During the holiday break I had the pleasure of speaking with Samuel Kiriro, who goes by the nickname “MC.” MC is a social worker for STOP the BULLET! (STB) and has been involved with the social activism for the majority of his life. We want to get his thoughts on an array of topics, from his beginnings in Mathare Valley ghetto, to community building and the unfortunate eruption of gang violence in surrounding villages in recent days.

​

It was life changing for me to speak with someone who is so passionate about their community and who thrives under the auspices of the Duara Foundation (DUARA) . Armed with humility and grace, MC is full of passion for his community.  In this interview MC provides a tangible representation of how we can all take on the responsibility of leadership and development in our communities.

​​

1. Tell us about yourself (name/age/hometown). Is MC a nickname, how did you get it?

 

My name is Samuel Kiriro, I am thirty – six years old, and I am in Kenya, Nairobi, in a place called Mathare. My background and education - I am a social worker by profession and work for the Maji Mazuri Center International; [born] into a family of four, I am the first-born.

MC is a nickname from my childhood. I got it from my friends [when] we used to play together and dance together. I used to dance like “MC Hammer,” so they call me “MC.”

​​

2. Explain your role at STOP the BULLET!  Can you speak on the STB programming that you are most proud of?

​

STOP the BULLET! is the name that we use in the community: a name that was authored by an old woman.  We asked her what she thinks Maji Mazuri has done in the community and she told us that Maji Mazuri has stopped so many bullets. One of them being poverty, another one being crime, another one being illiteracy, another one being educational level, all those bullets that are killing young people in the community. Things like drugs and lack of HIV awareness, she labeled all those things as bullets. So we say ok we can [call our long-term peace program] “STOP the BULLET!” because we are stopping the bullets. So that’s how the name “STOP the BULLET!” came.

​

At STB we work with so many groups in the community. [Informally] we have so many groups, gangs, drug addicts, sexual commercial workers, and young parents. We have [numerous] groups that we work [with] at STB. Some groups are for hire to do something bad, maybe kill, go and steal. So we work with such groups. We try to reach them and talk to them. We do counseling. We get them to feel that there is someone somewhere thinking of them, wanting them to change. We talk to them, engage them in legal activities because most of them deal with illegal activities. The main activity is brewing illegal alcohol, which is a killer in the community. So we have a program that we work on. In the program we come together with them and plan several counseling sessions. We try and help those who want to go back to school go back to school. Help those who want to do something for their life, like start a small business. We also do HIV/AIDS Awareness in the community through STB because there is a lot of HIV in the community. So we try to work around that. There are 3 [main leaders among others] of us in STOP the BULLET! and STB [is also looked on as] a safety group for [at risk youths like] prostitutes, who are commercial sex workers. For them we have lots of things to share with them. They passed a lot of challenges and hardships in the community. We try and engage them and help them go back to school because they are very young girls. They are already parents; we call them “young parents.” You find a 20-year-old girl who has 3 children or 4 children, and the children don’t know who their father is. We try to work around that with the ladies.

​

On the other side with the guys, [also have many] things to work on. The biggest challenge is that most of them are engaged in crime. They engage in violence in the community. We work around it bringing peace.  We try to calm them to be the peace developers in the community. We have a program called Mamzuguzo Mtaa, which means, “meet the youth, talk.” We use Swahili and that’s what it means in Swahili. We meet them and talk with them face to face, talk to them one on one. Share their issues with them. We meet them; we get to share their feelings towards the community. Most of them feel the community is against them. That is why most of them engage in a life of crime and drugs. We want them to feel part of the community again. [So for instance] we [periodically] organize a football tournament in the community. The community is divided into 11 villages. Every village has its own small group that tries to control everything in the village. So when we organize a small football tournament our aim and objective is to make these people meet and shake hands. If you are from one village you can’t go to another village without a fight. So [by providing] one common thing like football, we hope [to inspire] peace. We invite every village to come and participate. We have the rival group shake hands. We try before the football tournament to talk to them about peace issues and how we can make the community a better place to live, because the name of the community is banished [as a negative place]. We do that with drama and music [for instance], because that is how you reach them and the other members of the community. So they all come together. When you go out and say you are from Mathare, people think you are a criminal or a thug. So we try to make Mathare a positive name in the community, and show the community that these youth can be positive as well. That they have talent in the Arts, and that they can be bringers of peace. This is really important. We want to show the good things, and include the youth in that picture.

