Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - “Calling to mind the shantytowns of Korogocho – Nairobi (Kenya), its people, and reinterpreting the experience I have had over the course of the many years in which I have lived here, always brings with it important emotions, sentiments, and memories charged with meaning. This has been a great blessing that I have received from the Lord, from the poor, from the people who have taught me so much,” commented Fr. Daniele Moschetti, a Combonian missionary who has been working for years in Kenya, in writing to Agenzia Fides.
Fr. Moschetti explained: “Korogocho is one of the 200 slums in Nairobi. Nairobi has a population of over 4 million, 2.5 million of whom live in the slums (in less than 5% of the city's territory). 80% pay rent on a shack that they did not build themselves. There is an economic and social apartheid and an absurd injustice where inhumane exploitation infringes on human dignity, in various aspects of the lives of those who live in these illegal infernal habitats that have been 'legalized' by popular indifference.” This was the missionary's description of life in Korogocho, which has some 120,000 inhabitants living in one square kilometer: “the area is formed by seven 'towns' named: Highridge, Grogan, Ngomongo, Ngunyumu, Korogocho, Githaturu, and Kisumu Ndogo\Nyayo. It is the fourth largest of the slums of city, after Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru Kwa Njenga. It is an illegal establishment that arose in the late 1970s. More than half of the land is property of the State, or individual persons. The slum is multi-ethnic, with nearly 30 different ethnic groups. The two official languages are Kiswahili and English. The slum is also home to the Nairobi city dump, where literally tons of refuse is deposited each day. Thousands of people in Korogocho and its surrounding area earn a living by working in dumps or in related activities, including illegal operations and small organized crime, which rules the roost in a marginalized reality such as this one. The smoke and toxic gases of the dump slowly claim the lives of the people and there are thousands of people who are being treated in nearby clinics for lung problems, breathing complications, eye problems, and cancer. In the long list of victims is lay missionary Gino Filippini, who lived with us for 15 years in our slum and left a great testimony of life and faith.”
“Prostitution, unemployment, alcoholism, theft, crime, and domestic violence are the largest and most relevant problems,” Fr. Moschetti said. There are also many children living in the street that now, in order to flee city police, take refuge in the slums. Many illegal firearms are also easy to find in the area and are another contributing factor in the crime, making Nairobi one of the most violent cities not only in Africa, but in the whole world.
It is a desperate situation in which the Christian faith offers a light of hope: “The fight for the dignity and rights of the people, and the interests of small lobbying groups, land rights, education, and being considered full citizens with all the rights that blend in with the passion that our missionary community of Saint John, with its 21 small Christian communities, manifests in the Christian, Biblical, and liturgical formation, as well as the projects of rehabilitation for alcoholics and drug addicts, street children and prostitutes, and an effort to respond to the challenges, implying the entire population of the shantytown.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 29/4/2009)
