It's not all corrupt politicians in Kenya

Want to see the raw side of Nairobi? You have a few choices, but one of them would be the Eastleigh estate, 5-6km from the city center. Bordering Eastleigh to the north is the Mathare slum. As the crow flies Eastleigh is less than a kilometer from Muthaiga Golf Club, the preferred country club of the diplomats and Kenyan elite. And, we are talking an elite level 18-hole championship golf course here, the site of one of the few professional golf tournaments each year. Even at the busiest of times, this remains a genteel, decorous place.

Eastleigh, as you might imagine, is a different story. People everywhere; vendor after vendor with goods laid out alongside the roads, piles of charcoal for sale, workshops of all kinds in rickety wood and corrugated iron structures, decrepit buses and trucks belching diesel fumes over everything. And, during the rainy season following heavy rains, the carters do a booming trade ferrying people past the ponds that form in the roads. So what on earth was I doing experiencing Africa in the raw? Visiting Mama Fatuma’s.

Mama Fatuma was apparently something of a legend, particularly in the Muslim community of Nairobi. Her legacy is an orphanage in Eastleigh next to Mathare. Anne and I visited when we were here two years ago. Information about the orphanage, like most everything else these days, “is on the web” at
http://www.mamafatumas.org/Welcome.html.

Mohammed Hiribae, a young local university student volunteering part-time at the orphanage was persuaded to take on the position of manager as the institution was struggling to stay afloat. Meeting such a bright, well-spoken and dedicated young (although not quite as young as I thought as he has a 10 year old son) Kenyan, one can believe that even Eastleigh and Mathare can be transformed. He is certainly doing his part.

He got the UK government to support construction of a new facility from which they could provide services to the community and generate some revenue for the orphanage. The sewing classes have already begun - we are talking treadle sewing machines here. The computer classroom is operational and in use by the kids. Formal classes will start as soon as the broadband connection comes to Nairobi in the next few weeks. The adult education, focused on the displaced Somalis in the neighborhood, will open in a month or so. The big draw will be the “internet café”, not much café but an impressive Internet set up. All of this while managing to keep their head above water with a full compliment of kids. The older boys and girls don’t leave until they are either employed full time and able to support themselves or attending college. One of those just starting college is on a full scholarship to study medicine in Ankara.