Kibera was home to some 6,000 residents. In twenty years that figure increased ten-fold and was estimated to be nearly half a million by the turn of the century as the run down area attracted the poor and those fleeing conflicts both within Kenya and neighbouring countries.

The slum today has few services such as schools, clinics, just two main water points from a water treatment plant: one built by the Nairobi municipality and the other one by the World Bank. The sanitation system is worse with a single latrine being shared on average by up to 50 shacks with the waste, when the latrines are full, being carried by children to the Motoine-Ngong River, now pretty much an open sewer also polluted by tons of garbage generated in Kibera. Residents of the slum typically live in homes made from mud and metal that are normally about 12ft by 12ft costing about six pounds a month to rent and are normally occupied by eight people with only 20% of the slum population having electricity. Conditions are appalling with garbage and raw sewage spewing from every location making daily life hazardous especially for children who use these places as playgrounds. The stench from this rubbish and sewage is overwhelming and ever present. Without healthcare facilities many of these children die from diseases caught from the sewage. Malaria and HIV/AIDS are also rampant with 60% of Kibera's population infected in addition to typhoid and now a rampant Covid. Life expectancy in Kibera is just 30 years. Cont/...