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:
Today, June 18, many Kenyans came out to protest against the punitive Finance Bill of 2024.
While the right to assembly is guaranteed by the Constitution, the police, under the orders of the state, responded to us as though we are in war.
On the streets were grandmothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, siblings who were there to peacefully demand their right to dignity; their right to not have 16% tax on bread, diapers, sanitary towels and even cancer treatment.
Currently, we estimate that over 200 people are being held in Central Police Station, Kasarani Police Station, Muthaiga Police Station and other unknown locations. At Central Police Station, none of the protestors have been booked for any offence, although the police are still detaining them and preventing lawyers from seeing them. Those detained include Njeri Mwangi, a key member of the MSJC Secretariat.
We demand that the Ruto administration immediately release the illegally detained Kenyans who were exercising their sovereignty fully within Article 37 of the constitution. This is the article that states: “every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.”
The grandmothers who left Mathare in the morning to join the protest were coming to let the government know that they are tired of sleeping in the ruins of their houses by the polluted Mathare river; they have been there ever since their homes were violently destroyed by the government to “save” them from future floods.
Collectively, we were all coming to say we are tired of being demumanized every day because Ruto wants to be at the service of IMF and World Bank masters.
The people have come out to exercise their sovereign power directly and have demanded that the Finance Bill 2024 be rejected in its entirety. Though we have been met with the state violence of this criminal government, we will not relent in our fight to defend the dignity and rights of our people.
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.
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
A Report of the People’s Assemblies Forum held in theMathare Social Justice Centre’s Creative Hub on August 11, 2023
Why People’s Assemblies?
The people’s assemblies arise from the need of the people to administer and generate solutions to the problems ailing their society. The concept is a people’s driven approach towards creating grassroots strength, solidarity and democracy from a point of popular power to a pool of global solidarity. The assemblies might take different organizational and practical models in diverse communities and in various organizations, making it a viable model for decision making, identifying challenges and building a collective spirit in confronting the social, economic and political issues that exist.
Purpose of the Forum
The people’s assembly forum held in Mathare was an avenue to explore, discuss and generate action points to form, design and structure local, citizen and people’s assemblies in Mathare and other areas within Nairobi. The existing social movements, local groups and institutions are a fundamental element in steering the initial processes. The forum thus drew participants from various established local groups, social movements and members of the community, to examine and deliberate on the model and whether and how it fits into their organizational framework.
Participants in the Forum
The forum targeted 30 participants representing organizations, local groups and members of the community. Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC) is one of the social movements organizing around accessing social justice in Mathare and broadly in the whole country. It has worked in close collaboration with other Social Justice Centres in Nairobi, some of which were present at the forum. They include: Githurai, Kayole, Mukuru, and Kasarani Social Justice Centers. Other organizations included the organs of the social justice movement: The Social Justice Centre’s Travelling Theater, The Ecological Justice Network, The Revolutionary Socialist League, The Communist Party of Kenya, the Young Communist League, and Shantit-Mathare (a youth-led group). This was in collaboration with women led assemblies, Grassroots to Global and assemblies from Scotland.
History of Assemblies in Kenya
To make sure the participants knew the full potential of the forum, the participants went through the history of the assemblies in Kenya. With a case study and introduction of Bunge, the Peoples Parliament. This is an assembly’s model that formulated and demanded major social and political reform processes in the history of Kenya. The setup was said to be an open conversation in Jeevanjee Park, a green space in Nairobi where people debated ideas, invoked public participation, and agreed on the best direct action strategies to apply to the imminent needs of the society. Some of the impacts included leading the campaign against the high cost of Unga (flour). There were no doubts that the initiative saw through important social impacts and constitutional gains in Kenya. This was the model that led to the inception of the social justice factor and the formation of the Social Justice Centres. The objectives were targeted towards influencing citizen-led processes and inspiring the spirit of direct-action by local people. There was visible insistence on the need and urgency to build power from below, to protect our democratic gains, and advance local, people-led action.
Different Types of Assemblies
The participants went through the different types of local assemblies as being: 1) The People’s Assembly; 2) The Citizen Assembly; 3) The Delegate Assembly.
They further explored the formations, structure and design of the various types of assemblies, the impact and the levels of interactions in each of the assemblies. Assemblies serve as an alternative to the fragmentation and compromise of individual organizations. Organizations are embedded in the actions by the people. The participants delved into the impact and organization of the past and contemporary assemblies in Kenya and internationally with a case study of the East African women-led assemblies (including the Ogiek, the Sengwer and many other communities), which are organizing assemblies around the land question, and have successfully made challenges and won in the African Court of Justice. The forum went further to assess the questions of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo, political conditions in Uganda, and the assemblies in Scotland. The activities included practical learning experiences such as group discussions and site visit to the Mathare People’s Park. An ecological justice park reclaimed along the Mathare River. For an expanded version of the presentation given on all this, please see here.
