Ecstasy as Kibera slum residents finally reach ‘promised land’ after years of waiting

By Joe Kiarie and Kenfrey Kiberenge

When a seemingly intoxicated young man jumped precariously over a ditch and marshalled his colleagues to demolish a rickety shanty in Kibera’s Soweto East village, he unwittingly made history.

The move marked the beginning of the end for one of Africa’s largest slums as a new decent era finally dawned on residents, yesterday.

This was the moment when the first batch of the more than a million Kibera residents left shanties they have called homes for decades and breathed new life as they strolled into modern stone houses.

But the move also injected the cold breath of reality into thousands of landlords, who have benefited from renting out the shanties since the 1970s.

They watched in disbelief as hired youth wiped out their sources of income, and they were not even allowed to pick the debris they craved.

Month of suspense

The day was the climax of over a month of suspense, with the exodus to the Promised Land baptised ‘paradise’ having been postponed several times since Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is the area MP, was not available to oversee the move.

But he was finally available yesterday, and thousands of residents of Soweto village anxiously chatted their way to dawn, having packed their belongings days before.

And they were in the dreamland early yesterday morning when tens of Double M shuttles and National Youth Service lorries were packed along the main entrance to the village, ready to ferry them to paradise.

Dozens of armed police officers were also on standby to oversee the exodus and suppress any resistance.

"Kwaheri Soweto, nitakumiss. (Bye bye Soweto, I will miss you)," chanted an ecstatic Bernice Amollo, as she lifted a dusty cupboard onto a lorry. She has lived in Kibera for 15 years.

This man could not hide his joy at the sight of the new houses. He came prepared for power rationing, though.

And not even Government officials wanted to be left out of the history-making exodus.

Housing Minister Soita Shitanda and his assistant Margaret Wanjiru drove in at 10.30am and joined in the operation. The residents watched in incomprehension as the two leaders hopped over stinking trenches carrying household belongings that they ceremoniously loaded onto the waiting trucks.

Then came the awaited moment and Raila arrived at 11am. He made his way up a wooden staircase into a one-storey shanty.

Minutes later, he walked out, a stool firmly in his grip.

Shitanda followed, a cooking stove in his right hand. And before the crowd could absorb the unfolding drama, Raila had flagged one National Youth Service lorry, as waves of ‘bye Soweto’ rent the air.

The lucky families clung onto their belongings as they waited to be handed the keys to their new homes.

A taste of units

To them, even listening to speeches did not mean much than first savouring the taste of water from the taps and using the toilets in some of the housing units.

This has for years been deemed luxury to them, but after the long wait, their dream had materialised.

The wishes of a section of Kibera residents had ultimately turned into horses, and riding them is what they are doing now.