have used social media to grow
their following. Rono suggests
that the number of people looking
to these avenues to promote and
create revenue for themselves will
continue to rise. “The population
is growing—or at least the people
who require gainful employment
within the country is growing—
faster than they’re able to gener-
ate jobs,” Rono points out. “So a
lot of these people are opting for
self-employment, and they look for
things that they can easily do with
minimal capital and then see where
it leads them. They start with small
pieces, and maybe a few friends
will buy clothes that they design or
sew. And then from there, depend-
ing on whose eye they catch, the
business grows.”
Enterprise creation within Kibera
is booming. But entrepreneurs with
a heart for its people are also sourc-
ing talent from inside the impover-
ished area to grow culturally relevant
brands outside of the Kenyan mar-
ket. California-based designer Yema
Khalif is a product of the slum settle-
ment. He’s chosen to sow into the
community by tapping local artisans
to create handcrafted footwear for
his yemacalif.com retail store.
Twenty percent of the proceeds
from his online sales goes toward
scholarships for orphaned children
in both Kibera and his wife’s coun-
try of Ethiopia. It is this act of giving
that landed Khalif where he is to-
day. Though the burgeoning busi-
nessman was forced to leave highschool due to financial instability,
a scholarship to attend college in
the United States put him on a path
to greater success. Now the San
Francisco Bay Area resident travels
home regularly to participate in the
fashion scene that he continues to
help advance.
“There is an organization that
I’m involved in that puts on fash-
ion shows in Kibera every year,”
Khalif discloses. “It’s just a reason
for the people of Kibera to laugh
and to appreciate the beauty that
is there. It also allows them to see
that they can become models,
that they can become actors, that
they can become whatever they
want to be.”
In spite of the circumstances
surrounding the people of Nairobi’s
neglected neighborhood, hope,
dressed in broad strokes of color,
provides the innovators, the story-
tellers, the culture shifters, an op-
portunity to see the beauty within
the bustle. It moves Otieno to create
masterpieces amid the mud. It gives
Khalif a reason to fight for the chil-
dren of Kibera’s future. It prompts
Ochieng to get out his sewing ma-
chine and continue designing.
“I’m showing the world that we
do this here,” Ochieng says with
conviction. “Despite not having
the expensive things to wear, we
find a way to do what we can to
express ourselves to the world.
Kibera is a home of talent; it’s a
home of art. And, yeah, it’s a cen-
ter for fashion.” ºSporty styles
fit for royalty
are a specialty
for the Bay
Area–based
brand.Yema shoes are
handcrafted by
artisans in Kibera.Yema Khalif
makes
annual
trips to his
hometown
of Kibera.Yema
draws
inspira-
tion from
Kenyan and
Ethiopian
cultures.Yema Khalif uses his Yema clothing brand as
a means to raise money for the area’s
disadvantaged youth and provide educational
opportunities for orphaned students.Fashion for Good
David Ochieng
designs looks
for a grow-
ing number of
global acts.TO
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ESSENCE.COM I 139 I SEPTEMBER 2019