Local assemblies are among the alternatives towards building a pool of popular power from below. There exist countless hurdles within our individual organizations and in communities that can be flattened through a collective approach such as people’s assemblies. People’s parliaments envision and design how our society should look, and we see our assemblies as reclaiming and building on that tradition.
Focus of Deliberations
Building Local Assemblies
The participants saw the process towards the formation of the local assemblies as best to commence from an organizational level. Thereafter, identifying the issues for diagnosis and planning the local assemblies. The issues for the assemblies to focus on were to begin from the direct lived experiences affecting local people. In this case, issues of pollution and environmental degradation appeared to be the primary questions at play. This being agreeable, artistic and creative organizing, like the community theatre, were seen as reliable ways of communicating complex ideas and building broader engagement. This was to be achieved through organizing consistent, structured meetings building towards the assembly, developing clear internal structures (e.g. working groups to look at different aspects of the process, clear and transparent internal decision making processes etc), organizing dialogues with different actors, and outreach sessions to popularize the assembly. The organizations were to guide through the process, in effect forming the basis of a steering group with accountability to the process and all those involved in it.
2. Building National Assemblies
The path to building national assemblies to discuss national matters, was to come from the various local assemblies organized in community spaces. The local assemblies will then project their ideas through to the national assembly. This would require utmost consistency, vibrancy, commitment and a resounding strengthening of our ties with the local and national issues. It would then be important to agree on a structure to apply to that, which will be the subject of ongoing popular education through community theatre and community dialogues, which can feed into a broader conversation about the kind of national assembly Kenya needs and wants.
3. Challenges
In achieving this, various issues to handle and prioritize in the planning of assemblies were highlighted. Many of these challenges impact much more than just the assemblies, but we present them here, together, with some suggestions on how their impact can be addressed within the planning and running of the assemblies themselves:
The Ecological Crisis : This is an ongoing challenge for all of us, but it impacts, particularly, those already dealing with high levels of poverty and social alienation. In relation to the assemblies, we see the need to be able to provide sheltered spaces for the assemblies to happen within and will focus on this in our fundraising efforts..
Extrajudicial Executions : Again, this is an ongoing challenge, and could potentially keep people away from assemblies. We will address this to the extent we can by ensuring a strong communications strategy, which attempts to keep the assemblies in the public eye and by building a network of other communities also holding assemblies, as a way of building mutual care and additional public visibility. We will also self-document the assembly process and have a working group dedicated to security.
High Cost of Living : This is one of the issues that the assembly may address directly, but it also impacts on whether people will engage with the assembly. We can potentially address this by fundraising to provide food for those who attend and also potentially include workshops on mutual aid as satellites to the main assembly.
Crime and Unemployment : The intention of the assemblies is to find shared solutions to the root causes of many issues, including crime and unemployment. We will attempt to either address these directly as subjects within the assembly, or, as above, create satellite workshops giving people space to think through and collectively address these issues alongside it.
Tribalism : Tribalism has become highly politicized, so it’s vital that we come to a shared understanding on how the assemblies will approach it. While accepting the cultural importance of identity, we see the assemblies as operating underneath this, at the level of our shared, human interests and will develop our communications strategy along these lines.
Lack of Water : We will fundraise to ensure we can provide clean drinking water for those attending the assemblies.
Lack of Communication : As is clear from the above, a strong communication policy will be essential to the success of the assemblies. This will focus, not only internally on those living in the area each assembly is focusing on, but also externally, towards the wider public and (for the national process) internationally. It is essential that we develop our own clear strategy for this, building as much as we can on personal relationships of trust, since mainstream and social media are largely captured and are likely to be used to work against the assembly process.
Corruption : Again, this is an issue that may be core to the question the assemblies are directly addressing. We will want our process to be as clean, clear and transparent as possible and to ensure that good internal communications can identify and report on any attempts to unfairly influence the process.
Challenges might arise from groups and individuals seeking to use such an assembly process to advance their own interests, and from a lack of communication between those engaged in advancing the process. This requires us to build a strong shared commitment to addressing social injustice, and to commit to building the structures to overcome injustice and division.
Resolutions
1. Planning of the first People’s Assembly in Mathare, in one of the community sites, around the issues of ecological justice and state violence.
2. The need to popularize Local Assemblies towards building the National Assembly.
3. The importance of utilizing community spaces, such as green spaces, to protect and advance grassroots democracy.
4. The urgency to unify organizations within our communities and build unified approaches to local assemblies towards addressing various challenges.
Report prepared and compiled by the coordinating committee: Gacheke Gachihi: Mathare Social Justice Centre; Kinuthia Ndung’u: Communist Party of Kenya; Justin Kendrick: Scotland People’s Assembly; Eva Schonveld: Grassroots to Global.
Moderators: Njeri Mwangi: Mathare Social Justice Centre; Eva Schonveld: Grassroots to Global.
