"The whole country became like here," says one man, of the violence that
engulfed Kenya following the 2007 presidential election. "Like Mathare."
Mathare is one of Nairobi's biggest slums, a place divided between ethnic groups, plagued by alcoholism and unemployment. It's also, writes James Verini in his latest piece for FP, a sort of microcosm of Kenyan politics. Votes are bought; ballot boxes are stuffed; those who seek to do otherwise are beaten or intimidated into silence. Here, photographer Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin captures the scene in the run-up to election day on March 4.
Above, campaign posters plaster tin sheeting that line the walls of shops and homes throughout Mathare.
Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin
