it wasn´t for the fog, though. She got a quick brief in how to make snowballs and how to start making a snowman. Then we went to the Norwegian film studios, where we attended some shooting of the famous norwegian director Bent Hamers latest movie. Then we went to the Norwegian Film postproduction-facility, where I tried my best to explain what I´m working with from hand made sound-effects to the huge mixing-theatre. Shiko also got to say hi to some of my friends there, among them also, Stig Holte, who donated a secondhand Mac G3 Powerbook to KochFM just after christmas. In the evening we had a nice dinner with friends at "Kampen Bistro", where finally Shiko allmost fell asleep at the table, she was so exhausted after a buzy day.

Today Shiko went to a photo-school, in which she has alot of friends, ´cause she and Carol attended a workshop with them in Kenya this autumn.

Tomorrow Shiko will be holding a presentation of KochFM at the NCA-offices in Oslo, in the evening, she will be interviewed at RadiOracle FM99.3 in Oslo (between 4 and 5pm).

Friday me and Inger-Lill will be holding a small get-together for Shikos friends in our apartment in Oslo before she continues her trip around Norway on saturday. She will be traveling a lot and learning a lot to bring back to Koch, hopefully for the empowerment of Korogocho. And we are working hard to get her up on some of the big media-channels...

Shiko could tell me that everything is fine in Koch. KochFM is transmitting everyday and all the radios around is tuned to KochFM-99.9. Also the local citizens drop by in the morning to give hints of todays discussion-topics. They also buy all the different newspapers everyday to keep Korogocho updated on everyday life in the world and the nation of Kenya. Hopefully someone will start blogging from Nairobi soon, but for now, there is no internet connection in Koch. Those who read this and want to help, can contact us at kochfm@gmail.com, we need all the help we can get to continue our struggle.

If you´re not speaking norwegian you won´t understand this, but it´s fun to watch anyway: http://english.nca.no/article/articleview/6798/

RRaFT in Koch

2007-02-08T08:42:00.000+02:00

Media Release
15 January 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Daniel Narbett
Director
RRaFT Educators
Telephone: (08) 9336 3438
Mobile: 0421 063 266
Email: daniel@rraft.com.au
Website: www.rraft.com.au

A night behind bars

The start of a collaboration of Fremantle and Koch (Nairobi) artist started on a high note when 15 of them were arrested and held for more than 11 hours in a Nairobi police station. The arrests were a clear demonstration of the impunity with which the Kenya police force operate with and the rampant human rights violations that the people of Koch and in deed the Kenyan community have to deal with. The police were heard beating accused persons a tendency that was also found amongst the inmates.

Jaime Yallup, Paul Roe and Ben Wandei of RraFT were in one of Nairobi’s largest slum areas, Korogocho (Koch), collaborating with local organisations Pendo Theatre, Miss Koch and Koch FM to attend the World Social Forum and also support community action through street theatre.

With hindsight the night behind bars served to deepen the discussions and engagements as the team prepared the theatre production that captured the realities of life in a slum from the youth’s perspective. The performance at the World Social Forum struck with resonance to the audience: one young lady had been asked for sexual favours by her bosses to maintain her position she declined the offer lost her job but got another. Attesting to the fact the abuse and harassment can be fought through resistance.

The RRaFT crew are bringing back with them a life time experience choosing to reside in the slum with the people sharing all the facets of life, from catching a matatu(bus) to town, eating ugali, chapati and madodo(maize, flour meal and beans), wash in the public showers. The children were the most amazing with choruses of “How are you” or “Mzungu”, which made the team at home. Every where there were children playing with soil or self made toys quipped Jaime the director RRaFT.

The workshops, the performances and the community visits were filmed and will be a basis for a documentary film celebrating youth resilience in Koch to be released in July.

Within an environment of inadequate and inaccessible health facilities, high levels of illiteracy, unemployment and an unprecedented crime rate, these Koch organisations have created powerful programmes that have effectively improved the lives of many of the inhabitants of Koch. And RRaFT was there to learn from the people who are turning the tide of things around tapping into the wealth and energy of the youth churning out innovative community development processes.

kochfM on air

2007-02-08T08:32:00.000+02:00

Hey good people after the long political technical battles finally KochfM is on air thanks to the timley collaboration of IndyMedia.

