A homeless man sleeps by the roadside in Nairobi, Kenya.

” Man is born, grows up, evolves and fulfills his potential only within a social body that enriches him and that he is supposed to enrich. Outside this concept, outside this logic, there is no man...”  Seydou Badian

The urban poor in Nairobi are a sight that shows how the social fabric in some African cities is being torn to shreds. Nearly one half of Kenyans live in what is known as absolute poverty…less than a dollar a day or a monthly income of less than 800 Kenyan Shillings. Over 70% live in informal dwellings, in conditions so challenging that 150 out of every 1,000 children die before they are five years old.

In the past two decades, Kenya has been experiencing an economic decline. The situation has continued to deteriorate and the country is now among the world’s poorest countries (World Bank: 1993, 2000). This deterioration is caused by among other things, oil crisis; HIV/AIDS scourge; volatile world prices for the exports and the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). The socio-economic costs of these adjustments now constitute a major concern for many Kenyans, as the number of people living below the poverty line has consistently remained high.

This is a nightmare that haunts our paths daily in Nairobi and the question still remains…”Am I my brother’s keeper?“