This may be slightly old news to some, but this type of action that took place in Kenya on 14 September 2009 is what we get excited about and is action that Inspires Peace. Only those who have visited Kibera know the conditions under which the families and children live in this area of Kenya. We commend his excellency Prime Minister Raila Odinga for promoting this forward thinking initiative!
Kibera Slum Dwellers Move To New Houses
Date: Thu 17th September 2009
Mediahouse: Daily Nation
Page: 64
By KIBIWOTT KOROS
Kibera slum residents on Wednesday finally moved in to their new houses in Nairobi's Highrise estate.
After loading their belongings onto National Youth Service trucks, the families waited patiently before Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is also their area MP, arrived to flag them off at 1pm. And a convoy of seven lorries and another seven buses soon snaked their way on Mbagathi Road towards the new houses as residents bid bye to the remaining slum dwellers.
"We are going to Canaan!" some youths shouted. Twenty minutes later, Mrs Ayete and her colleagues had arrived at New Highrise Estate. Mrs Mary Ayete woke up at four in the morning - not to prepare her children for school - but to get ready for the long-awaited move to a new home in New Highrise Estate.
"I had to make sure that I'd be among the first people to get into the new houses," Mrs Mary Ayete, whose family is one of the first 100 to move to the modern houses from Kibera's Soweto slums, said on Wednesday. By 7am, she had removed her belongings from the tiny shanty she had called home for 23 years.