Its a dream come true and now we must stay focused on winning the people with truth, the level of experience and enthusiasm amongs the team members will ensure that we are on air and we continue to attract an audience and sponsors.

Sponors will play a critical role in keeping the station on air though they will not be allowed to dictate content particulalry in areas where the community will be disadvantaged unfairly.

We are also recieiving 100 lifeline radios from the free play foundation that will be used to form listner groups for specific programmes.

We are still on the look out for more publicity items and merchandise that KochfM can use to maintain visibility while generating an income...

Keep it radical

Oti

taking over

2007-02-05T06:02:00.000+02:00

Another world is possible, is the theme that run through the world social forum in Kenya last week..And behold the numer of people who joined in the forum.

It was so beautiful to see all those good meaning and committed people walking in Nairobi, taking matatus, buying and having conversations with participants and Kenyans.

Kenyans are known for their generosity and as such the occassion served to deepen that bond, for us who chose to stay in Koch the expereince was quite remarkable as choruses of "How are You" followed us from street to street, the children seemed to sum the happiness of the people for seeing two brave mzungu staying in Koch.

Koch as a community has grown over the past years from being one of the most insecure to a point where now its increasingly safere than other parts of Nairobi, and these is due to the combined efforts of the residents who have formed communiyt watch gruops that patrol the area. And so for the two weeks we stayed in Koch we had the greatest sense of security and community.

We were so amazed at the progress that KochFM has made interms of visibility and also creativity, the finishing of the sound studio is the most innovative with the use of egg trys to offer accustic balance, so cheap yet so effective. Again it points us to the reality that communities already have solutions to problems and all we can do as participants from other places it to listen observe and learn, and then share our experiences with them.

So thanks again to KochFM guys for leading the way in innovation am sure other studios will follow the lead.

Its also good to report that we are getting the transmitter from Indipendent media who were present during the WSF and have agreed to install the new transmitter..

Hope we shall be on air soon..

Mapambano...

Oti

police harassment and youth resistance

2007-02-05T03:23:00.000+02:00

Having spent a couple of months in Australia it was a rude shock to see the manner and nature of police conduct in Nairobi during our two week visit. To say they were rude would be an understatement, or even to suggest that they were in efficient would be to give them undeserving credit. The police that night violated our rights and those of other Kenyans who were arrested for being outside at night after 11.00pm, whaterver the pretext, since Nairobi is not under curfew (but it would appear that police patroling in slum areas make it appear so).

Thus as we were having drinks dances and talks our party was interrupted by more than 20 police men did not see any policeowman, brandishing their guns at us and ordering us out to a waiting lorry. Its amazing how arbitrary the police conduct their operations, all tourists were allowed to stay while all the Kenyans were to be arrested. Now thats funny since I was a Kenyan at that momment but also a tourist since I was only visiting for two weeks, but that aside, the police did not seem eager to engage in conversation since we had tried to ask them what they were arresting us for to without any success. So at that point the most important thing was to get ourselves to the police station with the hope that we could have an audince with the officer commanding the police post, experince has showed me that the OCS tends to be more reasonable and less likely to physically assult people unlike the jnr officers who seem to derive pleasure for inflicting pain on others.

In the police car I heard one ridiculous incident that would have made us all laugh but we knew too well that the police could turn that statement in the morning. There was a mother of a 6 year old girl who had been arrested on her way to the shop to get salt and flour to finish cooking her dinner. Her main worry was that her house would probably catch fire or that something could happen to her daughter, she even showed me the things she had just bought.... it was so sad.

Well we finally arrived in the police station and got booked in with drunk and being disorderly, now for the records I do not even drink alchohol so does Njeru or Paul, but that did not matter. The biggest issue at that momment is that we were about to be placed in the same cell with other convicts and we had already witnessed them brutilizing other inmantes, se we hatched a plan to go in a single file and fight if we had to to defend ourselves, our situation was further complicated by the fact that we were in the company of a tourist. So when the door was opened we came in charging and blazing, and paralyzed the system, the bully inmates realized quickly that we were from Koch and that cooled down things abit and after consultations we were allowed to go into the VIP without the ritual of harassment or having to pay the inmates. The ritual consisted of washing the toilet and giving any valuable that one had and finally sleeping in the corridors where people were practically pillled on each other. We got into the VIP and I was seated next to the big bully inmate who alleged that he was in for robbery but since they could not get sufficient evidence to charge him they kept him in the cells(now in the cell there is a tendency for people to make their cases seem more serious than they are, or lessen them, I do not know which he was doing but he had been there quite a number of times and for the past 4months). He seemed to know people from Koch which was good. Once peace was established we settled into the sleepless night which was punctuated with either the police beating people outside the cell or the inmates beating people and bullying them once they got inside.

