Pope decries powerful who leave poor to suffer during Nairobi slum visit

Pope Francis denounced the conditions slum-dwellers were forced to live in, saying Friday that access to safe water and decent housing was a basic human right. Francis said people should have access to a basic sewage system, garbage collection, electricity as well as schools, hospitals and sport facilities during a visit to the Kangemi slum in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. He also denounced the “injustice of urban exclusion” and the unfair distribution of land. "These are wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run-down peripheries,“ he added.

To deny a family water, under any bureaucratic pretext whatsoever, is a great injustice, especially when one profits from this need

Pope Francis

Francis made his remarks during the visit on the second day of his visit to Africa. Kangemi is one of 11 slums dotting Nairobi, east Africa’s largest city, and has about 50,000 residents living without basic sanitation. In Kangemi, the parish of St Joseph erupted in cheers with the arrival of Francis. The pontiff greeted some people in wheelchairs in the front row before bowing down to receive a blessing and signing a guest book. He told the residents that people forced to live in slums shared values that wealthier neighborhoods could learn from: solidarity and looking out for the poor. But he said it was unjust that entire families are forced to live in unfit housing, often at exorbitant prices.

Some people don’t have toilets in their homes. Those that do, maybe 50 people are using it!

Emily Night, HIV counseling center worker

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