Meeting the political and military Boss of the slum
A big thank you for your feedback on the cover: 80% of you preferred the two-part version. In the summer of 2018, my sister Marine and I left for a mission in the heart of the Kibera slum in Kenya. Every evening, we met local leaders to understand how the slum works. That evening, we had an appointment with the Boss…
As we could not go out in the evening from our barbed-wire-protected accommodation, the meeting was set at our place.
The Boss finally arrived in combat trousers and boots, wearing a long dark coat with a raised collar and a huge, gleaming gold watch. A look that contrasted as sharply with that of the other slum residents as the personality of the man wearing it…
Yet this meeting turned out to be exceptional, and the dialogue quickly began, driven by mutual curiosity.
This man simply held the power of life and death over all the slum’s residents, since everything went through him: from passport applications to rape investigations, including the pacification of a neighbourhood where, a few days earlier, a young man had been burned alive between two tyres for stealing a car radio.
So how do you maintain order in an area where some forty tribes live together and which law enforcement has deserted?
To manage this risk, he explained how he had taken care to identify leaders himself, based on tribal affiliation, gender and reputation, and to invite them to committees reflecting on how Kibera works, covering topics as varied as access to drinking water, peace and other development projects.
A fascinating conversation that shed a little more light on the local power games. A small teaser of the anecdotes you will find in the book 😊
Have a great day, and see you very soon,
Romain
PS: 60 days to go before the book’s release 😊
