Don’t let experts turn Kibera into a zoo of stinking poor people

Kap Kirwok

It has become a popular pastime among academics and development ‘experts’ to slice and dice the subject of foreign aid and Africa’s development.

Books on this subject occupy whole sections in libraries and bookshops around the world. To further crowd this shelf-space, there is a new book Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo, a former economist at Goldman Sachs.

She joins a growing list of angry and frustrated group of development aid sceptics. Such prominent sceptics include William Easterly — the author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.

Their basic argument is simple: foreign aid encourages corruption, distorts incentives among policymakers and society at large, fosters dependency and stifles creativity leading to more poverty.

On the opposite side of the debate are proponents who argue the answer is more, not less aid. They believe in fighting poverty through bigger infusions of foreign aid. These are mostly celebrity activists, academics and the occasional politician — the likes of Bono, Jeffrey Sachs and Tony Blair.

The shouting match between the two groups seems to rise and fall in tandem with the seasonal crises that sprout throughout the continent. It is not my intention to examine both sides of the debate and render a judgement — there is not enough space for that here.

As is often the case, the truth is perhaps somewhere in between. Reality is more complicated and rarely lends itself to neat yes-and-no analyses.

Dramatic descriptions

Moyo is the latest entrant into the shouting contest. But what could one possibly say that has not already been said? To be heard above the noise in this crowded field, Moyo employs a time-tested technique: a screaming title and dramatic prescriptions. It is why, in addition to the designed-to-shock title (Dead is in big bold red), Moyo dials up the voltage by advocating for the halting of all development aid to Africa — within five years.

It is not her radical suggestion that irritates me. It is how, in a recent Wall Street Journal article, she uses Kibera slum in Nairobi as a prop in constructing her argument against foreign aid.

Have you noticed Kibera is quickly becoming a metaphor for everything rotten about African development and governance?

Here is how she starts her article: "A month ago I visited Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. This suburb of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is home to more than one million people, who eke out a living in an area of about one square mile…. The idea of a slum conjures up an image of children playing amid piles of garbage, with no running water and the rank, rife stench of sewage. Kibera does not disappoint."

You would think that someone of her qualifications (with degrees from Oxford and Harvard) would be more careful in using generalisations. With a little diligence she would have seen the situation of Kibera slum goes beyond foreign aid. There is a difference between causality and correlation; and between proximate and ultimate causes.

She latches onto the often repeated characterisation of Kibera as the ‘largest slum in Africa’ with ‘more than one million residents’, without realising that this is nothing more than a perverse repetition of a myth — there is no authoritative basis for these demographic facts. A million people in an area of one mile?

A simple calculation using those ‘facts’ works out to 27 square feet or a space of about five by five feet per person. That is just about the size of a prison cell. It is even smaller if you take out the space for paths, kiosks, garages and others. Is that possible, given there are hardly any storied buildings in Kibera?

Some of these ‘facts’ about Kibera have been repeated so often they have acquired almost a mythic status. It is one of the pathologies of human nature that Kibera’s dubious distinction (which is mostly manufactured) has been romantised as if it were some kind of exotic tourist attraction.

Almost a fad

A Google search of Kibera brings up nearly 400,000 hits. It is surely one of the most visited and most written about slums in the world. It has been the setting for documentaries and films, including the award wining short film — Kibera Kid.

For the likes of Moyo, Kibera is a favourite opening scene in a horror movie about Africa’s failed development aid. It is a zoo where you go to study the ‘animals’ while holding your nose.

I say leave Kibera alone.

The writer works in the US

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