It was such a waste of time because the next morning part of the group was sent to court and actually charged with being drunk and disorderly and the magistrate finding them giulty based on their plea, others were forced to clean the police compound and the tourists including me were released without even a charge or an explanation. Now am sure one would wonder why the people in court pleaded giulty or why we did not press charges for harrassment and wrongfull arrest. The point is that at achieving human rights is a process and at times you are faced with the dilema of escaping or staying and fighting. If the people in court had denied the charges they would have been remanded for 14days or fined 5000 Kenya Shillings and the case would have taken atleast more than 6months and they would have to appear incourt every 14day.Now thats so much time to demand from activists. while agreeing to being giulty attracted a 1day community service or a fine of 200Kenya shillings...Well its easy to see whats the easiest options.

For us being in the country for two weeks it would have been difficult to institute the charges.. since they would have expected us or our lawyers to be present at the times of the hearings. The best we did is that our collegues reported the violations to the British and Australian embassy, whatever the outcome , we have informed and we shall c arry the story wherever we go to..

Well we left the police station with a sad tatste.

Oti

KochFM logo NOW WITH FREQUENCY!

2007-01-23T20:03:00.000+02:00

New pix of KochFM team

2007-01-18T13:19:00.000+02:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86951203@N00/sets/72157594485395264/

KochFM team arrested in Kariobangi, Nairobi

2007-01-18T12:42:00.000+02:00

Monday the 15th of January we were all out in Kariobangi having a farewellparty for Inger-Lill and me that were leaving the following morning. I just came back from the washrooms when I could see Toto, Oti, Roba and the rest of my dear friends standing up as if they were frozen. It was quiet, and when i turned my head, I could see we were all surrounded by between 10 and 20 policemen with kalashnikows. Inger-Lill had been ordered "Tourist, sit down", she whispered this to me as I was standing there with my eyes wide open, trying to understand what was happening. We were ordered to proceed to the door, and the owner approached me to pay the bill, so I payed and started walking to the door.

There I tried to talk to one of the policemen who were blocking the door. He seemed friendly, but suddenly some of the other policemen shouted "Out! On one line!" So we had to walk out on one line, where a huge policetruck was parked ready for loading with everybody inside the bar. Inger-Lill tried to talk to another policeman to get an explanation of why we were arrested and the answer she got was "because you are here!". So it seemed that we were not allowed to have a goodbyeparty in Kariobangi on a monday. I tried to explain to one of the guards that we were supposed to catch a plane 10:30 the day after, so if we got arrested, we would not be able to go home. And that we had our vehicle there at the parkinglot. But he didn´t seem to care much, so I asked who´s in charge, and he pointed out this guy without uniform, so I approached him, and I could see the fire in his eyes. I tried to explain to him, but the only thing he did was to shout "In the lorry now!" and he pushed me towards the lorry, so I had to climb in.

As I climbed in people were pushed and they actually fell stubling towards the lorry. A very good example of police brutality in Nairobi. Inger-Lill got some filthy policemanfingers touching her behind and some dirty swahili glossary were exchanged between the policemen. My first thought then was to get Inger-Lill safe inside the lorry, so I tried to reach my hand for helping her in, but someone dragged her back, and ordered me out.

I jumped back out and someone ordered us to get in our car and go. I told one of the policemen there are 2 more tourists inside the lorry, and asked if they could come, so they talked to our australian friends that refused to come. And if it wasen´t for our plane the morning after we would also had joined KochFMs first common arrest to the station to get to experience how this "system" actually treats their people.

Anyway Inger-Lill and I went back to town shivering in anger over how the police can claim to treat people like this. The police is as far as I see it the biggest threat to the security in Nairobi. The Nairobi Police are brutal, corrupt, patheticly powerful, male chauvinist and racist. I´m glad our friends got back home in one piece on tuesday after being humiliated like if they were animals without human rights.

