2007年VOA标准英语-Nairobi Slum Dwellers Suffer After Police Cut E

By Nick Wadhams
Nairobi
20 July 2007

The hundreds of thousands of people who live in one of Africa's largest slums are suffering new hardship after police cut electricity and water as they try to crack down on criminal gangs. As Nick Wadhams reports from our East Africa bureau, the campaign has increased the dangers faced by women and children in the slum.

A police officer chase a man accused of throwing stones at police as officials disconnected illegal electricity connections in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, Kenya, 19 July 2007

Police say a criminal gang called the Mungiki was profiting off illegal water and power connections in Mathare, which is home to about 500,000 people. The move against the gang was part of a wider crackdown in which police have killed dozens of people, destroyed some homes, and arrested hundreds.

Kenyan authorities have drawn¹ accusations² that their campaign is heavy-handed and indiscriminate and that most of the arrested have nothing to do with the Mungiki. Police say the group has killed at least 27 civilians³ and 15 police since April.

After power was cut on Thursday, social workers said the people who would suffer most would be women and children. Agnes Musau is a program officer with the Child Welfare Society, which looks after children in Mathare.

"Most of them are extremely, extremely poor. In fact, what happens, some of them go to learn with the electricity borrowed from others," said Musau. "You know they move to one house where that family can afford electricity, they sit as a group, they are able to read, they are able to do their homework, then they can go back to their houses, that is one person benefiting the others. So to me it has an impact on the child's right to education."

The electricity cutoff came after police clashed with residents in the slum earlier on Thursday. People threw stones at police, who fired into the air. Several residents were arrested.

Musau and others in Mathare believe the police crackdown is politically motivated. Kenya is expected to hold elections later this year, when President Mwai Kibaki will seek a second term. Some members of the Mungiki have reportedly threatened to disrupt the vote.

Musau says the decision to cut electricity to parts of the slum will encourage what she says is a largely hidden threat to children there: sexual abuse.

"In Mathare, I would say it is silent thing, but most of the children especially the bigger ones between 10 and 15 years, if you go through, most of these children have been silently sexually abused," said Musau. "Now if they move from those houses, what protection are they exposed to? What protection?"

An estimated 60 percent of Nairobi's three million people live in slums. Mathare sits just two miles from Nairobi's city center. Hundreds of people fled the slum late last year during clashes between the Mungiki and a rival gang, known as the Taliban, which is not related to the militant⁴ group in Afghanistan. Several people were reported killed.

1 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

2 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。