A major railway line passes through the Kibera slum, the largest slum in Africa. This is not by design — slums tend to grow organically rather than through any deliberate act of planning — but it gives the slum dwellers a unique way of exercising their voices when they want to protest. Recently they uprooted the railway line in protest against Ugandan claims to territorial sovereignty on the tiny island of Migingo, in Lake Victoria. Many of Uganda’s supplies travel across Kenya by trains which pass through Kibera.
Kibera is home to a strong contingent of people from the Nyanza region of Kenya, which borders Lake Victoria. Nyanza voted strongly for the ODM party at the last elections, and they experienced a strong feeling of disenfranchisement when the PNU candidate Mr Kibaki was declared president ahead of the ODM candidate Mr Odinga following numerous serious electoral irregularities. Migingo has become another focal point for their frustrations, amid concerns that President Kibaki is not taking strong enough action to protect the island from Ugandan claims.
Ugandan President Museveni has apparently conceded that the island is Kenyan, subject to investigations to be made by surveyors, but the Ugandan view seems to be that the island is primarily of importance for smuggling. There seems to be a suggestion that the major interests promoting Kenyan territorial protests are those of Kenyans engaged in illegitimate activities. Meanwhile, back in Kibera, slum residents of Ugandan origin have been served notices of eviction.