MPs visit Concern in Kenya

Slum reality

For many families, their lives in the slum are incredibly difficult. Concern’s cash transfer project in Korogocho, one of the many Nairobi slums, targets the very poorest and distributes a small cash allowance to them each month. The families benefiting from this scheme purchase food from local markets and can save to start small businesses themselves.

Without support

The MPs were told that without Concern’s support the poorest people leaving in the slums would only eat every other day. Many would have to send their children to scavenge for food or be forced into prostitution to feed their families.

Heidi Alexander MP told us:

As we stood in Korogocho on our first afternoon, we met David, a father of three who had ended up in the slums with his wife and children having been unable to make a living in the countryside. Family breakdown, rural isolation and extreme poverty had forced him to come to the city in search of a better life. It was hard to imagine. But as we learnt more about the challenges of farming in Kenya, as we saw just how tough it can be to scrape together a living from the land, David's story became easier to understand.

Supporting farmers

If families were given more support to remain on their own land and farm, this would lessen the flow of migrants to city slums, going a long way towards ending hunger here.
After leaving Korogocho the MPs saw many projects which showed how, with the right support, smallholder farmers could produce enough to feed their families and more.

MPs involved

The trip was organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on agriculture and food for development, in partnership with Concern and other NGOs. Conservative MPs Chris Kelly and Craig Whittaker, along with Labour MPs Heidi Alexander and Kerry McCarthy, spent a week in Kenya finding out about food security issues and the important role of agriculture.

>>Read Heidi Alexander's account.

>>Watch video about cash transfers in Korogocho slum.