This was a violation against the human rights to a group fighting to gain them in the city of Nairobi. We shall overcome. This is what we are fighting for! Long live KochFM!

Workshop in Koch Saturday, January 13th 2007

2007-01-17T22:51:00.000+02:00

This saturday we had visitors in Koch. Gwendolyn Thomkins East African Korrespondent at NPR, National Public Radio in Massachusetts, USA and two more journalists, one of them the EA correspondent of LA times. Also 2 of the celebrity breakfast-show-hosts, Chanice and Fareed of CapitalFM (one of the most proffessional Radiosations in East Africa). A lot of important issues were touched upon by these people, who were brought to Koch by a European health worker that has some projects going in the area.

Gwen had brought her minidisc recorder a mic and showed us some interviewing techniques in a very funny and informative way. She also talked alot about how to be a good storyteller when it comes to work as a radio host. One of her main issues was how to interview people that has experienced something terrible as rape or murder. How you must think as a journalist and how you psychologically must try to put yourself in the same situation, but at the same time remember that you have no reason as such to know how exactly it feels to have had this kind of experience when you are talking as the voice of your listeners.

One of the american journalists had brought the Code of Ethics and talked trough them and gave examples. He also gave the participants some "exercises" by asking what our team would do if a member of a political party would invite a journalist from KochFM to a meeting, and fasilitate snacks and transport. We got some good discussions, and everybody agreed that it would be better to go to the meeting by own means and skip the bribes to have the chance to be a independent voice of the people.

The hosts of CapitalFM got alot of questions regarding if they are nervous before a show, how they prepare, when they start their day at work, how they work together as a team an so on.

this was a very good experience for all the people that attended the workshop! We hope there will be more to come. KochFM is in desperate need of technical experience. If you do this or know someone who knows, please contact us at kochfm@gmail.com. We are using Adobe Audition for editing and need experienced people to train our staff.

Richard and Inger-Lill back in Koch

2007-01-12T16:16:00.001+02:00

Lill and I visited koch again. We are staying in Nairobi from Jan 2nd up to Jan 16th. We have hade a great time with our friends in KochFM and things are really starting to happen. During our stay so far we have been able to contribute some more knowledge and equipment. I brought a wireless sender for internet-signals. with this equipment we hope to be able to get internet to Koch as soon as possible.

We have also brought another computer, a apple g3 laptop contributed from a good friend of mine in Oslo. I have installed various software on this one for soundediting and such things we need for running a radiostation.

As I am writing this we are not yet transmitting due to some technical problems with the transmitter. It seems not to amplify the signal, so we are looking for a new one, which we plan to order on the internet. (www.veronica.co.uk)

Me and Lill are happy to see that the guys are so buzy! They are preparing different things for the upcoming world social forum. I'm not quite updated on what's happening yet, but one of the slogans are KochFM - Takin' ova! and this is what they are planning to do with the WSF:)

They are making big banners with logos and slogan for adverting along the way between Korogocho and Kasarani, where the WSF is going to take place. This is walking distance from Koch and they are planning to have bands playing at a stage, a big barbeque, cinema, tent-camp for visitors and a band playing following the participants from Koch to Kasarani everyday during the Forum.

When it comes to the studio, it's still in the process of being built. Tom (the carpenter) finished the studiowindow earlier today.

During the weekend we are going to have a workshop in Koch, where we connect the equipment and talk about how to run a radiostation, which is going to be a big issue in KochFM for 2007. Now we need to get in contact with good radio-presenters, editors and engineers to do workshops for us. Please send us tips for this and other stuff to kochfm@gmail.com

Richard

Finally, we got our frequency!

2006-12-09T18:33:00.000+02:00

KochFM has finally recieved the transmitting-frequency.
We are now able to transmit at FM 99.9.

KochFM on Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) home page

2006-11-30T10:49:00.000+02:00

Kenya, Somalia & Uganda

[30.06.2006 13:07]

FM radio rocks in Kenyan slums

The first radio station to serve Kenya’s informal settlements has been started in Nairobi’s Korogocho slums. KochFM seeks to entertain and educate - and teach - the people in the slums.

