Author: Nation Reporter
Date: January 24, 2007
Type of article: News
Source: The Daily Nation - only available online by registration and paid subscription fee

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Chaos broke out at Kasarani as some delegates joined scores of slum dwellers to demand that the waiver of registration fee for the poor.

The protesters pulled down a gate, chanting slogans, demanding that the poor be offered drinking water at no cost.

They forced their way past bewildered security guards into the secretariat offices at the stadium asking the officials to grant free entry.

Marginalised people

Mr Jose Chacon, from El Salvador, was in the office when they arrived, shouting: “This meeting is about the poor and marginalised people of the world.”

As some of them confronted Mr Chacon, others disconnected computer cables and dismantled components.
On Monday, protesters forced the organisers to reduce the registration fees for Kenyans from Sh500 to Sh50.
The organisers have been grappling with meeting a $5 million (about Sh350 million) budget. This is the first time the annual forum is being held in Africa. Previous hosts include Porto Alegro, Brazil, and Mumbai, last year.

Only about 46,000 participants have registered, a far cry from the 150,000 estimate given bye organisers Onyango Oloo, Edward Oyugi and Oduor Ong’wen, ahead of the event.

In the stadium, different groups, pushing for themes as varied as land rights for the poor to lesbian and gay rights, hold events simultaneously, giving the impression of a venue immersed in a riot of sounds and colours.  
Police keep an eye in case of trouble at this meeting of social, civil, religious, sexual and land rights movements.

Barbecued chicken

Food vendors, ranging from those who sell boiled maize to five-star caterers such as Norfolk Hotel, appear indifferent to the goings on in the stadium.

Those selling bottled water did roaring business. 

Food prices ranged from Sh40 for a bun to Sh500 or more for barbecued chicken.

Those who have participated in past meeting say it’s the informality that gives the poor, the minorities and the oppressed a voice to be heard. 

But is anyone listening to the noise, protests, drum beats, singing and speeches coming out of Kasarani?