Over the last few months, the police have been harassing and illegally detaining young environment defenders in Mathare.
They have also been sanctioning the destruction of our people’s parks and green livelihoods.
We condemn these actions in our strongest voices, and have written a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Douglas Kanja, to put a stop to this criminalization of young people who are involved in ecological work in Mathare.
This petition can be downloaded through this link:
To learn more about the ecological work of youth groups in Mathare, you can watch this short video produced by the Ecological Justice Network, Mathare.
The MSJC Ecological Justice Network in Mathare is growing and growing! Young people are coming together to reclaim their environment after both floods and violent evictions, and this inspiring documentary tells their story as they build together for this purpose.
The youth groups involved set up community parks and safe spaces for kids, while fostering unity among the people of Mathare through activities such as urban farming. This visionary work also allows the youth to work towards food sovereignty, while also earning an income.
The groups involved include Ghetto Farmers, Jungle Green Youth Group, Big Dreams, Team Destiny, Birdland, Yellow Bench, Vision Bearers, Smart Beginners, Twaweza , Excellent, Dhobi Women’s Network Mathare, and others.
Despite the challenges faced, especially those of intimidation and harassment from the local administration and the police, the Network has revived hope among the people that, indeed, a new Mathare where we have dignity is not only possible, but the responsibility of the people.
On October 20, MSJC’s Ecological Justice Network organised a community tree planting event to promote ecological justice, honour victims and survivors of state violence, and in memory of all of those young shujaas martyred by the state during the Occupy protests.
The Occupy memorialisation campaign continues to use different methods to keep the memory of occupy parliament martyrs alive — it is a consistent struggle of memory against forgetting.
This event attracted community members and environmental activists who participated in various activities including tree planting for memory and a reggae music session. Access the community report here:
Wakenya and many friends from all over: the floods may have come in a flash but the work of rebuilding takes time and your ongoing solidarity to Mathare residents is greatly appreciated.
Our work now shifts from crisis response towards helping families re-establish homes and lives. This is made much harder as the government enacted demolitions along and beyond Mathare’s riparian area, rendering thousands of households homeless, without any compensation provided to those affected.
All of the donations you have sent in response to this crisis are for the recovery of our people. To date our Mathare Social Justice Centre paybill has received 2,122,107 KES for Mathare flood victims. We have also received tons of food, clothing, bedding, mattresses, diapers, sanitary towels, cooking equipment and much more.
Our last statement, on May 2, 2024, accounted for 1,758,025 KES from our collective Network of Mathare Justice Centres and 313,170 KES from the phone of a MSJC secretariat member. Since then we have continued to run community kitchens in three locations. These kitchens have been running since April 25th, and at their peak could feed up to 1500 people a day.
With the funds and food donations we still have, we will be continuing the community kitchens, and providing cash transfers to 150 households. We will continue to honour and be accountable to all of those who stood with us and sent whatever they could to support these response efforts. You have really emphasised to us that Ubuntu exists: indeed, we are because you are.
In terms of long-term action, we intend to partner on a public interest litigation case on behalf of the residents of Mathare who suffered doubly from the floods and forced evictions.
We would also like to thank over one hundred individuals and organisations that supported us: we have tried our best to list all of them below, and we apologise for any names we have missed in error.
Thank you for struggling with us, and choosing to defend humanity. We are because you are.
Below and in this letter is a recognition of our supporters:
The people of Mathare and other informal settlements (such as Mukuru, Kibera, Kayole, Githurai, Kasarani, and all affected areas) strongly condemn the UDA government for the inhumanity and indignity it has accorded the Kenyan people over the past few months.
Under the guise of saving us from nature, this government has destroyed the livelihoods of millions of Kenyans through illegal demolitions in Mathare, Mukuru, Kariobangi, and other informal settlements, without a proper relocation plan or land allocation for victims.
These acts cannot mask the criminal negligence of the UDA government, which had early warnings about the climate crisis, and its failure to act in time has exposed millions of Kenyans to death traps and hopelessness.
While the government extends the budget ceiling for State House and Parliament, hundreds of people are currently held in camps, schools, churches, and community halls that lack basic amenities for daily use. These are facilities with barely, if any, adequate sanitation facilities, and are currently the sites of cholera outbreaks.
