Livewire – Amnesty International blogging for human rights

Informal settlement residents joined together with Amnesty International to demand an end to forced evictions at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. (c) Madi Keita/Amnesty International

By Francis Makanda Sakwa, Amnesty International Kenya ‘Gender Defender’ and resident of Mathare slum, Nairobi

I live in an informal settlement. I work, pay taxes, and use the money I earn to raise my children and support my family. Mine is a voice that isn’t often printed in my country’s newspapers, or heard by my Government. But did you know that in sub-Saharan Africa three out of every four people living in a city or town live in a slum, like me? That is a staggering statistic: three-quarters – a clear majority – of Africa’s urban people live in homes that are built without planning or other permission. This is a massive hidden crisis for our cities and our governments.

Us ordinary Kenyans living in informal settlements face many challenges. The authorities fail to adequately provide us with essential services, such as water, sewers, roads, schools, health clinics and police posts. But the biggest violation of our human rights we face is the threat of forced evictions.

In early November, supported by Amnesty International, I travelled with slum dwellers from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Zimbabwe and Chad to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in The Gambia. We went united to ask for help in demanding an immediate end to forced evictions in Africa. Continue reading ‘Slum residents address Africa’s human rights body to demand end to forced evictions’

Every day, countless people are forcibly evicted without legal safeguards © Nora Lindström

By Meghna Abraham, Head of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Team at Amnesty International

You come home in the evening, after a long day’s work. Your children are sitting at a table, finishing their homework. Suddenly, some government officials arrive with a bulldozer to demolish your home.

You may have had a week’s notice, or a day or none at all. You did not have enough time to legally challenge the eviction or even to make a list of the belongings which you may lose.
Continue reading ‘Human rights live here – stopping forced evictions worldwide’

Consultation and feedback workshop facilitated by AI in Korogocho, Nairobi, Kenya, 13 July 2010. © Amnesty International

by Kathryn Achilles, East Africa RCA

“When the toilets are full, they just open the drain to disperse [the waste]. When there is not enough water, the waste stays [in the street] until the rainy season”

Rose, Participant at feedback and consultation workshop, Korogocho, Nairobi, 13 July 2010.

In the final workshop, women from Korogocho focused on their concerns regarding inadequate sanitation facilities and in particular, problems associated with the disposal of human waste. The points they raised are shared by women that Amnesty International met across the four slums we have visited this week. Continue reading ‘Living with inadequate sanitation facilities in Nairobi slums’

Group work at a feedback and consultation workshop held in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya. 12 July 2010. © Amnesty International

“When we go to the police, all too often we are asked demeaning questions, especially when it comes to reporting sexual violence. Now we need to focus on what we can do to ensure that this doesn’t happen. I think that we need to reinforce the community policing groups which provide an intermediary between the community and police.”
A female participant of Amnesty International’s feedback and consultation workshop in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya, 12 July 2010.

The fourth of five workshops being done in Nairobi’s slums saw women from Mathare, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, work diligently to strategize how to end the human rights violations being perpetrated against them on a daily basis. They were focusing on security, or the lack of it, for women in slums where violence against women is widespread and goes largely unpunished because of ineffective policing.

Continue reading ‘Mathare women outraged at Kenyan government failures’

A woman reads Amnesty International's report "Risking rape to reach a toilet". © Amnesty International

By Amy Agnew, Amnesty International campaigner on Africa.

“So you’re telling me that someone working in the industrial area earns 150 Kenyan shillings a day… and it costs 5 Kenyan shillings each time you use one of the community toilets? So if you have a family of seven people who go to the toilet five times a day, that means that you are spending 175 Kenyan shillings purely on going to the toilet.”
Facilitator of a feedback and consultation workshop , Nairobi, 10 July 2010.

Communities in slums and non-governmental organisations have built community toilets for residents. However, with an average cost of 5 Kenyan shillings for each usage, these facilities are in reality inaccessible for the very people they have been built for.

Continue reading ‘Normal not to use a toilet in Nairobi slums’