Residents live tightly packed in mostly self-improvised living quarters. It is not unusual to have six people in nine square metres of informal housing that is erected on bare ground. A great majority of Kenyans lack access to basic services such as electricity for their homes. The slum provides some low-cost apartments – it can be rented for as low as ten US dollars a month. In the streets of Kibera, there is not enough space for cars. Many houses lack ventilation and basic amenities. Kibera’s residents mainly consist of squatters who live in illegally built huts made of cardboard, which they have to rent. Houses are not maintained and leak when it rains. People who end up in Kibera are utterly hopeless and left to fend for themselves as even the local municipalities don’t provide any form of basic services to Kibera.

Most residents live in extreme poverty, earning less than one US dollar per day. Most live hand-to-mouth and day-to-day. Due to the covid 19 pandemic, many people lost their sources of livelihood.

There is limited access to clean water, and as a norm, people do not have access to running water. People send their children to travel up to 3km to fetch water or use sewerage water for domestic use as an alternative.

Access to water for cooking is extremely costly. Tap water in Nairobi is not safe to drink without filtering or boiling it. The quality of the water supply is usually inconsistent and as a result, locals easily catch diseases, with personal hygiene being a daily challenge. People walk or use overcrowded trains, travel through the slums and thereby risk exposure to disease-prone conditions like Covid-19. Pollution also contributes to infections as well as sanitation issues. With no local garbage services – rubbish piles are found in local suburbs. Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis B are examples of common diseases caused due to these conditions.

Children are the biggest victims of unsavory living circumstances as many of them do not make it to the age of thirteen. Most of them do not have any hope to access basic medical care.

Due to overcrowding, teenage children are often forced to live on the streets. Young children often have to sleep in the doorway of their homes. To protect themselves against danger and loneliness, the children form gangs to survive.

Smaller children in the gangs have to leave their huts early in the morning to go to the rubbish dump site to look for metal and waste paper. They only return in the evening when they can bring back money for bottle tops, pieces of cardboard, or charcoal.

They sell charcoal back to the merchants. The price depends on the merchant’s mood: they might get one shilling for a bag. The boys won’t go into another gang’s territory because they might get beaten up.

Boys try to earn money as parking boys, by helping motorists to find space to park or carrying their shopping to their cars. Their only hope is to receive a basic form of education to be able to get a job.

Young adults often scavenge for food as a means of survival. For many Kenyans, their journey usually ends in one of the huge slum-like areas. Without any papers or documents, it is almost impossible to go anywhere else. Many Kenyans are born in slums and die in the slums.

In 2017, the World Economic Forum rated Kenya’s education system as the strongest on the African continent. In 2018, the World Bank ranked Kenya the top African country for education outcomes (1st out of 43 mainland countries).

Formal schooling begins at six, with compulsory and free basic education running through to fourteen.

The national system consists of 3 levels:

1. Eight years of compulsory primary education (beginning at age 6)
2. Four years at the secondary level and
3. Four years of higher education.

In 2003 President Mwai Kibaki declared school as a free basic human right. An 84-year-old farmer was signed into primary school and was elected head boy at age 86. He was the world’s oldest person to enrol in primary school.

Unfortunately, in 2009 an audit of Kenya’s education reached poor results; therefore, the system has been revised to uplift the standard of education in recent years. The government provides free primary and secondary education. Every child in Kenya has a right to free and compulsory basic education. This is mandatory for any parent who is a Kenyan or whose child resides in the country to enrol them for primary and secondary education, according to the Basic Education Act of 2013.

How serious is the problem of hunger in Kenya?

• Kenya has a population of 46 million people. According to the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research Analysis, 14,5 million Kenyans face food insecurity and poor nutrition each year. When looking at extreme cases, 2,6 million Kenyans were said to be in a food insecurity “crisis” year.
• “Food insecurity” is when people lack enough money, or resources, to ensure at least one meal a day. Hunger – a short-term physical discomfort or a life-threatening situation – is a possible outcome of food insecurity.
• Last year Kenya was ranked 86th out of 117 qualifying countries on the 2019 Global Hunger Index. Based on the classification index, Kenya’s food insecurity status is “serious”.
• According to the World Food Programme, the people who are most vulnerable to food scarcity in Kenya live in dry areas, which cover about 80% of the country.
• Food insecure families typically live in rural areas, are poor and depend on farming for income.
• Children are the demographic group that are most vulnerable to hunger. As such, their growing bodies are more susceptible to other problems hunger causes. For instance, about 29% of children in rural areas and 20% living in cities have stunted growth, a sign of significant vitamin and mineral deficiencies.