It was in mid September, 2018. The smell or raw sewage, narrow alleys and tightly packed shacks welcomed me to Mathare slums, one of the biggest slums in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi. I was in a place with one of the highest crime rates in the world.
My mission was to find schools in the informal settlement and introduce to them a mobile money based school fee collection system that favored learning institutions in low income areas.
I knew at some point I had to seek help getting directions to some of the schools in the area. Not from Google Maps. Very little if anything at all is mapped in the slums. I knew them by name but I was not at all familiar with my surrounding.
I stopped to ask for directions from a group of young men playing board games by the alley. My ordeal started moments later when I got to a dead end. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by 3 men, two with planks of wood. I had nowhere to run, co-operation was the only way I could get out that situation. One of the men used the plank on wood to get a choke-hold on me while the rest cleared my pockets. I lost my valuables including all the cash I had. I suffered a bruised neck.
When they were done, they scattered and got lost between the shacks. I got up, in shock, and like a mad rhino took off away from the scene.
I was robbed by the same people I trusted to help me with directions. The gang knew I was new to the area. I stood out like a sore thumb, the perfect mugging target.
I recovered from my ordeal and I want to go back to the same slum. My mission this time round is to use Google Maps to map all schools (and any other locations e.g hospitals that would be of interest especially to outsiders) and help people who come after me be able to navigate without having to seek help with directions like I did.
I won’t carry a G-3 rifle to go and confront the gangs. I want other people to avoid the pit I fell in. My approach is a little more subtle. To help newcomers navigate easily. It’s my small contribution to make a difference and bring positive change after going through the brutality of crime in the slum.