International Medical Corps Provides Basic Health Services to Desperate Kibera Population

Photo: Natalia Cieslik

IMC is one of the first agencies to provide basic health services in the Kibera slum.

Nairobi, Kenya – Three hundred people from Kibera received treatment and medication on the first day of free health services provided by International Medical Corps (IMC). Their ailments are directly related to the post election violence that took place after disputed results were announced on December 30.

The population of Kibera, the vast Nairobi slum with more than 700,000 residents, has been hard hit by politically motivated fighting and the random brutality of criminal gangs. The majority of households are run by single mothers who survive on casual labor but have not been able to work for weeks.

Most patients coming to see International Medical Corps health workers were women and children who have been ill for several days. Many suffer from diarrhea because there is no water in the slum. IMC also saw numerous cases of upper respiratory tract infections in patients who have lost their homes and are now sleeping outside. Some presented with septic wounds from injuries sustained during the violence.

Until International Medical Corps opened its temporary clinic most patients were not able to seek medical help because the tense atmosphere in the slum prevented them from leaving their homes. Many others could not afford the 20 Kenyan Shilling, about 30 US cents, they are charged in the government clinic.

Ann Ako’s house was burned down during the violence and she now sleeps with her three children in a Kibera church yard. She is coughing and has chest pain and all of her children are suffering from diarrhea, cough or both. “The worst is that we don’t have any water where we are staying now. We sometimes walk 5 kilometers (about three miles) to get some,” Ann Ako says.

Photo: Natalia Cieslik

Half of the women who received food support said that insecurity prevented them from coming to the clinic for refills.

“Many of the people we are seeing are homeless,” says Jane Bauni IMC clinical officer and nurse. “People in Kibera are desperate and need free medical assistance.”

International Medical Corps has worked in Kibera for years, treating TB patients and assisting HIV positive mothers. It is one of the first agencies to provide basic health services to the extremely poor slum population that has been held in a grip of lawlessness, violence, and crime since the election – the reason why many humanitarian NGOs struggle to deliver services here.

Kibera residents fear that the tensions might flare up again if the current political deadlock is not solved soon. “If we see new fighting even the most minimal assistance has to stop. This would be a further setback to the health of Kibera’s people, especially women and children,” says Peter McOdida, IMC country director Kenya.

International Medical Corps will continue current mobile clinic services and is planning an expansion to deliver additional health services further inside Kibera later next week, including areas that have currently been off limits to NGOs due to the persisting insecurities.