Everyday life in the most densely populated urban slum of East Africa

One of the biggest slums in the world, home to over 1 million inhabitants, Kibera is city made of mud, extending in just 1.5 square miles. The slum is situated in the south-west of Nairobi, within walking distance from the centre. Kibera was created in the outskirts of Nairobi by Nubians returning from the First World War. The settlement was allowed to grow informally under British colonial rule. It expanded even more after Kenyan independence in 1963, as a squatter community where many of the inhabitants arrived from rural underdeveloped areas in their attempt to escape poverty. Most do not own their abodes or the land, nor do they have access to basic necessities such as electricity, clean water, toilet facility and sewage disposal, let alone health-care and education. The community is also scarred by AIDS, with more than 50,000 AIDS orphans living with their grandparents, in crowded orphanages or even unattended.

Most of the land is owned by the state and the majority of the residents are tenants to absentee landlords. The central government does not officially recognize the settlement, and, as a result, there are no official transport services, clinics, schools or other basic services, while even the clean-water provisions are privately run. Although mainly Kikuyu, the residents in Kibera presently represent all the major ethno linguistic backgrounds of Kenya, with frequent outbursts of ethnic conflict within the community. Trapped in a cycle of poverty, Kibera expands day-by-day inventing its own codes of hope and silence.