By Arjun Kohli
This piece was published in May 2016
Swathes of people moved to the side of a bumpy road to make way for a procession of cars that wound its way slowly through the densely populated slum of Kawangware just after the rains this May. The near one million residents of this informal settlement in the western outskirts of Nairobi don’t enjoy much in the line of trees, parks, forests, farms or greenery in general. It was therefore somewhat unusual that the passengers catching up with each other in the moving convoy were all members of the Kenya Horticultural Society.
We travelled deep into Kawangware, passing through familiar African scenes: Men loaded wood onto their cars, which were parked beside timber yards filled to the brim with wood most likely from the Congo Forest; children splashed around in pond sized potholes along the wet roads under the watchful eye of their mothers, who, just a few minutes before had probably scolded those same children for playing too close to one of the many open sewers near by. Slow moving tributaries of pungent sludge seeped down narrow gullies and merged with the grey black waters of the Nairobi River, which is an alternate sewer for hundreds of thousands of residents in Kawangware.
We descended the valley towards the river through the middle of Kawangware, where half built three and four story buildings rose precariously above the mbati roofs of the original slum below. Nairobi city centre is only 14 kilometers away, so the growth of this settlement is inevitable. As the slum spreads trees are chopped and any patch of vacant land is tilled for corn in an unsubstantial attempt to help feed hungry mouths or create a balanced nutrition. The valley is so void of trees and full of corn that it would only take one or two hard rains to wash the topsoil into the river. If that were to happen one or two of the uncertified buildings, a few people and more sewerage would likely wash down as well. Whatever topsoil hasn’t washed away already has been farmed with the same crop year after year such that many of the nutrients have been sucked out and few have the knowledge, time or vision to replenish it more sustainably.
Yet, in this destitute setting, where incomes are as sparse as crop yields; security is as loose as the topsoil; and where it is easier to find an air borne disease than a meal or an education, a group of kindred spirits have been working hard to heal a patch of Kawangware and make it bear fruit, vegetables and herbs to help feed the children around the local school.
A Ray of Light
A lone motorbike rider, with long blond hair, weaved her way through the slum, leading our convoy to the government school on the hill. As we entered we passed a smiling group of welcoming women who lined the school’s driveway waiting for us to arrive. Jessie de Boer put her helmet aside and greeted the community and raised her hands up in the air with joy. The ululating women did the same and laughed as the rush of positive energy that Jessie transmits was reflected in them and amplified in a harmonious “Pamoja.” We will build this together.
Jessie welcomed the society members and introduced us to the women who were all mothers of children at the school. Over the past few weeks they had come together under Jessie’s guidance to implement Kawangware’s first Permaculture project.
The government school spreads out over 1.3 acres on the brow of a hill. One day in the past, wild grazing animals looked down through grass or forest to the majestic Nairobi River, when it was still clean. The same spot now, having been trodden on by 300 children, cars and overrun with school building projects, which haven’t planted anything for years, felt barren. The ground was hard and the soil void of many of its original nutrients. In a slum of close to a million hungry residents, 1.3 acres is a big and rare public space. The buildings only covered a third of the plot and the rest was wasted. Yet, the children were not getting a balanced diet. Jessie was brought on board to use her skills and knowledge in permaculture to rehabilitate the land, restore the soil and create a new source of food and income for the children and the school. The project is guided by her, but owned and implement by the school community.
“I see us not only as creatures on this planet that graze and feed off the land, but as creatures who can also act as a healing force” said Jessie, before she began her tour of the school’s latest project. After an hour, horticultural society members had gained a deeper understanding of what permaculture is and how effective it can be when implemented.
The school’s grounds were full of litter and uncultivated soil, which was really wasteful. There had been no integrated planting in that space, only segregated planting and so the soil was poor. A spring in the school was not really put to use. The students in the school were completely reliant on food aid.
Together with the mothers all the rubbish was cleared. Where there was a long line of broken glass behind a building, land was tilled. Where there was an empty island in the middle of the car park, there were now eleven different edible plants growing. Steep banks were terraced and channels were dug to pass the rainwater and spring water through the plot to irrigate rather than escape. Seeds were found from friends and relatives of the 300 school families and before too long and without much capital input, the school was growing pumpkin, sweet potatoes, banana, arrow root, sugar cane, papaya, sage, sukuma, tomatoes, pigeon pea, menagu, kunde, mango, lemon, moringa, tamarind, maize, beans and pumpkin. Not only was this providing the kids a better diet, but the successful cultivation of tomatoes also provided the school with an income. New techniques, such as the use of sunken beds and double digging, helped the crops perform better.
Success in this project came from working with the community. When trees were planted, each one was named after one of the students, so that there was ownership and responsibility. The land was carefully terraced and worked on following it’s natural contours and banana trees were planted to slow down the flow of water and redirect it.
“Nature has all the answers. We just have to imitate it,” said Jessie. She explained some of the logic behind the planting schemes. Maize, beans and pumpkin are companion crops and work very well in the same field. The idea of the food forest, where dozens of fruit trees were planted very close together (under a meter apart sometimes) was to plant and see what takes off and see from there. Some may survive, some may not. Jessie was interested to learn from society members that the morning glory that had grown in the hedge next to the paw paw trees, was actually helping the harvest as it is home to one of the paw paw trees natural pollinators. This was a happy coincidence.
Similarly, Jessie discovered that in the grey water space outside the kitchens giant earthworms had made a home, so she has begun to build trays for them and catch their magic urine, which is an amazing fertilizer. The grey water itself is used to irrigate, as it is very nutritious.
The sad thing is that in places such as Kawangware, things can actually get worse. But with a little thought and the right knowledge, they can get a lot better too. To learn more about the permaculture movement in Kenya, courses, techniques and projects, visit the Permaculture Research Institute website at www.pri-kenya.org.