Senator Karen Nyamu threatens to lead Nairobi women in nude protest to fight for equality in slums

Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu has threatened to lead Nairobi County women to undress in the fight for the rights and recognition of people living in the city’s slums.

Senator Nyamu, who spoke on Wednesday in support of a Bill tabled at the Senate to advocate for an increase in funds for slums, said they should be labelled as marginalised areas.

Nyamu, in a brazen push for Nairobi to benefit from more allocation resources, vowed to mobilize women in the county to strip naked in the streets if need be, for their plight to be heard.

“We have been crying as Nairobi for these slum dwellers and we have been ignored over the years and are going to result even to unorthodox means,” she stated.

“As Nairobi women in Laini Saba, Kiboro, Mji wa Huruma...we’re going to undress in this town if that is what it takes to be heard so that we get the attention of these policymakers and this House and the legislators. Nairobi is not a rich county; just because we are the seat of government and we have rich estates does not mean we are rich.”

Nyamu cited recent remarks by Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti while fighting for the rights of the county’s residents in the East Portland Cement company land demolitions, saying it is time for Nairobi to employ any necessary tactics to drive the message home.

“Just like Governor Wavinya Ndeti said that Kambas have their own ways of solving things, Nairobi we are going to find a way of solving this thing and having the slum dwellers recognized by the highest office and this country,” stated the Nominated Senator.

According to Nyamu, the country’s capital has long been left out of similar budgetary allocations with presumptions by legislators referring to Nairobi as a “rich county” despite statistics showing otherwise.

She ssaid a substantial number of people reside in slum regions and in deplorable living conditions, therefore a larger allocation would channel development and alleviate the burden of the already strained county budget.

“Nairobi has been assumed to be a rich county. Just because we have rich estates like Karen and Muthaiga, we ignore the slum dwellers of Nairobi. Nairobi is the home of big slums like Kibera, Mathare, Korogocho, Kayabas and Silanga,” she explained.

“I want this House to recognize these regions as marginalised because they are marginalised…just because they neighbour Karen or Muthaiga or other rich estates does not mean they should be ignored. They are not children of a lesser God.”