​

We also want people from other communities to feel that it is a good place to be, because there are so many good things that happen but they are never known outside. Through STOP the BULLET! we try to bring all of these good things together. Work with the gangs; work with the young ladies in the community. We don’t call them sexual commercial workers; we just call them young ladies. We try to organize something with them. But the main thing we do with them is deep counseling, and drama, music is the way we do that. Also one on one, but in groups we use drama. Also we educate the community through drama. We do counseling through the Arts with them because the educational background of the people that we are working with in STB is not at the level that people would think they are educated. So we try our best to make them understand what we are doing. They have seen so much, many things, and drama can help them to let it out, to discharge, but also to educate the community about what they go through. All this makes them part of the community.

 

3. How did you get involved with STB? Please describe the coalition behind STB (collection of community based, youth led organizations)?

​

First I would say, personally, I was born and raised in this community that we are talking about. I believe people will change through talking to groups, coming up with one common thing that people can do in the community. I used to be one of the guys who used to do illegal activities like brewing illegal alcohol. That is how I used to survive. My grandmother raised me. I did go to school and I did have a little bit of background of a better education and later I was sponsored by DUARA to take a diploma in social science. I did that and I am still pursuing it further. I am deeply involved because [Mathare Valley ghetto community] is also my family. It is my everything. I think [STB] can change the community. Maji Mazuri is one of the organizations in STB, and it used to have a youth group, through that youth group I was one of the teenagers and eventually so many good things happened. I intended to continue being a member of that group through my teenage years. So many things in the youth group gave me hope that we can make the community a better place. That is the dream that we dreamt and we are still pursuing it.

​

Duara Foundation supports STB. Maji Mazuri and the other organizations and groups in STB spearhead everything in the community. So through STB with help from DUARA, that is how we support all of these groups to work together.

4. In reference to the ghetto community in Mathare; is there one aspect about ghetto life that you could break down and why?

​

First I would say that there is so many things that people don’t know. There are so many things that happen. It is the circumstances that make people get themselves in such situations. There is a lot to learn from ghetto life. I would explain the situation in ghetto life and how someone can be involved in helping maybe at least one person. At least do something, at least get involved, at least get to know how other people live and how a life in the ghetto is. Ghetto life is very difficult, very challenging, but there is a lot to learn. The social life here—if one gets to learn the social life in the ghetto and how people are socialized and how people live together— then you get to know what people want, what people need and how to live with other people. This is how STB is organized, it is based on how people live together, and we decide together with the groups we work with what to do to bring peace.

5. Why is it so important to be involved in your community? Why does it matter to have an active voice and commit to the responsibility of leadership?

​

For one as I told you, the community is part of my life. That is where I came from, that is where I was born. I have seen so many people (I am thirty-six years old) from when I was seventeen to twenty years old, so many young people, my friends, died because of a criminal life, because of criminal activity and drugs. I got involved because I don’t want to see those young people experience what we experienced in that time. To make people get to know what they can do, also to make other leaders in the community to realize.

​

The only people who can change the community and bring peace are the people who are involved. Changing one of them will change others. To change their perspective towards peace in the community. That is what we are doing at STB. We are thinking of having in the beginning of the year, a meeting with all of the groups from all of the villages and work on a peace rally, with drama to tell people about the dangers of elections, affecting people in all the villages. If they are going to be involved then everyone will be for peace and change in the community. That is what we are planning to do.

