By Joseph Barasa
THE deadly armed marauding criminal
gangs-dispensing terror and narcotic drugs by day and night. The putrefying rot
and tell-tale squalor. Extreme poverty and rampant disease was just the iceberg
tip.
The harsh realities of the mass of humanities
forced to pack closely together in the rotten leaking, crumbling, rats pests
and other vermin infested hovels went deeper than what hit the eyes, ears and
nose. The extreme denial and desperation for survival for the mass of humanity
went beyond just food.
The muggings, robberies, burglaries, raping and
even cold blooded killings were just but happenstances of everyday life as
dictated by the demands of the youthful gangs that ruled the sprawling Korogocho
slums in Eastlands.
It was in this sizzling and boiling environment
that Catholic priest Father John Webootsa found himself in the calling of his
priestly duties to serve humanity. This was not just a spiritual calling to
deal with – the demands from the flock were simply far beyond that.
The youths who had lost all hopes for anything
fruitful in life had been systematically and been ruthlessly drawn into
criminal activities and drugs like flies year after year. It appears crime was
the only avenue to expend their energies and frustration to survive.
Fr. John Webootsa-In the streets of Kariobangi
The biggest challenge when Fr. John landed in
September 2006 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Korogocho was how to harness
the energies of these youths, criminals or not irrespective of their diverse
cultural backgrounds and religions into positive productive use by turning them
around from being dreaded criminals.
“It was not easy going because even when we
identified and started sporting activities for them, they initially used to
come to the events armed with knives. Fighting would frequently break out and
we were forced to use all our energies to separate them,” he said.
The priest says that often may others could get
arrested by the police for the crimes they had committed and would immediately
turn to him pleading to have them released before being taken to court.
He said: “If I showed reluctance to get them
out of the police cells they would become belligerent and demand to know what I
was doing amongst them if I was not ready to bail them out of trouble.”
Fr. John says that after recognizing the
importance of using sports to engage and turn around the criminals among other
upright members of the community, the immediate challenge was to establish the
relevant structures and facilities for this purpose.
He says it became and it is still a priority
challenge to raise funds to construct the relevant sports structures as well as
provide them with the relevant facilities and equipment to the required
standards.
Within 7 years Fr. John has become a very high
profile celebrity among not only the youths, but also men and women, the old
and the children because of the un-believable way he has affected, influenced
and changed the lives of thousands across the age, cultural and even religious
spectrums.
His popularity as was evident during the Safety
and security sports week celebrated at the St. John’s Catholic Church grounds
is so high that for him to become an elected councillor or parliamentarian of
the area would be child’s play.
The daily sporting events attracted teams from
as far wide as Kariobangi, Dandora, Huruma, Baba Dogo amongst other residential
estates at the end of which they bagged trophies and awards for various
sporting activities as they crowned everything with an evening of classical music
performed by highly qualified local entertainment teams.
Because of the ever increasing demand for the
sports, arts and music within the community, 7 years ago emerged the St. John’s
Sports Society that has seen the development of a wide range of sporting
activities with participants engaging in tournaments both at the national and
international levels.
The Society's Chairman who is Fr. John says the
society was transformed into a fully fledged sports society five years ago from
the then sports service under the leadership of the St. John Catholic Church,
to embrace youth from a wide range of different backgrounds living in Korogocho
slums.
Says Fr. John: “This is irrespective of their
cultural, social, economic, ethnic or religious considerations. To date the
society which is registered with the ministry of gender and social services has
more than four hundred registered members participating in more than eight
sports of their choice.”
It is from this background, he says that the
safety and security week was mooted to bring together the youths of the
society, the media, community and security leaders and high profile
personalities to discuss ways and means of ensuring lasting security and safety
for all.
Father John says high on the society's agenda through
sports and related collaborations is to deal with the problems of crime and
youth delinquency in urban slums and provision alternative profitable means of
engagement for the youths.
“It is important to focus on developing
facilities, structures and policies that encourage increased level of informed
youth and community members' participation in urban governance,” he said.
The Priest says that with support from UN-HABITAT,
through sports, arts and culture, the youth and the general community members
are able to actively participate in community development and crime prevention
while engaging in productive social and economic activities that contribute
towards poverty reduction.
To date, Fr. John says more than 1000 former
members of terror criminal gangs in the Korogocho slums have either converted or are in the
process being converted into productive sports personalities and economically
productive citizens.
Many of the former criminals who used to
terrorise members of the public through a wide range of criminal activities
during the day and night are now reforming and turning into career sportsmen
and even women. More than 1000 are now actively involved as more are clamouring
to come aboard with a marked positive impact on the security situation in the
area.
The
Chairman St. John’s Sports Society Fr. John says that the society had adopted
to use a number of sporting activities to channel the youths’ energies into
productive socio-economic and cultural initiatives.
“We have members of various teams in soccer,
volleyball, netball, basketball, taekuondo, karate, boxing among others who
were deeply involved in crime. They have now changed their ways or are now in
the process of changing. We also take them to vocational training institutions
to give them skills to earn a living,” he said.
The sharp decline in insecurity, particularly
criminal activities by marauding armed youthful criminal gangs has been largely
due to the efforts of the community from all walks of life, geographical
regions as well as a wide range of diverse religious groups through sports.
By the beginning of 2009, Korogocho was
notorious for muggings, burglaries, drugs, robberies, raping among a wide range
of criminal activities that rendered the estate a dreaded no go zone in the
city even during the day.
However things started changing towards the end
of January 2010 when the Catholic Church that enjoys a large following in the
estate introduced the St. John Sports Society, Korogocho that embraces
everybody.
With a slogan 'Pamoja Tunaweza' (Together We
Can) programme which went full blast by June of the same year, even the
lifestyles of the once feared criminals and drug pushers had changed as they revelled
in sport and meaningful production.
The Project Coordinator Medina Twahib said that,
it was impossible for residents and worse for strangers to walk about the
unpaved streets in the estate without being mugged or robbed in broad day
light.
“Things were extremely bad. Criminal activities
during the day were perhaps worse than during the night, but today you cannot
believe it. Things have changed drastically. Hundreds of youths who were
involved in these activities have changed drastically,” says Miss Twahib.
She went on: “It is impossible to believe the
amazing talent that is hidden in these poor housing slums you see. You cannot
believe the fantastic talents some of the youth who were feared criminals have.
I am talking about talent that is inborn in these people right from children as
young as between five to ten years.”
The Programme Coordinator says some of these
un-employed youth have shown so many prowess’s in respectful their skills and
talents that within a very short time they are already participating in
national as well as international sports events where they are steadily gaining
recognition because of their prowess.
Some of the areas in which the youths are
excelling included Tae Kuondo, Karate, body building and weightlifting, boxing,
volley ball, basketball, netball, athletics, soccer and a wide range of artistic
activities like drama, music, drawing among others.
“What we are learning very fast here is the
fact there is so much talent here worth hundreds of millions of shillings in
revenue to those who are lucky to have. The biggest problem, however is lack of
support to nature and develop it – but most importantly there is completely no
exposure that can work wonders on these people,' says Miss. Twahib.
She says there is so much growing demand from
the hundreds of thousands of youths in the slum estate to join the St. John
sports Society that nobody wants to be left out irrespective of ones ethnicity,
religious belief since any form of difference is non-existent among them.
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