The radio station, dubbed KochFM, was conceptualised by a group of young people from Korogocho, which with 500,000 inhabitants is the third largest slum in Nairobi. The concept of KochFM was inspired by similar projects abroad, like Radio Favela, in the slums of Belo Horizonte, Brazil which has been honoured by the United Nations for fighting crime and drugs as well as educating the community.

“With KochFM, we are making a megaphone for the people. Young people are considered to be the most important listeners, and are the station's main target group. These are the ones who are in a position to change things for the better, and to build a better future for the people of Korogocho,” says Richard Sveen, a sound engineer who has been supporting the youth initiative.

Together with Inger-Lill Persett, a participant in the Norwegian Fredskorpset exchange programme in Kenya since October 2005, Sveen presented the idea of KochFM to Norwegian Church Aid. The Kenya programme of Norwegian Church Aid responded with an offer to support KochFM with equipment and containers to be used as office and studio space.

Adding value to a job well done
“Such an initiative is very positive and we at Norwegian Church Aid are happy to work together with KochFM, not only in providing material things but also in building relationships and giving moral support that can add value to the good work the young people are doing,” says Yussuf Aweis, Norwegian Church Aid’s Chief Logistics Officer in Nairobi.

The radio station, using a transmitter that was built by supporters of the Norwegian initiative, has the capacity to transmit within a radius of five kilometres. This means that the station can reach other neighbouring areas with its positive messages.

KochFM’s editorial focus includes hygiene, HIV and Aids, environment, governance, gender equality, culture and the fight against crime and drugs.

“Our programmes will raise awareness on issues we perceive to be pertinent in our country, but specific to us in Korogocho and other slums. We have received words of goodwill from the government and the Communications Commission of Kenya,” says Njeru Munyi, one of the leaders of the youth initiative.

Njeru and his colleagues Abdi Hussein and Geoffrey Mureithi had visited Norwegian Church Aid’s office in Eastern Africa to share their experiences.

For more information, contact:

Isaiah Kipyegon T., Regional Communications and Advocacy Officer, tel.: (+254) 723 938133, e-mail: isaiah@ncakenya.org

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Geoffrey Mureithi, a youth leader from Nairobi's Korogocho slums, addresses Norwegian Church Aid's staff during a courtesy call. (Photo: Isaiah Kipyegon/NCAEA)

Abdi Hussein, KochFM computer technician and head of promotion, shares his thoughts as his colleague Njeru Munyi takes notes. (Photo: Isaiah Kipyegon/NCAEA)

DJ Toto and DJ Shiko doing a test-broadcasting at the newly launched KochFM. (Photo: Richard Sveen/NCAEA)

KochFM studios in the middle of Nairobi's Korogocho slums. The containers were provided by Norwegian Church Aid. (Photo: Richard Sveen/NCAEA)

koch FM on Elfubobs blog

2006-11-30T10:44:00.000+02:00

Koch FM - Community radio station

Koch FM is a project that started in the beginning of 2006 by a group from Korogocho (Nairobi’s third largest slum). The main goal for this group is to find ways of informing people about what is going on in their neighbourhood. The concept of Koch FM was inspired by similar projects abroad like Radio Favela in a slum of Belo Horizonte, a large city in Brazil. This radio station has won UN honours for fighting the drug trade and its advertising has helped education programs for the illiterate listeners. Elfu Bob has supported Koch FM with equipment like a sound mixer and a couple of microphones with stands and cables. Koch FM is still waiting to get the license to broadcast from the Kenyan government, but is surly on its way to success: they have recently been interviewed by NTV!

Link: http://elfubob.blogspot.com/2006/07/koch-fm-community-radio-station.html

KochFM in Standard July 3rd 2006

2006-11-30T10:41:00.000+02:00

Radio station targets slum residents

By Allan Kisia

From outside, it looks like any other transit goods container, or storage for the popular mitumba (second-hand) clothes.

But inside the nondescript structure is the studio of the country’s first slum radio station. The container houses equipment and machines of newly launched 101.5 Koch FM, a private radio station owned by youth from the Korogocho slum in Nairobi.

Francis Ngira, aka Big Toto, a presenter at Koch FM station.

With a range of only 5 kilometres, the station has been successfully tested and is expected to go on air in two weeks’ time once the Communications Commissions of Kenya (CCK) gives the go- ahead. The station, launched on June 24, will broadcast in Kiswahili and English in Korogocho and the surrounding areas.

