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.
I grew up in Kisii, in the western part of Kenya. Life there is good but there are too many people and not enough resources; you can get plenty of food but there is not much work so it is difficult to pay for school fees and other expenses. I moved to Kibera when I was in my mid-twenties.
I come from a family of four daughters. My father was never really in the picture, but I never felt the absence of a father-figure in the house; Mama has been such a role model in that sense. She would say “whatever you want to do, you can do it”. Whenever we would complain about not having a brother to help us fix household things, she would push us to learn how to do it ourselves.
Stephen Mwangi, one of our partners from Mathare Social Justice Centre - MSJC, interviewed by main Dutch broadcaster during his visit to The Netherlands. During his stay in Europe, Peace Brigades International - The Netherlands was able to organise a mini speaker tour in Utrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam and Brussels during which Stephen was able to shed light on the ongoing challenges of life in the urban settlements of Nairobi.
On Tuesday 8th August, Kenya will hold elections for the positions of the President and deputy President, members of Parliament (Senate and National Assembly) and devolved government members (county governors and ward representatives). While the last elections in 2013 were relatively peaceful, the memory of the 2007/8 post-election violence, which left at least 1,133 people dead and 600,000 people displaced, looms large in this election period.
In advance of the Kenyan elections, two of the topics identified by the WHRD Toolkit Organisers (TOs) were Election Preparedness and Wellbeing and Self-care. PBI Kenya, with support from the Irish Embassy, held a two-day workshop on these topics. Regina Opondo, from the Constitution and Reform Education Consortium, gave the training and it focused on the needs of TOs in the settlements in the immediate election period.
July 2017 marks the first anniversary between PBI Kenya and the Atiriri Bururi ma Chuka (‘Keepers of Chuka Community Land’) community group’s partnership.
23rd June marked the one year anniversary of the murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, along with his client, Josephat Mwenda and driver, Joseph Muiruri. Civil society organisations organised the Machozi Ya Jana (Tears of Yesterday) campaign against extrajudicial killings, highlighting instances and cases of these crimes, as well as bringing members and law enforcers together to dialogue, in order to end the situation.