Matopeni — Over Crowded School (Day 17)

Today I went to another slum the name is Matopeni that means mud. As soon as I arrived the area, I understand the reason of the name. After I went through the Kongowea Market — among the largest market in East  and Central Africa — muddy road connects to the Matopeni area. There aren’t drainage systems in the area, so the road continues muddy, especially rainy season, and there are a lot of small houses made of mud as same as Tudor.

Just like any other informal settlement, Matopeni is no exception from the problem that range from poor hygiene, poor housing and lack of schooling facilities. The problems around the area are serious. The land was a government land and it was unproceduraly leased to an investor who is currently threatening to evict the community from the land without an alternative  resettlement. Being he runs a giant confectionery company, the individual is likely presumed to have  more influential power  according to the community member whom spoke to.

When he presented the eviction notice, the said person only offered the affected ksh 20,000 which could hardly sustain the cost of relocation. He did not put the cost of construction and other expenses that could help the families start a new life.  The community are organized with over 80 members and  structure of leadership while they also work with different stakeholders who provide different services especially  the once relatated to land advocacy which seem more contentious.
*$1=ksh 88 (6/11)

Contrary to what is in the record, the community suffer from low level of education because the only school that neighbor the community Kengeleni primary school is past its capacity and cannot accommodate any more pupils to the extend of standard one holding over one hundred pupils according to the community volunteer who teaches at the locally improvised school. The improvised school is also full beyond its capacity is illustrated in the picture below

The school age children would be more than 1,000 because there are around 2,000 houses and regiment in here is around 6,000 people, and each household with children holds more than 4 children. To support those children, a small building for the school was established. Currently this school holds 129 children that include Baby, Kindergarten (kg) 1, kg 2, kg 3, class 1 and these four grade students have studied in the same room with only three blackboards. Since the room is overcrowded with students, and the teacher works as a volunteer, this school isn’t sustainable.

To the inception of the school was an idea that was generated by an England woman who supported the local women to start a school which she supported for a period before she felt ill and later relocated to England. The children were then studying under a tree and when Muungano Support Trust  build a social hall for the community, the children were allowed in and the hall became the class that currently host three classes with 129 children.

The teacher showed us how to pupils learn before the improvised school established.

The teacher emphasized that to improve the quality of education is a high priority in here. To improve the quality of education, the school needs more teachers, textbooks, facilities that include spacious classrooms, blackboards, toilets, desks and chairs and so on. In terms of hygiene, since the room is overcrowded with children, diseases easily infect to those children, and they lack the toilet facilities. The teacher also needs salary to keep her job at the school.

The problem in here is the government increases the number of school facilities; however, those school facilities haven’t filled the demand.  For example, this paper introduces that “the number of public and private primary schools increased from 6,058 in 1963 to 27,487 in 2010, while secondary schools increased from 151 to 7308 over the same period” (P.12), but still the number of the students in one classroom is very high (the pupil/teacher ratio at primary school level is 1:45 in 2009), and some slum children haven't joined the primary school because it is full. One reason of the lack of school facilities would be the rapid growth of population. This article predicts that Kenyan population  will increase by 33.62% from 2010 to 2020.

The other problem in here is slum itself. Urban slum is a serious problem in Kenya. I can’t find the information about slum population in Mombasa, but this report shows that more than 60% of the people who live in Nairobi live in slums. Slums include problems such as drug abuse, education, and hygiene. In terms of hygiene, the school road of the Matopeni area is muddy (left picture), and playground of the school is also bad condition.

Although primary education is free in Kenya, still number of school facilities doesn’t cover the number of Kenyan children, and some children especially who live in vulnerable areas are out of school.