The brutal reality of life on Nairobi’s streets

While much of Kenya is enjoying the benefits of its increasing wealth, life in the slums is a depressing daily grind.

'I have lost a lot of people I knew to crime,' says George Kiru, nursing a drink at 2 in the morning in a bar on the edge of Nairobi's Korogocho slum.

Music blares as he lists childhood friends who joined gangs, many of them now dead or in jail.

'Personally I always said no to crime,' says Kiru, who buys and sells second-hand goods and picks up occasional work as a minibus driver to feed his two daughters and send them to school. 'It never ends well if you choose to become a criminal. Eventually, you will get killed.'

Around two million people have made their homes in the shantytowns packed in around Kenya's capital - Korogocho, its bigger, equally infamous near neighbours Mathare, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Kibera and others.

The neighbourhoods are bustling and bursting with energy. Churches are packed, young men hang out at neighbourhood gyms and friends gather at roadside stalls serving chicken. But crime and unemployment are high. Basic services and sanitation are scarce.

People in ramshackle dwellings of wood and corrugated iron describe a daily struggle to eke out a living. Some turn to prostitution and other crimes.

(dailymail.co.uk)