I was born in Nairobi, after which we moved up country where I grew up. I took some jobs there working in first aid rooms and then I came to Mukuru twenty years ago. I became a Human Rights Defender when I worked in a clinic in Mukuru. However, in 2007, they closed the clinic because of the post-election violence. After staying home for two years I decided to work as a volunteer at the community health centre. It was better for me to be there than to stay in the house. My family is in Mukuru, they think a job is a job and they are supporting me.

When my husband had a work accident in 2007 and passed away, my brothers-in-law told me I had to move from Mukuru to eastern Kenya, where I had to stand all day long with my little child on my back, grinding maize for customers to get flour. My little child developed a health problem but my father-in-law would not let me take her to the hospital. My cousin sent me a bus fare and I went back to Nairobi so I could access medication for my child.

There is a lot of hardship growing up in Mathare, like in any other informal settlement. Reaching 30 years for a young man and not being dead is an achievement. Reaching the age of 25 for a young woman and not being pregnant or forced into early marriage is an achievement. We end up losing most of our people in Mathare. We survive with one or less parents.

I was born in Mathare and it was not easy growing up here. At times we don’t have the necessities, the basic needs, like water and housing. My childhood was not so nice because sometimes in this village there is fighting between the landlord and tenants, so the landlord shuts your house and you have to sleep outside.

Ngai Mutuoboro was born in Chuka, Kenya, in 1939. He describes it as being in the period “when the colonial people came”[1], during the time of British colonialism.

I was born in Kibera and I grew up in Kibera. Being in the informal settlement, I can confess that it is not an easy journey. You are born into a very tough environment; an environment with unsuitable shelter, no access to clean water, it is a challenge.

Police violence in the slums of Kenya: “I learned that he had been shot down by a police officer” is a short documentary with Kenyan human rights defender Stephen Mwangi from Mathare Social Justice Centre (MSJC).

In July, PBI was requested by Atiriri Bururi ma Chuka (‘Keepers of Chuka Community Land’) Trust community group to accompany them to a court hearing related to the case against them. Since colonial times, ABC Trust has been campaigning to reclaim a particular section of the Mount Kenya National Reserve in Chuka, which they maintain to be part of their ancestral land.

As of September 2017, almost half a million registered refugees and asylum seekers are being hosted in Kenya, of whom 64,208 are in urban areas (mainly Nairobi).[1] Leaving one’s country and becoming a refugee is usually a person’s last resort; HRDs most commonly become refugees due to insecurity related to their human rights work.

When I was young I used to have many friends in Mathare, we really enjoyed the life of the slums because we were a part of it. We were born there and it was our home. Living in Mathare, one is always surrounded by people; we school together, we shop together, we work together, we go to church together, we do everything together. Growing up, we were like a family there.