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life in kenya
LIVING CONDITIONS
Many Kitengela residents live in slum areas. Their one room tin home will contain a kitchenette, a bed and communal bathrooms consisting of a small closed off space where they bring their bucket of water for a shower.
Some live in apartment complexes with stone walls and cement floors. These buildings can be of the same conditions as the slum areas or they can be fitted with water pipes and more rooms. Rarely however, is there water in the tanks due to a general lack of water in the township and country.
LEARNING CONDITIONS
Noonkopir Township Primary School is one of three public schools in Kitengela. Primary school, in the public system, is free in Kenya (though students are to provide their own uniform, resources and lunch) and there is, therefore, a huge amount of students enrolled and a large waiting list.
Noonkopir caps their classes at 95 students. The classrooms are 25ft square with stone walls, a tin roof and an exposed cement floor. There is no power or running water.
The classrooms are full of desks but there is not enough space to seat 95 students comfortably, resulting in five students sharing one desk.
The special needs unit is the smallest room on campus. It measures 3x4 meters and schools 40 students. There are no disability aids, nor an adapted curriculum, and entrance requires climbing three stairs.
TRAVEL CONDITIONS
Kitengela has one tarmac road leading to Nairobi. All other roads are well used tracks that turn to sludge in the wet season and become rock hard and dusty during the dry season. During the rains, it is impossible to get through the rivers that were once roads to Noonkopir School. Students therefore miss many days of school.
Students can walk up to four kilometers to get to school - on the same dusty tracks shared by motorcyclists, trucks, cars and other people.
FAMILY INCOMES
According to the World Bank, Kenyan poverty statistics decreased from 46.8% in 2005/2006 to 36.1% in 2015/2016. However, due to urbanisation and the growing population, the number of people living below the poverty line increased in urban environments.
Kitengela is an urban environment. It is overpopulated due to rural disturbances which caused families to relocate.
Kitengela has slum areas housing families living below the poverty line, and apartment complexes which house families earning a lower-middle income.
There is a negative stigma around disabilities in Kenya and as a result, children can be left in the house or banished from the community.
There is little knowledge about disabilities due to the inaccessibility of medical assistance, and there are no aids in place to assist someone with a disability.
There is one under-resourced disability centre in a 300,000 person township. There is a need for specialty educational and medical assistance, and furthermore, there is a need to diminish the stigma.