We oppose the attempt of the ruling class and the government of Kenya to impose the ecological crisis burden onto the urban poor and the peasants of Kenya. We are already burdened by the weight of an economy that dehumanises us every day.
We expose the criminal negligence of the UDA government and its partners, who are at the service of the IMF and World Bank institutions, since they collectively violate our basic rights as enshrined by Article 43 of the Kenyan Constitution. This is: the right to decent housing, the right to food, the right to the highest attainable standards of healthcare, and the right to clean and accessible water.
The Ecological Justice Network in Mathare honours all the martyrs who have paid a heavy price for the criminal negligence of our government. It is us who have known these martyrs as they have struggled for food, dignity, employment, adequate housing and the right to life for their children. It is still us who find their bodies after the floods, and try and pick up the pieces of their lives in their death. We will not let their demise be in vain!
In memory of Mama Victor and Jacinta Adhiambo, who were our great social justice advocates and human rights defenders, we will continue on their path of demanding dignity and social justice for all.
We know Kenya will one day be liberated from the corrupt and unaccountable regimes of the UDA government, which brought the face of the hustler but is actually a overseer shepherding us to be slaves.
We the people on this eighth day of May 2024 therefore demand:
1. Quality housing for all 2. Compensation for all the martyrs who died during the floods 3. Life with a dignified environment 4. Education for all 5. Land for all the landless.
A government that cannot provide these basic needs has no right to be in power.
We call upon Kenyans to join us for mass action, starting today in Mathare, until we gain our livelihoods and social justice.
Thank you very much for the solidarity you have given Mathare residents as they seek to recover from the worst flooding they have lived through in the last forty years.
On the evening of April 24, a deluge of rain led to flooding that decimated many houses along the Mathare and Getathuru rivers. It also led to the deaths of at least 40 community members, including children and a person with a disability. Truly, we are touched by all who have supported our rapid response process: we are grateful for the financial contributions and the donations of necessary items (including dry food, bedding, mattresses, clothes and diapers). We are also grateful to those who came to offer condolence and who offered a hand as we continue to cook for the flood victims.
We especially want to highlight the rapid and effective response by many community groups and individuals in Mathare. So many helped in collecting data for the cash transfers, helping victims to find shelter, finding missing bodies, providing food and medical aid, and receiving other types of support for the victims.
Currently, there are still efforts to find the bodies of family members and friends, as well as to feed and clothe the hundreds of newly houseless individuals residing in schools, churches and even still sleeping outside even as the rain continues. All of the financial donations you have sent in response to this crisis are being put towards the recovery of our people.
To date, as The Network of Mathare Community Social Justice Centres, we have received 3,129,661 KES for Mathare flood victims. This is how the money has been spent:
1. As of Tuesday, April 30, our collective Mathare Mchanga has received:
1,758,025 KES. So far, this has allowed for 334 cash transfers to verified victims of 3000 KES each (for a total of 1,002,000 KES); we are progressively sending more cash transfers to the households impacted by floods and we will keep you updated on the process.
2. As of Tuesday, April 30, our paybill had received 1,066,636 KES and 313,170 KES to the phone of a rapid response representative. We used the 313,170 KES for the community kitchen operations that started on Wednesday, April 25—including buying food, firewood, cooking oil, soap, water and hiring a tent to have this kitchen since it is the rainy season. Since then, we have continued to feed breakfast, lunch and dinner daily to a minimum of 500 people. We are now cooking in four different sites in order to reach more of those affected. Our proposal is to use the 1,066,636 KES towards buying school items for affected children, as well as to contribute to funeral costs for affected families and cash transfers.
We will continue to honour and be accountable to all of those who stood with us and sent whatever they could to support these response efforts. You have really emphasized to us that Ubuntu exists: indeed, we are because you are.
We would also like to send a message to the government: we want to know where the 10 Billion KES to respond to the effects of El Niño went. We would like to remind you that, as the Kenyan Constitution states, “all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya.” Therefore, we are determined to make sure that this 10 billion KES is found and goes to all of those who have suffered from the combined effects of state neglect as it intersects with our global climate crisis.
We are extremely proud of how our community has defended the humanity of their people and continue to offer solidarity to each other even in their desperation. Meanwhile, our elected MCA’s and MPs continue to be silent; we will not let them rest.
