Visit The World's Biggest Slum

[Nick de Cusa]

Si vous cherchiez une destination pour vos vacances, pourquoi pas Kibera, le nouveau quartier à la mode de Nairobi?

Forget the Big Cats, Slums Are the in-Thing

The Nation (Nairobi)

OPINION

February 4, 2007

Posted to the web February 5, 2007

By Mwende Mwinzi

Nairobi

It's Sunday morning in Nairobi and the day, by all indication, is off to a slow start. Hangovers and heavy cloud cover loom weightily over heads; save for some zestful choirs, the city is sluggish at best.

At this time of day and in the metropolitan area, no cocks crow. And so tick! tick! tick! the time moves, as silently watched from a pillow. "There's no hurry in Africa," it is said; if this is so, then Sundays - in Nairobi - sum it up quite well.

But appearances can be deceiving, not least when there is a set routine. The clock eventually strikes "time" signalling the dance to begin its form. Toward the shower. For the door. And finally to pew 6 where Nyokabi sits prayerfully in the same spot each week.

All across town and almost in synch with this, another group begins its programme. Having just peeled off their planes, they too are tired. And jetlagged as well.

But hey, they are in Kenya, on the clock, and with no time to waste! 8:00am is breakfast time (the buffet is great and the omelettes heavenly!); 9:00am the bus arrives (meet tour guide by hotel Concierge); 9:30am is arrival at venue and start of tour (to take in the sights and smells of the world-renowned Kibera).

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Kenya and to the continent's largest tin, wood, cardboard, plastic, home of the 'flying toilets', sprawling slum. We hope you enjoy your visit and thank you for choosing pro-poor tourism."

From his seat, Simon, the driver sits tight. He's seen this all too many times and the reactions are all the same. At first they offended him, but now they don't.

He doesn't share with his guests that he too lives here, in one of the shacks they might pass. Instead he watches the tourists pause and, as though reconsidering the move, slowly file out the van.

The moments are awkward but predictable. James, a bald, pudgy ex-Exec and the last person to exit, openly gawks at the poverty before drooling over the pictures snapped from the hilltop's safe distance.

"These go on my blog," he excitedly shares, "They'll speak a thousand words, you know!"

The group is moving forward and so he scurries to catch up. The downhill zig-zag is tricky. But then again, if Kenya's son Obama, Britain's Gordon Brown, US ex-Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and current UN head Ban Ki-Moon made it, so can he. The celebrity of Kibera is of red carpet quality. "Hey, isn't this where The Constant Gardner was shot?"

It's the rave spot in Kenya. For where else can one see it all in one simple stop? The Aids victims dying slowly on a cold cardboard bed. The breastless teenager selling her wares "because I must feed siblings." Plastic-eating goats fighting small children for waste heaps that make toys - or food. The communal water taps, running sewage, and - ah yes, the famous "shit-rolls-downhill-flying-toilets." It is unbeatable!

Tour the slums of Kenya "to sample first-hand the difficulties faced by the poor in Africa's cities", a local Kenyan agency advertises on its website, "Upon your arrival, you will be met by our tour manager who will take you to your hotel to check in after which you will be taken to Kibera? to meet the HIV-orphaned children's homes, the Kibera Olympic Primary School where you will see how crowded the classrooms are due to the free primary school system? the type of housing and unavailability of sanitary facilities, the flowing sewage?" Then the (pro-poor) agency concludes, "After dinner we have an overnight stay at a five-star hotel."

The glee implied is loud. And even more repulsive. By definition, pro-poor tourism is "tourism that generates net benefits for the poor" either socially, environmentally or culturally and not the voyeuristic package we're selling.

The concept rides on the belief that tourism as we know it, "does not contribute much to poverty elimination" because despite their employment (as casual labourers, employees or even individual producers), foreign and private sector interests - not the poor - eat the larger piece of pie.

Pro-poor tourism seeks to encourage the dispersion of tourism to poor areas, which can then be developed to enhance livelihoods. It does not address ferrying tourists to hilltops for the purpose of taking photographs against the incongruous backdrops. So why is this the case, one wonders?

For starters, part of the problem stems from the fact that tourism is driven largely by the private sector whose goal is to see commercial gain and not the pearly gates. In Kenya, they've realised this with great success.

Though Kenya's tourism sector once wobbled on its knees, it has transformed significantly in past years, most recently bagging Sh 56.2 billion for the economy in 2006 against Sh48.9 billion the previous year. The sector has reason to celebrate. It also has just cause to be responsible.

Kibera, as one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence of Kenya's social inequity and one of the most volatile places in Nairobi, offers plenty of opportunity for well-wishers to do more than drop a word, a smile or a coin in exchange for touring. In it - and other slums - are children, women, youth and organisations struggling to promote the health and wellbeing of residents. Honest folk deserving more than the pat on the back and disingenuous token.

Because pro-poor tourism is about honestly distributing more equitably the benefits accrued from the sector, we would do ourselves some good by rejecting the view that our poverty is entertainment. You might argue that it is good for business and that might be truly so, but it smells. And like it or not, it is bringing us more stink than those sewers would ever even if we were dunked in them and marinated.