In Nairobi’s urban populated communities, homes and businesses that were previously next to the railway tracks are being demolished. People are getting evicted to extend the space between the tracks and where people can access.

The Kenya Railways Authority is also building a wall that has created barriers in the communtiy. These walls are making it difficult for people to move in and out of the slum since some have to walk for long distances. For others, especially children, the construction of the walls is denying them access to their previously playing areas.

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Enkipaata, Eunoto and Olng’esherr are three interrelated male rites of passage of the Maasai community:
Enkipaata is the induction of boys leading to initiation; Eunoto is the shaving of the morans paving the way to adulthood; and Olng’esherr is the meat-eating ceremony that marks the end of moranism and the beginning of eldership.

The rites of passage are mainly practised by young men of the Maasai community aged between fifteen and thirty, but women also undertake certain tasks. By educating young people about their future role in Maasai society, the rites serve to induct them first to moranhood, then as young elders, and finally as senior elders.

Respect and responsibility, safeguarding of the lineage, transfer of powers from one age set to the next and the transmission of indigenous knowledge, such as in relation to livestock rearing, conflict management, legends, traditions and life skills, are some of the core values embedded in those rites of passage.

However, while the rites still attract relatively sizeable crowds, the practice appears to be rapidly declining due to the fast emergence of agriculture as a main source of income, reforms of the land tenure system and the impact of climate change that affects the survival of cattle. Shot for Mychosenvessels.

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Waiting for the Floods Again is a project documenting Samuel 'Doh' Ochieng who over the years has seen his family suffer the effects of floods in Kibera Slums due to lack of constructive interventions.

Conversations around flooding in Nairobi often revolve around major events, the long-term real impact of individual families are not deeply confronted and constructively solved. Most times when these events occur, community leaders come up with one time hand-outs disregarding the long-term effects of the rains.

Samuel Ocheing’s story is one of those that still lingers from the pandemic. Losing his job as a bouncer in 2022, Samuel had to shift homes and it happens that the only place he could afford to stay was on the banks of the main river tributary passing through the slums.