We invite all to remain in solidarity with our community members in Mathare and other flooded areas; those affected continue to need blankets, mattresses, clothing, sanitary towels, drinking water, tents, food and more.
Above all, we say asanteni sana sana for all of the generosity and humanity that you continue to show for our people. We are because you are.
The Network of Mathare Community Social Justice Centres
Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) mourns the sudden demise of Comrade Benna Buluma, fondly known as Mama Victor.
We met Mama Victor in 2017 while documenting the police executions of her two sons, Victor and Bernard. Mama Victor joined our team at MSJC as a victim, and through her passion and commitment emerged a victor; defending young men from police killings and rallying fellow women to demand justice for their loved ones.
Mama Victor was the coordinator of the Mothers of Victims and Survivors Network, and this was a task she undertook diligently. She always rallied comrades to attend court solidarity for members of the Network, and even convened us to go to Embu when Kianjokoma brothers were killed by the police. Mama Victor was a gallant fighter for social justice and human rights.
Comrades are still in deep shock after retrieving Mama Victor’s body from the Mathare river. Despite her best efforts, she remained trapped in poverty and structural violence, which is now manifested in an ecological crisis that has killed more than 40 people in one night after they were drowned by floods. There was no room to escape even as she breathed her last.
We mourn the unnecessary death of Mama Victor, which could have been prevented by decent housing and proper urban planning.
The Ecological Justice Network has, for the longest time, highlighted this issue of poor systems that greatly endanger the lives of poor people in Mathare, stressing the need for decent housing and dignified lives.
Mama Victor was a symbol of hope for all striving for dignity, but she also epitomizes the crisis of capitalism in the world today; her sons Victor and Bernard were killed by the police; her daughter Maureen of a short illness, and now Mama Victor has died of the raging floods. This is the violence that poverty exposes us to.
In honour of Mama Victor, we urge all of us to continue the fight for dignity and social justice. Poverty is a common enemy we fight. “Until everyone is free,” as Pio Gama Pinto said. Truly, Mama Victor’s struggle was redemptive for the people of Mathare who had lost hope to continue fighting for social change.
Hundreds of Mathare residents are still camping outside with their children, homeless, and with no food. The MSJC Ecological Justice Network has pitched a tent in Mathare, where it is providing hot meals and receiving in kind donations.
These include: Mattresses, blankets, food, clothing for both adults and children, books, toys, sanitary towels and diapers for babies and toddlers.
If you would like to donate, please send money to or call Wanjira on: 0791334684.
Or send to the MSJC Paybill number at:
Account: 4060187
Account Name: THE MATHARE SOCIAL JUSTICE CENTRE
Long live the indomitable spirit of Benna Buluma! Long live! Soon dignity for the poor, soon!
You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they MUST protect them.
Wangari Maathai
The Mathare People’s assembly, which brought together the Mathare community in their massive elements, resolved that there was an urgent need to focus on sustainable livelihoods.
This was to be achieved through laying emphasis on environmental conservation for ecological justice. The first constituted plan of action was to establish the ‘Let the Rivers Flow’ Campaign. The campaign is aimed at engaging the community through education, to create awareness, strengthen advocacy and influence policy around issues of clean and safe drinking water, transforming Mathare and restoring Mathare River.
The campaign purposes to involve various actors including community members, environmental organisations and relevant agencies to achieve this goal. Achieving this objective would, in turn, aid in generating income for the youth and less privileged, curb social ills like crime, and transform Mathare to a cleaner and greener neighbourhood.
The river has become a dumping site. Effluent waste from neighboring areas flows through our community. Upstream estates dump their waste directly into the river. Also, the Mathare hospital drains waste into the river.
Garbage sites are placed right beside the river, burst sewers flow into the river, and, houses constructed close to the river direct their waste into the river. All this contamination makes Mathare River among the most polluted rivers in Kenya.
The Mathare River is one of the tributaries of Nairobi River. This main river flows as a clean and crystal river from its source in Aberdare forest symbolising a natural source of life. It starts experiencing its pollution troubles once it flows through corporate industries and has exposure to household waste in Nairobi.
The River Festival
The River Festival was a commemoration of the gains and efforts the Mathare Ecological Justice Campaign members have made in conserving the Mathare River and establishing community parks along it.
