On Saturday I arrived in Nairobi to attend the World Social Forum for three days. I was incredibly excited to meet new people and discuss all things political and economic. After landing at Kenyatta airport my taxi driver told me that there had been many changes in the city over the past two years, including a visibly scaled-up police presence. He noted that the people he knew generally felt safer going about their daily lives. I took him at his word, and getting caught up in his optimism, thought nothing more of Kenya’s development problems.
As we neared my destination on Milimani Road – Nairobi Backbackers – I took in the sights along a beautiful road named after the famous African-American political scientist and Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche. As I subsequently walked from the Backpackers towards the mall to check out the best development bookstore in East Africa I realized that on my last visit in 2004 I must have been in great shape. This time, not having recently completed months of treeplanting, my legs were on fire!
I returned to the Backpackers in the mid-afternoon for a meeting with two fellow Canadians set up by the global social convenor herself, Robyn Agoston (my old officemate at The North-South Institute). Leaving at least twenty WSF delegates to enjoy an overdone rack of lamb, Andrew Deak, Mireille Saurette and I headed out for some Italian in the city centre. We drank red wine and pontificated about the state of the Forum and the condition of the world. Andrew explained his current documentary project and discussed the WSF’s chronic disorganization, while Mireille talked about her new home in Rwanda and the possibilities of building a more eco-friendly economy. For my part, I wondered aloud about the size of the pile that would result from stacking all the vehicles in the world together in one place. My guesstimate was that such a stack would extend at least from Nairobi to the coast at Mombassa. I argued that the production and dissemination of a pseudo view from space of such a pile belching a giant cloud of emissions could go a long way towards getting people to think twice about taking the car…or in the case of East Africa, the giant SUV.
Afterwards, as the taxi dropped me at Milimani and Bunche I was caught up in the moment. I didn’t think twice about the large crowd of people gathered just down Bunche at the head of an alley running parallel to Milimani. I proceeded up Milimani, passing the Milimani apartments and the autowreckers en route to the Backpackers. When I entered the compound I realized that something was up from the looks of concern I got from the people seated in the restaurant. I headed around the back of the main building to my shelter for the night in one of the permanently pitched tents and ran smack into a crowd of a dozen Forum delegates. They were standing outside of my tent and gazing over the compound’s back fence. I asked several women what was happening. They explained that half an hour before, police (or men dressed as police) drew their guns and marched up the alley behind the Milimani apartments into the slum directly behind the Backpackers. The ‘cops’ simply told the residents to “get out.” According to these witnesses, two giant bulldozers then drove up the alley and into the slum. These machines rolled over all of the homes and shelters that stood in their way.
I paused, listened, and then realized that I was hearing the sound of bulldozers in action. Women and children were screaming. From their cries we could tell that many were choosing to remain inside their homes until the last possible second. I pulled out my digital audio recorder and captured the roaring of the bulldozers, the grating of metal on metal, and the terror-induced screeches.
It was morbid. Here we were, a group of people that John Kenneth Galbraith would definitely consider to be “socially concerned” (if he were still with us, that is) and we were absolutely paralyzed. Someone discussed marching over as a group to put a stop to the carnage. But the impulse to self-preserve took hold. The consensus seemed to be that it was irresponsible to organize a direct intervention in the pitch black against men with guns. Not knowing how to react, people retreated into their own thoughts.
The bulldozers shut down around 2am and then the pillaging began. Men – many of them quite drunk – trickled into the slum in groups. They began recovering corrugated fencing and other things of value. Safely behind the wall, and the property rights it represented, my tent was no more than three metres from the destructive action. I sprawled out on my cot in my clothes, thinking it was best to remain clothed in case the fence were to become a target for the looters, and settled in for a sleepless night. As things got colder I thought of the hundreds of women and children that had been forced out into the Nairobi night with no place to go but the forest along Bunche Road.
When the sun came up on Sunday morning I learned that several delegates had shot video footage of the event in the alley. Word was getting out to the WSF organizers and there were plans to post as much information about the incident as possible on the web through sites such as Indymedia. I joined a fellow delegate and headed to alley to talk to people, take pictures and see what could be done. Upon seeing the place my first impression was that a bomb had gone off. Apparently the community had existed for twenty years. As my pictures attest, it was completely flattened in about four hours. The images are quite disturbing. I will post one or two on the blog later today or tomorrow.
I wrestled with staying at the Forum for the duration, and decided against it. I hopped into a taxi for Kenyatta, and after witnessing my driver pay off an officer on the road to the airport (chai kidogo incident #2), had him drop me off at the WSF airport welcome centre. I explained what had happened behind the Backpackers. After hearing my story one volunteer said that it had probably been the work of thieves. In her view the government was not involved, and the slum dwellers had probably been given a notice of eviction, or were likely thieves themselves. Another volunteer apparently misunderstood my story. She informed the committee that WSF delegates had been attacked by slum dwellers. I corrected her, but this apparently did not stop her from contacting airport security. After changing some money at international arrivals, I walked back past the welcome centre, and this person told me to sit and wait for the head of airport security to arrive. Apparently he wanted to see me to discuss my “serious allegation.” Needless to say I hightailed it to the departures terminal and smiled my way through immigration.
Kenya had an opportunity this week to show the world that changes were afoot. Unfortunately, they failed to meet the challenge. Saturday’s Financial Times Magazine featured an article on Kenyan anti-corruption crusader John Githongo. It detailed how the “kleptocratic” (plundering) ways of the Moi-era have continued unabated during Kibaki’s tenure as President. To this recognition I would add that human rights abuses are ongoing and significant under the new regime. As nearly twenty young WSF delegates will attest, human rights violations occurred on Saturday night. It is quite possible that no one in the government sanctioned the destruction. The fact remains, however, that the authorities did not put a stop to it. I can think of no rational justification for toppling houses with people in them at gunpoint even if an eviction notice has been served and the date to vacate has passed. According to witnesses nobody died on the night of 20 January behind Nairobi Backpackers. It is an open question whether those dwelling at the bulldozer crew’s next target will have similar luck.
The pressing question concerns what will happen to the people that lost their homes. My hope is that those that stayed on at the Forum after witnessing this tragic event are able to act on the desires they articulated Sunday morning to help. I felt that I could best contribute by getting out of the country and writing about the incident. I hope there are other ways that I can be of use to these newly homeless people as time goes on, and will update all of you on what is being done, and the ways you might possibly be able to contribute.
Check out Andrew's blog:
http://andrewreflects.blogspot.com
