- SEPTEMBER 10, 2024
Ben Ouko: »Kibera does not belong to one religion or one party«
Ben Ouko from Nairobi, runs an NGO in the informal settlement Kibera, and fights violence with dialogue forums.
On either side of the railway, hundreds of thousands of people live in houses with tin roofs. They include small shops, schools, restaurants, local radio stations, mosques, and churches.
The informal settlement called Kibera, located in Nairobi is a hot spot of both political and ethnic conflict in Kenya’s capital because unemployment is high and abuse is rife.
»Politicians rarely speak well of Kibera and often try to divide us who live here through the way they communicate, « says Ben Ouko, who has lived in Kibera all his life.
»We need to change the mentality and turn the situation around. We should solve conflicts and frustrations peacefully. «
From drug addict to peace activist
Glue, marijuana, and pills were a big part of Ben Ouko’s childhood and youth. At the age of nine, he learned to smoke marijuana from the older boys who hung out at the local football field.
»I looked up to the big boys, which negatively influenced me. For six years, I used addiction to help me get through because I was homeless at times, « says Ben Ouko.
But it was also his interest in football that made him forget the drugs because it was the community of the game that made him turn his life around at the age of 15.
»One day I was so affected that I let my team down. We lost because of me. «
It’s hard to imagine the 44-year-old Ben Ouko on the street, sitting in a nice jacket in a posh hotel in Nairobi, celebrating the results of the violence prevention program he has been part of with the organization MIDRIFT HURINET.
»We need to come together and create a better understanding that we want the best for each other«
Today, he is an influential voice in Kibera, where he since 2007 has used dialogue as a tool to prevent violence and conflict.
»We could see how the level of conflict was increasing towards the 2007 elections. So, I sat down with some of my friends, and we asked ourselves what we could do to stop it. «
Together with his friends, Ben Ouku concluded that what was needed in Kibera was to break down the barriers and prejudices between the different groups in the informal settlement. Before he knew it, he was in a room facilitating a dialogue and peace agreement between 30 political opponents from the community.
It's all about network
The importance of looking beyond yourself and trying to put yourself in the other’s shoes is one of the things Ben Ouko has become even more aware of after being part of the MIDRIFT HURINET program:
» I’ve become better at analyzing and understanding the reasons behind different actions. This means that today I can better resolve conflicts because I know how to approach different groups based on where they are right now. «
But it’s also about gathering the right people in the room to make a concrete change. MIDRIFT HURINET has actively worked with this when deciding who should participate together in their program.
»It has become clear to me how important it is to have a strong network that cuts across sectors, « says Ben Ouko, who, since the program has used resources to expand and maintain the network and good relations with the authorities, that the program has given him.
A network that had already helped when a conflict started because a group of young people in Kibera started stealing from some of the local shops and afterward burned the shops to cover their tracks.
Unfortunately, some of the shops were close to a mosque, and when the smoke started to rise close to the mosque, it also fueled hostility between some of the religious groups in the area.
»We managed to work together and through dialogue, and meetings to keep the situation under control and keep the violence down, « says Ben Ouko, who continues to work to resolve the underlying conflicts that allow unrest to flare up so quickly in Kibera.
»We need to come together and create a better understanding that we want the best for each other, « says Ben Ouku.
»Kibera does not belong to one religion or one party. «