Rivers have always been a place to bring people together, and for communities to enjoy their shared heritage.
Where rivers flow, life flows.
The festival was attended by more than 1000 participants, including Mathare residents and those from surrounding communities. The attendees included children, young and old community members, and people from all walks of life. It also brought together different ecological formations from other informal settlements and Social Justice Centres.
The festival was a platform to explore art and music in educating, entertaining and creating awareness about the need to conserve the Mathare River as a collective endeavor.
The festival brought together conscious artists to celebrate the history and achievements of the Mathare Ecological Network, and adopted the continuation of the ‘Let the Rivers Flow’ campaign. Furthermore, it demanded that we all must insist on ending pollution, and can bring this awareness to others through education and actionable engagements.
The festival culminated with the launch of the Ecological Justice Network – Mathare. This Network involves the different local environmental groups including at Mathare Social Justice Centre, Mathare Community Park, Mathare Green Park, Ghetto Farmers, Voice of Mathare, Vision Bearers, New Pirates Youth Group and other community organizations from Kiamaiko, Mlango Kubwa and the different parts of Mathare.
In addition, small businesses were able to showcase and sell their merchandise, and we did this to support the sustainability of ecological businesses initiatives in Mathare.
So far, there is an evident rise of youth in Mathare who clean the river not because it is their sole mandate, but as a sustained campaign to fight for social change, since they are conscious of the interrelation between the ecological crisis and struggle for social justice.
The Ecological Justice Network
The Ecological Justice Network in Mathare is part of the Ecological Justice Movement in Nairobi. It is a consortium of four organisations: Mathare Social Justice Centre, Mathare Community Park, Mathare Green Park and Ghetto Farmers. The Ecological Justice Network is a pool of ecological movements and initiatives established within Nairobi, each with a specific campaign geared towards ecological sustainability.
The Ecological Justice Network in Mathare has been a pillar for the establishment of more ecological networks in Nairobi, and especially within the informal settlements that are faced with the harmful and continuous effects of environmental pollution from the corporates and large industries surrounding them. This being the case, the Network has engaged in case study forums to analyse the sources of pollution, specifically the effluent and affluent discharges along the Mathare River.
The results have influenced the establishment of the Network, which is aimed at transforming Mathare and the people living in Mathare.
We want to move from a “slum” to an environmentally conscious society. Our ecological campaigns have impacted the community in various ways, including through crime reduction and the reduction of social ills like state violations, which mostly affect unemployed young people.
The establishment of community parks through planting trees along the river has provided a safe haven for children to play. It has also provided space for the establishment of social spaces like libraries, GBV referral centres and community meeting spaces.
These community parks have acted as avenues for community organising, and especially for conservation of the environment. The spaces have also provided self-employment for young people through sustainable economic projects like animal rearing, tree nursery beds and artwork. It is the hope of the Network that ecological sustainability becomes a question of social justice.
Launch of the Ecological Justice Network – Mathare
Gacheke Gachihi, the coordinator of Mathare Social Justice Centre, led the celebration of the launch of the Ecological Justice Network in Mathare.
Achievements, Resolutions & Action Plan of the Network
Launching the Ecological Justice Network – Mathare.
Intensify ecological justice activities including: tree planting, establishing tree nurseries, monthly clean-ups and art for awareness creation.
Unify ecological campaigns and strengthen ecological justice networks in other parts of Nairobi.
Adoption of the ‘Let the Rivers Flow’ campaign as a path towards the restoration of Mathare River.
The Mathare Local People’s assembly was convened at the Mathare People’s Park, and brought together community members and actors from across our struggles to identify various societal issues we are facing.
The Mathare People’s park is a transformed green space that was initially a garbage site, and which now hosts the Ukombozi Library, a children’s playing space, and a community park that offers the community food and a serene environment. It has also transformed young people from drug use and crime, and offered a sustainable form of economic livelihood through activities such as animal rearing and other methods of farming.
Our assembly was influenced by the urgency to explore an inclusive alternative model that involves the community in addressing its challenges.
For a while, various societies have seemed to confront these challenges at an organizational or an individual level. The objective of the local assembly was to transform the culture of personal alienated approaches which have proven to be ineffective. The assembly also wanted to further grassroots democracy and power to the people.