Currently, it has nine male and female presenters who all grew up in the slum. The youth will run the station on voluntary basis.

Raphael Obonyo, a manager with Koch Youth Club, came up with the radio station idea to caution young people against crime and to provide entertainment.

"Crime is rampant in Korogocho and we felt that a community radio station would enhance security," he said.

The slum dwellers have received the idea with a lot of excitement. They can hardly wait for the station to go on air, after sampling its contents during the recent testing session. The station is a product of Miss Koch Initiative, a project started in 2001 to respond to rising cases of sexual abuse in the slum.

Entertaining and educative

Those behind the initiative are 25 men and 35 women aged between 18 and 28. Richard Sveen, a Norwegian tourist, was the first to donate studio equipment when the youth told him about the idea.

Others donors are the Institute of Policy Analysis, Norwegian Church Aid (which donated the container), Pamoja Trust and the residents.

A Korogocho resident, Joyce Kiarie, could not hide her enthusiasm when she listened to the radio station during its testing.

"I was excited to hear issues affecting our slum being discussed live on radio. This will be my number one radio station because the programmes are also entertaining and educative," says Kiarie.

The station will be air programmes from 6 am to 10 pm daily. It will play reggae and local music. It will also air local news. CCK officials visited the studio — located at the chief’s camp — one week ago and promised to support the initiative. But they warned it against interfering with frequencies of other radio stations.

Obonyo says rape and defilement cases are on the increase in slums and there is urgent need to find a solution to the vice.

"Those committing these crimes are in our midst but we dare not report them because they would hit back viciously," he says.

Relevant to slum dwellers

The transit goods container that houses the radio station in Korogocho slum, Nairobi. Pic by Martin Mukangu

For example, says Obonyo, 16 rapes were reported in the slum on the eve of New Year in 2000. It was for this reason that Obonyo’s team started the Miss Koch Initiative to make men see women as fellow human beings.

He said they received a lot of support from the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the community, including the youth. The initiative initially intended to do filming as a way of creating employment but the venture proved expensive and complicated.

The station has one technician, a graduate of Kenya Polytechnic, who grew up in the slum. Koch FM managing editor, Otieno Wandei, says they hope to attract commercials to be able to run the station. He says most radio stations broadcast issues that are not relevant to slum dwellers.

"Our news will specifically be packaged for people living in the ghetto. What is news to us may not necessarily be news in the mainstream media," says Wandei.

Criminal activities

He says the local community has been supporting them by donating seats, tables, utensils and books. The presenters include Francis Ngira, 20, also known as Big Toto, who will host the reggae programme and Hellen Wanjiku, 23, aka Shiko Babe. She will be a reporter, a sub-editor and a presenter of women’s programmes.

Ngira says he joined the initiative after seeing several of his friends shot dead by police over crime.

"I was also involved in criminal activities but changed to become a role model for the Korogocho youth," he says

The Miss Koch Initiative vision is to create a society that respects and promotes wholesome development of its male and female members. It seeks to provide a platform for Korogocho youth, particularly girls, to participate in the socio-economic and political matters.

Some of the initiative’s achievements are establishing an education fund for girls and a community resource centre. The initiative won the Mayor’s 2004 Award, while the winner of the Miss Koch 2003 was declared the Eve Young Woman of Year in 2004.

link:
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143954797

People in picture

2006-11-23T03:46:00.000+02:00

the people you see in this picture are from the left:

Richard - DJ Mzungo Baridi (me), Paul - the soldering man, Oti - the Aussie, the Big Toto, Njeru - the voice of Korogocho, Shiko - the educated filmwoman and Jeff - our man in Dubai. Missing was Abdi - the Somali host of Koch Late night, Martin -the smile, Carol , Fatima - the T-shirt designer, The mighty Pamoja and Roba of Ukoo Flani Mau Mau (hope I didn´t forget anyone)

The first computer

2006-11-23T03:41:00.000+02:00

Our first Computer was bought with private funds from Solveig Persett in Norway in May 2006:

Korogocho by dawn

2006-11-23T03:39:00.000+02:00

KochFM on www.humiliationstudies.org

2006-11-23T03:37:00.000+02:00

Koch FM - The Voice of Korogocho
Koch FM: a community radio with a frequency...by the community for the community! - “With Koch FM, we are making a megaphone for the people!”
KochFM is a project started in the beginning of 2006 by a group of 6 young people from Korogocho - Nairobi’s third largest slum, with almost half a million inhabitants. The main goal for this group is to find ways of informing people about what is going on in their neighbourhood, and what political decisions are made, which concern people in the slums of Eastern Africa and affect their lives. The concept of Koch FM has been inspired by similar projects abroad, like Radio Favela, in a slum of Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s third largest city.

