Sept 2007 II

Hi all,
 How's work, and school, and travels? I hope each of you is doing well
and feeling happy. Things are going really well here in Mombasa. I want to
try to give you a picture of things without taking up your whole day, but,
lets be honest, I'm not go at being short winded. Hopefully what I write
is either interesting enough not to bore you, or boring enough that you
stop reading early. I recommend skimming.
 After arriving I took the first few days to settle down a bit before
moving into my room and starting interviews. After four days I was
feeling like I had my feet under me so Kwame (my partner in crime) and I
began our work. As of now we have spent a week working and are begining
week.
 Kwame's family is doing really well. and its been great to spend time
with them. His mother works for the coast water board and has helped him
get a job delivering water to remote parts of the coast. Since he
doesn't have a permanent position he works for three months at a time
and then has three months off before starting again. I guess it is a bit
of luck that his three months off coincide with the time I am spending
in Kenya.
 Kwame's father is an aspiring politician. If he can raise the 100,000
Ksh required to join the race he will run for MP (member of parliament)
on the ODM ticket. ODM is the opposition party that is running against
the current president, Mr. Kibaki, and his newly formed coalition, the
Party of National Unity. Elections will be held some time around
December of this year, and Kenyans LOVE politics, so it is a main topic of
news coverage and conversation. In part the election is issue based.
Generally speaking Kibaki supports a most centralized, capitalist
system, while Raila (running for Prez with ODM) advocates for
decentralizing power and economic resources. Though these politicians and
parties are talking about different policies, the big issue still seems to
be ethnicity. Kibaki is Kikuyu and Raila is Luo. Central province is the
home of the national government and the Kikuyu community. According to
most people I've talked to who are not from central, central province gets
a disproportionately large portion of the nation’s resources. This means
Nairobi has better roads, better schools, and better social services that
the rest of the country. Kenyans call this tribalism, and blame tribalism
on politicians who aid their own community at the expense of others. Those
who like Kibaki tend to be from central province. They argue that he has
served the country well during the past five years (i.e. free primary
education and many repaired roads). Pro-Raila people, of whom there are
many on the coast, seem to be set on voting against the Kikuyu voting
block in favor of decentralization.
  In the end there is always the fact that, historically, Kenya
politicians will say what they need to say to get elected and then
spend their time in office amassing as much money for their personal
back accounts as they are able to. So I'm wondering what will happen
this time around. Kibaki was elected on an anti-corruption campaign,
but no one here seems to think corruption has decreased. Two examples:
1)if you go to the Likoni chief’s office and ask him for his signature
on a document he'll ask for "money for soda," 2)just recently the
parliament voted in favor of giving each MP a 6,000,000 Ksh end of term
bonus, on top of their salaries and other additional "official
expenses." As on person put it the other day, corruption is "part of
the culture."
 Kwame's father is very opposed to this culture of corruption. He has
spent much of his life stepping in on behalf of Likoni residents in need
of advocacy; he has a good heart and a lot of ambitious aims. But at the
same time he seems not to have much expertise. He tells me what he wants
to accomplish but doesn't have concrete plans for how he will do it. He
seems convinced that the battle is gaining election and that once in
parliment he will be able to make change. It seems to me that he will
have to contend with a dysfunctional system that is not very welcoming
to people who want to follow a straight path. I wish him well, I hope he
wins, but my guess is that idealism alone is not going to produce change
in the Kenyan parliament.
 That said, I met with the District Officer (DO) of Likoni after having
spoken to many street vendors who credit him with having protected them
over the past year. I'm not sure if he is a good man, or if he has
reasons for his actions that I don’t understand, but he actually
followed through on the promises he made to street vendors last year. I
was talking to Dillon about this and he suggested that maybe this DO has
concluded that the best way for him to protect his appointed position is
to do a good job at it and thereby encourage people to vote for his boss
(Kibaki). It might seem odd that I'm so shocked by that, but in Mombasa
it’s uncommon to hear good news about politicians.
 The really exciting news is that street vendors, the DO, and Kenya Ferry
Services (the ones that built the Depot and, last summer, told street
vendors to clear the area) have reached an agreement that allows vendors
to work in the pathways leading to and from the depot.