Mathare happens to be one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi, and is suffering from a myriad of social problems including: widespread poverty, lack of basic commodities, crime and chronic unemployment. All of these factors also lead to other grave problems.
The assembly brought 100 participants drawn from the six wards in Mathare, including Kiamaiko, Mlango Kubwa, Mabatini, Kiamaiko, Ngei and 3C.
The participants included children, local community groups, ecological justice organizations, students and elders. Among the grassroots organizations present were the Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC), Ghetto Farmers, and Green Park and Mathare Community Park members.
Other participants who joined the discussions emanated from the different social movements in Nairobi.
After the introduction of the local assembly’s concept, the participants engaged in a general analysis of the Mathare society; the historical injustices and the current political and social conditions. Thereafter, the members joined the various thematic groups influenced and adopted by the assembly. These are:
The Ecological and Political Committee
The Drugs and Crime Committee
The Waste Management Committee
The Water & Sanitation Committee
The thematic groups appointed a moderator and secretary, collectively examined the situation, and generated a list of possible solutions to explore. Below are the results from the committees:
Water and SanitationCommittee
Challenges highlighted include:
The rationing and diversion of water in areas like Mlango Kubwa where water is diverted to Eastleigh
Water-borne diseases
Poor healthcare infrastructure
Effluent and affluent discharges: Mathare Hospital, for example, was seen to emit its waste directly into the river. Also, most of Eastleigh waste is poured directly into the river
Corruption and water cartels
Leaking sewers
Poor waste disposal methods
Poor housing, and people are constructing homes on the river.
Proposed way forward
Participate in public participation sessions e.g. budget making processes
Develop petitions to conduct an inquiry on water institutions in Mathare
Policy development
Creating awareness through community dialogues
Mapping of polluters
Consistent stakeholders meetings
Waste Management Committee
Challenges highlighted include:
Poor waste disposal
Lack of awareness on waste management strategies
Lack of collaborations and coordination between stakeholders in waste management
Government lacked policies, incentives on waste management
Proposed solutions
Creating waste management awareness programs
Focus on existing networks to build and strengthen ecological network
Establish local waste management plans and strategies
Include children in waste management projects
Drugs and Crime Commitee
Challenges highlighted include:
Poverty which leads to crime, drug abuse
Unemployment
Addiction
Solutions proposed
Organize campaigns and seminars against drugs and crime
Involvement of different stakeholders in the campaign against drugs and crime
Establish local committees to fight against drugs and crime
Establish learning facilities for children, like local libraries
Creating of co-curriculum activities such as sports and art
Ecological and Political Committee
Challenges highlighted include:
Existing ecological injustices and pollution.
State violence including:
Harassment.
Extra-judicial executions.
Land grabbing.
High level of unemployment leading to crime
Lack of political accountability.
Existing gaps in policy development
Solutions and way forward
Establish sustainable sources for economic activity for the youth
Establish public assemblies as institutions to generate solutions for local problems
Intensify political education in the parks and in community centres
Proposed collective way forward
Establish the Mathare Ecological Justice Network, involving various community parks, which will in turn aid in:
Creating a sustainable base for young people through economic generating activities like farming and seed nurseries
Engage more children in the parks — perhaps an adopt a tree program
Establish more green spaces to transform the local ecological situation and to act as spaces for community organising
Provide more safe spaces like art centers, community libraries and community retreat centres
Curb land grabbing, encroachment and pollution of the Mathare River; #LetTheRiversFlowCampaign
Harmonise a collective ecological justice campaign by establishing ecological justice networks in the various informal settlements
Popularise local people’s assemblies as avenues to generate solutions for the peoples’ problems. Including in:
Kayole.
Githurai.
Ngong.
Establish exchange sessions with the Indigenous People’s Assemblies and existing assemblies in Italy, Britain and Scotland.
Organise more workshops and seminars at the grassroots to discuss the creation of local people’s assemblies
Creating alternatives through bicycles lanes along Nairobi River, from Michuki Park to Ruai
Create a secretariat to follow up on the resolutions and a guide for implementation
Nigel Topping, recently appointed UK High-Level Climate Action Champion, visited Mathare Social Justice Centre to speak with MSJC members on ecological justice. He showed support for the Mathare Green Movement, a campaign to bring dignity to the lives of people through environmental justice.
