Wednesday July 15 - Mathare North

The Mathare Valley is a gorgeous low valley area on the Southeast edge of Nairobi. It is what I call one of the 'shelves' that reach down into the wild sea of African humanity pushing up against its urban rim; thunderous booms and toxic smells emitted by 3 million people a day. Quietly weaving its way through the Valley floor trickles the Nairobi River oblivious to a mindboggling clash of roads, green spaces and informal settlements commonly known as 'slums'. I hate that word because it degrades these people who live in dignity amidst the failure of a government to deliver respectful planning, services and investment to its civil society. Even the most carefully executed and transparent accounting plan would struggle to match the pace of Africa's urban growth. But mostly the government does nothing and everyone fends for themselves.

I am visiting a school where up to 150 kids from Mathare North come to learn lessons as outlined in the Kenya National Cirriculum. Surrounded by a broken colonial house, laundry lines and feeding babies I happen to hear one a teacher in a classroom say 'these are some of the effects of urbanization'. I spin around to make sure I have heard this properly. The irony that these kids are the recipients of no urban planning whatsoever - yet they sit learning the subject in school - is surprisingly hopeful to me. Maybe one of the kids will be driven to untangle the mess surrounding them. I have just learned that the Nairobi City Council will force tenants off the land who encroach the river closer than 30M to its edge. If the law is enforced, this school is history.

At the back of the property a shamba is growing sukuma wiki so meals can be provided, sometimes. This hearty leafy green is growing from the soil that drinks the brown sludgy River below its banks. Ten kilometres West back into Nairobi's CBD, car mechanics also work on the edge of the River, casting off remains of petro chemicals that feed down through the soil and into the water table.

Both of these groups - the children's school and the car mechanics - are squatting on land that doesn't belong to them. But moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, they are using it to create opportunity because it's the only option they have. Neither group can afford to buy the land and absent owners aren't selling. It's a trap, a cycle, and no one seems to be fixing it.

Photos; Loving Education Centre & School / Urban Planning Class / Sukuma Wiki