Editor’s Note: This short piece is taken from a longer article on Counter Human Trafficking which has been Sr. Mary’s ministry since 2006.

Since previous work in the Family Life Program (FLP 1987 – 1992) in the Kenya Catholic Conference of Bishops (KCCB), I had ample scope to get to know the more than 250 slums of Nairobi. It was referred to as the ‘green city in the sun’ but I doubt that anyone who thought s/he lived in the green city had ever put a foot inside its slums. My first trip into slums was during the Eucharistic Congress, September 1985. I joined a group going to do the Way of the Cross in ‘Mathare Valley’ slum. Prior to that I had worked in the vast hinterland of Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu – large farming areas. I only got stuck in extremely heavy rain and my front wheel drive always performed well!

Here in these miles of slums, I was both appalled and intrigued by how residents got rid of human waste. It was made with an empty tin with top and bottom cut out and inserted into the lower part of the huts (clay and wattle made) and that became the outlet for sewage. I had gone there in open sandals and once I saw the tins then I knew what gave them the odor of sewage I experienced afterwards. I finally had to discard the sandals. But I was very sobered to learn that half a million people lived there.

My next big trek there was during the World Social Forum, 2007. During that hectic time, we learned that 5% of the city territory was occupied by 95% of the people (those in extreme poverty), while 95% of the city territory was occupied by 5% of the residents. Fast forward ten years later and I found myself drawn to these same slums – they had just grown exponentially. Overcrowding and poverty had increased. Currently there are approximately 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population and occupying just 6% of the land.

This is a very harsh reality that the poor have to cope with every day.