​

6. What changes have you seen since STB’s involvement in your community?

​

Big changes we have seen. We have seen young people change their life dramatically from crime to go back to school. Now they are working in the job market in Kenya. We also work with the Nairobi School of Design. They get trained in computer skills and later graduate after one year with a diploma in web design. People work for big companies in Kenya, design companies in Kenya. It’s a big change and big achievement that we have seen. We also partner with local churches that provide technical training like tailoring, mechanics, hairdressing and catering. We have seen so many young people through STB get the chance to go back to school for technical training. . We did all this in the duration of one year. We have been doing counseling for quite some time. But this year we tried to give them skills on what they can do in life.

​

And what is amazing is that youth from gangs now see they are part of the community. They come to help clean garbage, and they come with ideas for STOP the BULLET!. We have youth now trained as journalists and write about the positive things happening in the ghetto, and they get paid by DUARA. So we look at their attitudes, and we work with them to change, so they know they are part of the community. They learn about themselves, their talents, and also to have a good self-esteem. We also provide more opportunities, like education and business loans, so they not only change inside, but also they can change their career.

​

7. How have community members or relationships in Mathare improved with of the programming that STB offers?

​

It has improved because of the program STOP the BULLET! itself. Before we didn’t know all these things. But when we started STB we have seen attitudes change, their attitudes towards each other, towards activities that happen in the community. People didn’t accept religious rallies for people to come into the community to preach. Now they are accepting that so it has been a change.

 

8. What do the current gang related clashes in Mathare mean for the work of STB? What do you think is at the root of these eruptions of violence?

 

I would say the clashes are very tense and very sensitive in the community right now. [Through] elections and political ties; young people are manipulated very easily to engage in violence by people who want to fight the community, who are not supporting them. The violence is also due to lack of job opportunities in the community. So the politicians get influence to do this. It is one part of the community, and only one village is doing all this. We call them Shanty Village. In Shanty Village there are a lot of them that engage in crime. A few of them are not ready to change. At STB we once organized a meeting with them. We got to know a lot of things about them. There is a group for hire, which is located in that particular area that has been used, by other political groups to cause chaos and strife to other communities. At STB we are trying to talk to people close to that group because we have people who really talk to them. STB is working on that and to help them understand what damage it can cause when you engage in violence. All these things are being done out of political influence.

​​

9. How can STOP the BULLET! programming continue to address these long-term issues of nonviolence and inclusion NOW? What does peaceful action NOW mean for the upcoming elections on March 4, 2013?

​

We have a plan, in Feb 2013 to have all these groups rally for peace. It is a big Arts festival, with dramas, wall painting, music and we go with members from all groups to all the different villages. We want to have a peaceful election in the community. The people who are going to do this, to bring peace, are the people who are engaged in the violence. AT STB we are working with them, they have a small committee who is doing that, helping us in organizing all this. The committee itself is compiled from different communities, different groups that we have been working with throughout. We are targeting to have a peaceful community come the March 4, 2013 election. Also the technical training that we are trying to get for people, it gives them a focus on a different future. We intend to engage the youth more in doing something for themselves rather than engaging in other things, so they have something to lose and will not fight the community. So through engagement and the peace rally, STB might at least help them and do something for the community. The peace rally will be called “Peace in the Community,” using the Swahili name “Amaami Mtaa.” We are working with that name, it is a major rally that we are planning to do.

 

10. In the long-term, what lasting influence do you hope that STOP the BULLET! will have in your community?

​

Most of the target groups that we are working with are the youth themselves. Most of them do these things because they are idle. So through engaging them through activities like Arts, and technical training at STB we don’t say we are gong to change everything. But at least we are going to do something. Just something small for the community. For other people to see those people perceived to be the “bad people,” change. That is our objective: for them to be seen as good people and appreciated by other people in the community. Then our objective will be met. We want them to be appreciated and embraced as a part of the community. So engagement—we are going to use that.