These kids look happy enough. The photos even somehow make the place look clean and nice. However, looks can be quite deceiving. It's likely most of these kids only had one cup of tea for breakfast. Next door to their school is a dump and outdoor toilet. Nauseating smells come wafting through the tin school building every time a breeze blows by. Their clothes are tattered and torn.
“Lured by dreams of a better life, hundreds flock each month to the ramshackle settlement of tin-roofed shacks that already house 900,000 in a packed 1.8 mile corridor that is one of Africa’s largest slums.
Every day, new arrivals heave carts loaded with bags into Kibera before carrying their belongings across trenches of sewage and past mountains of garbage.
Once settled, many lack electricity, pay for water by the bucket, and use overflowing holes for toilets.
Slums like Kibera are the ugly face of urbanization in Africa, whose cities are increasingly overwhelmed by property crisis, crime, overpopulation, and creaking infrastructure.”
- Daily Nation/ September 15, 2006
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