Stephen Okoth is well-
known in Kibera for his
sense of style.
Dennis Andere is the
reigning Mr. Kibera,
a title he received at
the neighborhood’s
annual fashion and
beauty competition.D.C.-based public-policy expert
contends.
Designer David Ochieng is one of
the local designers Rono is referring
to. The twentysomething, known
around Kibera as Lookslike Avido,
started his company with two U.S.
dollars—a typical daily income in
Kenya—given to him by his mother
and a sewing machine gifted to
him by the late Kenneth Okoth, the
area’s former parliamentary mem-
ber. Before working with quality tex-
tiles, Ochieng used bedsheets from
one of the settlement’s secondhand
markets to stitch together looks
for his dance team. “The bedsheets
were like 60 cents each, so that’s
120 cents, and then the other cents
I used for the transport fee to the
market and back,” the grade-school
dropout recalls of the start of his
growing fashion business.While Ochieng has graduated
from used linens to more luxe fab-
rics for his roster of clients, which
now includes Jamaican reggae art-
ist Chronixx and dancehall enter-
tainer Agent Sasco, many of the
trendsetters in Kibera rely heavily
on the pre-owned goods sold at
Gikomba and Toi markets, two of
Nairobi’s shopping plazas. Jabez
Ojiambo, a photographer and film-
maker, credits the vendors with
giving young people who want to
present themselves well but can’t
afford it an opportunity to dress up
and look sharp while being realistic
about their financial limitations.
A perfect example of this trend
is a group of young adults known
around town as Gurafushi. Ojiam-
bo shot the band of friends for a
photo series he called Thrift Kings.
Much like Ochieng and Otieno, theyBR
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