T HE SILENT VOICES OF K IBERA Conflict Transfromation and Women at the Grassroots.

examines the discourse and practice of conflict transformation by looking through the prism of war and conflict at the experiences of women at the grassroots. intersectionality as a framework, will help me analyze through ethnography, the occupied material positions of women at the grassroots and their self defined standpoints on conflict transformation.

K IBERA AS AN E PICENTER OF C ONFLICT Kibera was an epicenter of the Kenyan 2007/8 post election violence. It acted as a satellite conflict center that confirmed the argument that every conflict has intimate relationships regionally. Kibera automatically becomes a conflict epicenter at the Greater Horn Of Africa Conflict System, that comprises of Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Tanzania. Kenya is also overlapped by the Great lakes conflict system that comprises of Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

C ONFLICT SYSTEMS IN A FRICA the Greater Horn Of Africa Conflict System, that comprises of Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Tanzania.

G REAT L AKES C ONFLICT S YSTEM Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya

K IBERA THE SLUM Kibera a dynamic and highly multiethnic community that takes on the peripheral urban status that has attracted the poor and the new rural immigrant whose standard of living is usually below the poverty line. Kibera is one of the most densely populated slums in Africa. Kibera has its own unique characteristics that come with marginalization, history, multiethnic and peripheral urbanization, that has made Kibera a hotspot to sporadic multiethnic and political conflicts.

H ISTORY OF KIBERA Kibera was part of the now Ngong forest. During the colonial period in which reserved for the Nubi people (from Sudan) who assisted in the construction of the British East Africa railway. This was supposed to be some temporary settlement for the Nubi as they worked at the railway line, until its completion where they were to have returned back to Sudan. This did not happen and when Kenya got its independence the Nubi were left on this temporary settlement of semi permanent housing. The other foreigners were the Somali and the Indians who assisted in building the railway

THE ‘COLOUR BAR’ The Somali were designated an area to the North of Nairobi now called Eastliegh, which has become the headquarters of the Somali Human trafficking. The Indians were designated an area near the Somali, called Pangani and Parklands. At that time Kenya was governed through the ‘Colour Bar” system which was very similar to Apartheid, the American segregation in which privileged and power, education was by the color of an individuals skin.

POST ELECTION VIOLENCE 2007/8 During the 2007/8 post election violence; this was the case only that the level of violence had increased to tribal youth groups maiming, killing, raping and torched homes. Kibera became a center of anarchy, which rapidly spread throughout the country.

H OUSING IN KIBERA Most of the Kibera houses with few exceptions are single rooms that are made from mud walls with rusted corrugated roofs that usually house entire families. Majority of the rooms measure between 7 'x 7' and 10'x10' and house often 7 –10 people. with rent prices varying from Kshs 600 (6e) – 5,000 (50e) per month depending on the proximity and availability of amenities such as toilets, road and water

T YPE OF ROADS AND DRAINAGE SYSTEM Along the paths, one can find children playing catch or playing in the puddles or water/sewer trenches that lead to a once clean and alive Nairobi dam.