(17 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya – 5 April 2025
1. Aerial of Mathare informal settlement area
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Moses Nyoike, Vision Bearerz Founder:
++PART OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 3 AND 4++
"Our mission is to reduce crime and that is our aim because in Mathare, sometimes you will find chaos. But when youth are busy, they cannot engage in crime. That is why we decided to do something."
3. Various of former gangster turned urban farmer Ben Njoki preparing meals with friends for a community feeding programme
4. Close of Njoki
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Njoki, former gangster turned urban farmer:
++PART OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 6 AND 7++
"The types of crimes I was involved in were going and mugging people. The life I was living was a lie. It did not add anything. We just lost more people. But right now, we are winning more people in the community. The parents, the kids around here."
6. Various of Njoki walking about in Mathare
7. People on a street in Mathare
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Kariaga, former gangster turned urban farmer: ++PART OVERLAID WITH SHOT 9++
"We changed after people, many dead and people are dead, my friends, so many, even my brother. We decided to change to be the young ones’ ambassadors."
9. Various of Kariaga looking at photos of his late gangster friend
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Okoro, CFK Africa Executive Director:
++PART OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 9, 11, 12 AND 13++
"In light of the current development cuts, localization is the way to go. The idea of locals taking charge of the change that they want is the way to go. I think that it’s so great that we have had large organizations such as USAID providing support but locals understand and can maintain what is going on."
11. Various of children feeding programme by Vision Bearerz
12. Various of Njoki and a friend feeding fish
13. Various of Kariaga with pigs
STORYLINE:
Joseph Kariaga and his friends once lived the “gangster life” in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, snatching phones, mugging people and battling police. But when Kariaga’s brother was shot dead by police, the young men took stock.
"We changed after people, many dead,” said Kariaga, now 27. "People are dead, my friends, so many, even my brother."
Now the men are farmers with a social mission.
Nearly a dozen of them founded Vision Bearerz in 2017 to steer youth away from crime and address food insecurity in one of Kenya’s poorest communities.
Despite challenges, Vision Bearerz makes a modest but meaningful community impact, including feeding over 150 children at lunches each week.
Some residents praise the group and call the men role models.
Amid cuts to foreign funding by the United States and others, experts say local organizations like this may be the future of aid.
Vision Bearerz works on an urban farm tucked away in the muddy streets and corrugated-metal homes that make up Mathare, one of Africa’s most populous slums.
Estimates say about a half-million people live in this neighborhood of less than two square kilometers.
Some 2 million people, or 60% of Nairobi’s population, live in informal settlements, according to CFK Africa, a non-governmental organization that runs health and poverty reduction programs in such neighborhoods and is familiar with Vision Bearerz’ work.
Lack of infrastructure is a key challenge in these communities, which are growing amid sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid urbanization and booming youth population, said Jeffrey Okoro, the group’s executive director.
Polluted soil and water rationing made it a tough start.
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