 Likoni is an example of vendors organizing together and making an impact
on policy. This is a kind of a big thing. Last year I met with a prof at
the University of Nairobi who researches street vending and who helped
to found the national organization of street vendors that helped Likoni
vendors in their fight with Kenya Ferry Services. Just last month this
professor was in Likoni to learn more about how these vendors managed to
organize themselves and experience some success. The situation is not
perfect - I'll report a more complicated picture next time-, but it is
better than I had expected it to be, and it seems to be win win for the
vendors, the DO, and Kenya Ferry Services. It seems that Likoni is
unique and potentially a kind of model. When I head to Nairobi and speak
with this prof I'll give you guys the update.
 According to one of my research participants vendors achieved this by
promising to support the sitting government in the upcoming elections. I
asked the DO if he thinks the vendors will become vulnerable after the
elections and he said that he doesn't believe so, in part because he
expects Kibaki to win and therefore to stay at his post, but also
because he thinks Kenya is making a change. He thinks Kenyan policy
makers are starting to give more consideration to the needs for vendors.
This is a big question I'm going to look into, is kenya being nice
becomes its good for election campaigns, or is the state going to become
more supportive of vendors.
  The other side of my work here is the scholarship project. On Saturday
I opened a bank account that has on-line banking. This means that I
will be able to move funds from my account to school accounts in Kenya,
while I'm in the US. It’s a big step towards making this project work
more systematically. The other big step will be creating a system for
adding new students as we increase out funding. So far we have decided
hat we will continue to focus on Depot area street vendors, and those
among them with children who have been admitted to secondary school but
cant afford the fees. Right now most of our sponsored students are in
primary and these students are in a number of different schools. We are
considering moving these students (if they want to go) to St Kevin's
which is the highest rated primary school in Likoni and has a great
reputation for helping students score well on their secondary entrance
exams. If we move our students to that school it means not adding very
many new students this year even though we have more money than we did
a year ago. It’s a trade off, but I think it might be a good idea and
am leaning in that direction. I'm seeking advice everywhere I can think
to go. I have spoken with Athman (the SIT Mombasa program director who
runs the program I was on last year) and with a man named Matano who
runs an NGO in Likoni and has a masters degree in international
development (I'll write more about him later, he is my new role model),
and am planning meetings with other organizations in Mombasa who also
run scholarship programs. I'll keep you all updated as I learn more
about them and the successes/challenges they experience.
  In other news, my home life is great. My neighbors are mostly women
around my age who speak English. This means I'm not practicing my
Swahili enough to regain what I've forgotten over the past year (I
really need a lot of work- my language skills are just awful) but it
also means I am making great friends and loving life. Last year my
neighbors did not speak English, so when eating dinner with them at
night I struggled to understand the conversation and felt no rest. Now
I go home at night and can laugh and learn and relax all at once, which
helps me to feel energized when I do interviews with Kwame and our
research participants. I also love the communal style of living that
people practice here. Swahili houses share common space in the middle
of the house where everyone does their cooking and their washing, so it
is also where everyone talks all day and where everyone watches out for
on another. I eat breakfast and dinner with my neighbors almost every
day, we went to the beach together this past Saturday, and together we
are planning a trip to Nairobi. It's a generous environment. When one
person is out of water, neighbors help out, when one person's kid is
crying, she is comforted by any number of people. People help each
other without thinking it's a big deal.
 In general Likoni is more expensive and has more shops than last year. I
guess that's "development" by some definitions. Increased costs are
really hitting vendors who sell cooked food as their input costs have
gone way up and they have not been able to raise their prices without
losing customers. On the other hand veggie sellers havign a great season
becasue the rains have been really good. Nothings ever stagnant, whether
is policy or the climate vendors are always dealing with something.
 I'm sure you are more than exhausted by now, so just one more thing- at
the bank the other day I saw a women wearing a boi boi (black robe warn
by Muslim women as a sign of modesty and as a symbol of belonging within
the Swahili and Arab communities) with the boi boi pulled down over her
shoulder so she could breast feed her child. Interesting, right? not
what you would expect.

Keep in touch
-Gabi