KochFM - commin´at´cha

2006-11-23T03:24:00.000+02:00

my friends

2006-11-23T03:19:00.000+02:00

Now, my friends, it´s up to you to keep the world posted!

Editorial goals - EDUTAINMENT

2006-11-23T02:56:00.000+02:00

Our editorial goals and hopes for KochFM, is that we can help the people living in the slums of Korogocho to keep updated on what´s happening locally, nationwide, as well as globally. Our North-star is the combiantion of Education and Entertainment, it´s called Edutainment, Education throug Entertainment. We want to show the whole world that everything is possible, and everythig is possible now if you only take action, and tha action is wisdom and education to the people.

It´s eazy to see that something is not right when the government is ignoring the fact that 1/2 million people are staying in an area which on the map still is marked as forest. It hasen´t been a forest there since the 60s or 70s...

5 months later

2006-11-23T02:50:00.000+02:00

Now 5 months later we are still waiting for all the papers to be filled out. We have to register as an Community based organisation, and 5 different peolpe have to sign these papers and so on. So far we are depending on the burocracy, but the spirit is there still.

The CCK (Communications Commision of Kenya) has been on the spot to take a closer look on the equipment, and as far as i know, they won´t allow us to send with our home-made transmitter.

Anyway, we know that we are capable of broadcasting our signal all over the area, which was our goal. Within the range of this 1Watt-sender, 3 km, we can reach out to around 300 000 - 400 000 people!

The start of something big?

2006-11-23T02:40:00.000+02:00

The 25th of June, me, Richard and my fiance Inger-Lill, left Nairobi proudly wearing the KochFM-T-shirt. And I understood that people actually had seen us when I got recognized at the airport by one of the airport personel! That was cool.

A couple of days later, we heard rumors that KochFM would get an Licence for transmitting.

We already had put up the home made antenna, which is connected to the home made transmitter and with this we did a very short test just to see that it worked, and we were actually transmitting. And we were actually transmitting far enough som that Jeffs (one of the crew-members) aunt 3 km away could recieve our signal on her FM-reciever.

From there we had built a sound-proof studio inside one of the containers by using plasterboard and matresses. We put up one of the computers in this studio and the other in the other container, which is serving as a reception and editing-suit.

Before KochFM was a reality

2006-11-23T02:24:00.000+02:00

It all started as a filmworkshop in february 2006, where 6 young people from the korogocho slum in Nairobi, Kenya wanted to learn about moviemaking.

The Norwegian freelance filmworker, Richard A. Sveen, was through different incidential happenings put into contact with the freelance researcher Mariana Cifuentes, who works together with an organisation called "miss koch":http://www.misskoch.org/

After some weeks with occational training-sessions and lessons without any equipment, we decided that we needed a place to stay and some equipment to train on. Film equipment is expencive, so we started playing around with the idea of a community radio.

We had brainstormings on how to do this and we started proposing for funds.

After some weeks we got answers from different Norwegian organisations and private people. And first things on the budget was 2 containers, power-line and 2 computers.

We got the funding and started the hard work to build the small media house of our dreams.

The 24th of june this feature was aired prime time on "NTV":http://www.nationmedia.com/ntv/about.htm

The official KochFM-blog is hereby opened!

2006-11-23T02:19:00.000+02:00

Hello all supporters of KochFM

I decided to open a blog for KochFM, since we now are so many people around the world that wants to know what´s going on. I will try to post some pix of the crew and also give a short intro of these fantastic people that I want you all to support. Also I will encourage everyone that is connected to KochFM to contribute to this blog, if you haven´t got entry, please pass info to kochfm@gmail.com, and we will post it for you.

First of all we need an introduction of the project as such.

Richard