[The Ghetto Mirror, based in Kibera (the focus of Shining Hope for Communities), is the only slum-dedicated newspaper in Kenya. The publication recently changed its name from The Kibera Mirror, a change that Editor Vincent Achuka explained was due to the fact that the mainstream media largely ignores the slums despite the fact that their residents make up almost two-thirds of the population of Nairobi. The staff of The Ghetto Mirror is planning on covering news from slums besides Kibera. The following article originally appeared in The Ghetto Mirror, and is being reprinted in The Argus as part of a partnership with the newspaper.]

 

 

“Experience a part of Kenya unseen by most tourists,” reads a tagline on Kiberatours.com.

“A visit to Kibera takes you to the friendliest slum in the world,” reads a tagline on another tour website, African Spice Safaris. The website’s catalog boasts that it also connects tourists to renowned destinations like Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mombasa, and Maasai Mara. For 6,800 Kenya shillings, an international visitor can get a half-day tour of the largest slum in Africa.

“Slum tourism” is increasing in Kenya’s informal settlements, attracting mixed views with claims that it benefits only a few people. Critics say that it dehumanizes people by equating them to animals [to be] watched by tourists. Like the national parks, the number of visitors is determined by the popularity of the slum. Kibera, the largest, also receives the highest number of tourists.

“How are you?” young children from Kibera shout every time they see a white person. They’ve been corrupted by the number of tourists who flock to the slum all year round.

Kibera has long been an obligatory stop for Hollywood movie crews who want to portray the urban poor in Africa. The movie “The Constant Gardener” was a recent hit. However, the slum, located five kilometers south of Nairobi City, also got international attention after high profile personalities like then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama visited the slum in 2007. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon soon followed.

Although the people have not come out openly against it, some residents think slum tourism is exploitative.

“These people are reaping from us; we are like animals in the park,” said Patrick Mueke, a resident of Laini Saba village in Kibera.

“We get nothing from these visits and even the government does not tax them,” he added. “They should be stopped.”

Mueke blames the tour guides and cartels for promoting the trade.

“I usually see them walking here, taking our photographs—that is what I do not like,” said Judith Awuor, a vegetable vendor.

Even though this tourism has been practiced for almost five years, some residents still don’t know about the trade.

“I do not know about slum tourism, but all l do know is that these wazungus [white people] come from various non-governmental organizations that have projects within the slum,” said Rebecca Atieno, a resident of Darajani village.

Some tourists like Collin Fitzlberge from the Netherlands, whom we found on a tour, do not see anything wrong with the trade. His fellow tourist Michelle Smith said he saw nothing wrong with slum tourism at all, although he refused to say why he was touring the slum.

Though the government admits that it exists, there have been no attempts to regulate the trade or [put in place] proper structures for governing it.

“We know that slum tourism exists, but we cannot regulate it,” said Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Tourism Angela Boki in an interview with The Ghetto Mirror. “It is for the residents to come up with initiatives to regulate the trade. Otherwise we cannot say that it is exploitative because in the first place there are no laws.”

“The people who are being exploited here are the tourists because they do not know where the money they give out goes to,” said Principal Tourism Officer at the Ministry Keziah Odemba.

She said, however, that the government is trying to transform how the trade is conducted through slum upgrading. The government hopes that tourists will visit outstanding projects in the slums instead of simply seeing how people are suffering. She said the same thing is happening at Soweto in South Africa.

Popular sites that the tourists are taken to include Kibera Primary School, which was founded by the Queen Elizabeth, biogas centres, the Kenya-Uganda Railway, Makina Mosque, and Toi Market. Tour firms use creative brochures to attract their clients. One reads, “The Biogas Centre: a fantastic view over Kibera and picture-point. You can see that also human waste is not wasted here and much more.”

Tour firms claim they reinvest 100 percent of their profit to the community through supporting some of the projects tourists are shown. African Spice Safaris says, “By joining us you will support the people of Kibera. The tour provides local employment and the profits will be used directly for projects to improve the lives of the people of Kibera.”

Mama Tunza Children Centre, a popular destination center for tourists, disagreed that any of the tour firms that bring tourists to their center give back to the center.

“Tourists are brought here and the same people who bring them here come back to claim a part of the donations given after the tourists have gone,” said Hudson Kahi, the man in charge of the Mama Tunza Children Centre.

Fredrick Omondi, a tour guide of Kibera Slum Tours, denied this. He said no one claims anything from the centers visited.

“No one claims part of the donations given. What happens is, it is matters of the heart, if you feel what you have been given is worth sharing you can, but we do not take anything,” he said.

Omondi denied that slum tourism is exploitative to the community.

“We just want to show the world what life is really like in Kibera,” he said.

Critics, however, say that unlike township tours in Soweto, South Africa, which help tell the story of the apartheid struggle, Kibera’s sole attraction is its open-sewer poverty, with residents on parade like animals in a zoo.