They once lived the 'gangster life.' Now they tackle food insecurity in Kenya's slums

Young men who once lived the “gangster life” in Kenya's capital have become farmers with a social mission. Now, they grow food, feed neighbourhood children and run other projects.

Joseph Kariaga and his friends once lived the “gangster life” in Nairobi’s Mathare slum, snatching phones, mugging people and battling police.

But when Kariaga's brother was shot dead by police, the young men took stock."We changed after many died, my friends, so many.

Even my brother," says Kariaga, now 27."We decided to change to be the young ones' ambassadors."

Now, the men are farmers with a social mission.Nearly a dozen of them founded Vision Bearerz in 2017 to steer youth away from crime and address food insecurity in one of Kenya’s poorest communities.

Despite challenges, Vision Bearerz makes a modest but meaningful community impact, including feeding over 150 children at lunches each week.

Some residents praise the group and call the men role models.Amid cuts to foreign funding by the United States and others, experts say local organizations like this may be the future of aid.

Vision Bearerz works on an urban farm tucked away in the muddy streets and corrugated-metal homes that make up Mathare, one of Africa's most populous slums.

Estimates say about a half-million people live in this neighbourhood of less than two square kilometres.

Some two million people, or 60% of Nairobi’s population, live in informal settlements, according to CFK Africa, a non-governmental organization that runs health and poverty reduction programs in such neighbourhoods and is familiar with Vision Bearerz' work.

Lack of infrastructure is a key challenge in these communities, which are growing amid sub-Saharan Africa’s rapid urbanization and booming youth population, says Jeffrey Okoro, the group’s executive director.

Poverty pushes youth into crime, Okoro adds."One of the major challenges affecting young people in slums is gangs and the lure of making it rich or getting a quick buck," he says. "A lot of them end up joining these gangs who then provide an opportunity either for them to become a man, for them to earn a living, and it is so luring."

The farmers of Vision Bearerz know this well.

" We were going through ups and downs like lacking money so we had to get it from wherever we could," says 28-year-old Ben Njoki, whose face tattoos are reminders of a gang-affiliated past.