In January 2009, we interviewed community members in 10 villages to learning more about the needs and circumstances facing each community, straight from the source. The results are just beginning to be released and are open for public comment. They are particularly relevant to individual donors, who typically follow larger global causes, such as the “fight” against malaria, and are unfamiliar with the common problems of abject poverty. One of the results of the survey is an importance placed on Water and Sanitation. In particular, the community members of Mathare Valley, a large slum of Nairobi, placed a high emphasis on the need for better toilet facilities. It was Toilets, not Malaria, not HIV/AIDS, that those we talked to placed the highest priority on in this urban slum.

In 2008, I visited another urban slum of Nairobi, Kibera. In particular, I spoke with people and community-based charities in the Soweto section of Kibera. There, donors were responding to the ever-present need for more environmentally friendly sanitation facilities. Think: toilets or often a improvised toilet, to above ground open-air sewers and drains, to rivers - now imagine the messy, the smell, the sickness, the filth. Yuck!

The donors (including the U.N., the Government of Kenya, and some national NGOs/Trusts) have found a great solution, and we were calling it bio-toilets. Bio-toilet facilities are community toilets, showers, meeting halls, and sewer processing facilities all in one. Modern toilets are constructed and the waste is processed underground and in open-air trenches next to the building. You can also get a shower. The waste is processed in a environmentally friendly way and produces a by-product of methane that is captured for use. The methane could server a variety of purposes such as heating a boiler to produce hot water for the shower or perhaps filled in small tanks and used for cooking. The fuel will burn a lot cleaner and be safer than traditional charcoal burners (majiko).

These bio-toilets are great. It’s a “neat” idea and is certainly very needed. But really now, how excited can you get about toilets. Whether you have a hole in the ground, or a fancy Japanese Robo-Toilet, it’s still just a toilet. No matter how fancy, environmentally friendly, it will always be just a spot to go to the loo, to take care of yourself, and be done with it. Poo.

You understand the greater context of this by being in Kibera. There are other major issues pressing the community. Overcrowding, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, orphans, crime, just to name a few. In this context the best you can say of these toilets is they are just “neat” and needed.

So what happens when the toilet facilities are opened to the public?  A protest.

But pay attention carefully to what the people are saying. They are not really protesting toilets per-se, rather they are protesting the horrific inflation that is taking place, up over 25% in 2008. Listen carefully, and you will see that they are forcefully, but peacefully, protesting against the government using the high inflation to its own advantage. “Stop Playing Politics with Unga” (Stop Playing Politics with Flour),  reads one sign. The people are well aware of government corruption and how it is affecting their well being. They protest against corruption and for the needs of the people.  And it’s long overdue that we start listening to Soweto, Kibera and the people of Kenya.

A woman from Soweto summed up the situation quite well, she said, “Toilets, toilets, toilets all they give us is toilets. We have many other pressing issues, it cannot be all toilets.”