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The man you\'re about to see first,
Maishe is his name...

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is somewhat of a celebrity.

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The story is about depressed rainfall
in most parts of the country.

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A local celebrity, that is,
not in all of Nairobi.

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Why are you crying?

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But to us, he\'s very important.
And not because we love him so much.

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Look.
-Tell him to get a pipe.

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We have to know the price.

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He will take a look.

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...will result in low yields for farmers.

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Hello.
I will send someone over with the pipe.

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Maishe certainly is a loving father.
-Make sure he finds the water connection.

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But whenever I see him around,
I try to avoid contact.

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He\'s a so-called water criminal.

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I understand the north
is unfamiliar with the term.

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Water criminals are rampant here
and they have no shame.

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They don\'t even mind being
captured on film.

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episode 4
stolen water

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To understand water crime,
you should learn about the area first.

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And any questions about the area
should be addressed to me.

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My name is Clarice,
I\'m a community leader.

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I keep a close eye on everything
that goes on around here.

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Our neighbourhood is very boisterous.
The noise never seems to stop.

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Day in and day out,
year after year.

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My house isn\'t on the map,
nor is any other, for that matter.

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We live in a slum.

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Which is why our government won\'t install
an electricity grid or water mains.

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They\'re worried the slums will attract
even more people...

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wanting to use our scarce water resources.

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You could say
this is where the story begins...

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but I would rather start
in my hometown of Ugisha.

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The drought has caused a lot of damage.
I used to have a herd of 112 cows.

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But now I only have seven left.

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A lot of families left the countryside
and moved to the city.

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Either to end up begging for food
or to look for a job...

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as a security guard in Nairobi.

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We rely too much on our cattle.
If they were to die, I would be lost.

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I can already hear you think:
we know about the African drought.

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But I can see refugees flooding the city
of Nairobi just to escape desiccation.

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This is a vibrant
and self-reliant community.

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There\'s the butcher.

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The greengrocer.

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And the hairdresser
who can braid your hair.

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We also have wonderful tea,
but no one has a water tap in the house.

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I\'ll try to explain the effects by telling
the story of a woman named Quinter.

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She\'s an essential part of the story.
-Here I am, doctor.

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I\'m here to see you.
-Are you now? Okay. Come in.

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I find myself lying awake at night,
thinking about what happened to me.

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I just wake up with a start.

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I take a large glass of water
and go back to bed.

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You have to forgive yourself.
Because it was not your mistake.

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Every time I go by the tapping point...

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and see men around,
I have moments...

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when I\'m reminded of what happened.
It continues to haunt me.

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What happened to this woman has to do
with the water criminal we saw earlier.

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Allow me to properly introduce her.
The woman at the GP earlier is Quinter.

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She has a three-year-old daughter.
But this isn\'t her.

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This is the child of a patron.

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By the way,
this place serves the best Mandazi.

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It\'s already March.
The wet season usually starts in February.

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The season is almost coming to an end
and we\'re still waiting for rain.

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The drought is announced everywhere.
People should take precautions.

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I wonder what that\'s going to look like.
Water is everything around here.

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You have to use your earnings
to stock up on water.

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Water is very expensive, you can\'t just
ask your neighbours for some.

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Sometimes the tap is completely drained.

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I keep a close eye on Quinter,
especially outside of work.

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She experienced a horrific trauma.

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Despite having a job and income,
she struggles financially.

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And it\'s best not to have debt in Mathare.
Least of all with the water cartel.

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This is Barros.

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Barros does as he pleases.
He names the price of his water himself.

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Water he stole from the government.

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Barros is a crook,
charging usurious prices for his water.

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Sometimes up to five times
the usual price.

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Sure, I\'m part of the water cartel.
That\'s 100% true.

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Because my water isn\'t regulated
by the government.

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I steal water from government pipelines...

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and resell it.

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So I can\'t really say
I\'m on good terms with the government.

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You may wonder:
how does anyone steal water?

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Quinter is at the mercy
of the free market.

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And when I say free, I mean free.
Without any government intervention.

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Of course we have honest entrepreneurs.

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But we also have criminals
simply posing as entrepreneurs:

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The water cartel.

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I can spot the cartel a mile away.
Those men with their pipes...

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hoses and tools.
They\'re richer than everyone else...

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since it takes money
to set up a new water network.

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And they\'re rich enough to bribe
both the police and the water company.

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That\'s how the man in blue stays
in charge of the water.

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This is the main pipe
we use for tapping water.

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So I had to dig very deep.
I had to dig as deep as this.

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It takes a lot of money
to set up these illegal networks.

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This is where my pipe runs.

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Over here. A lot of people urinate
in there, so I won\'t touch it.

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Two elbows.

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If we don\'t have any,
I will have to run out and get them.

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It seems there\'s no water.
There\'s no water on Mondays.

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Are you with the cartel or not?
-Me?

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I am.
I don\'t pay for the water at all.

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I was in crime before I started this job.

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I wouldn\'t be here without this job.
I would have been dead by now.

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Many of my friends are dead.

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But ever since I got into
this line of work...

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my days of starvation are finally over.

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I love water trade.
It helps people.

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So basically I\'m helping people.

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And, in turn, they help me.
If people show up here...

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without any money to pay me,
I\'m still willing to help.

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Of late, a new police unit is
patrolling the streets.

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The water police.

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This is an illegal pipeline.
We have to remove it.

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They\'re using three separate pipes
to tap the main pipe.

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We are aware. That\'s where the water
for this neighbourhood was from.

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Because... We are aware
of the fact that there are cartels.

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And they are really strong.

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They are ruthless.
They\'re ready to do anything...

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to achieve what they want
without paying a dime.

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That is the work of the cartels.

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They leave us with mixed feelings.

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None of the residents wants to give
an arm and a leg for illegal water.

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But this government isn\'t battling
injustice here. If it was...

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they would have set up
an official water system first...

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before shutting down the illegal ones.
Now they\'re merely doing the latter.

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We have agreed, enough is enough.

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If someone decides
to connect to the water main...

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and the water police knows who it is...

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we will arrest them
and throw them in prison.

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We are sparing nobody.

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They can try and bribe us,
but they will not be successful.

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If you\'re tapping water illegally,
we are coming for you.

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Wherever you are,
we are coming for you.

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Regardless of your status,
we are coming for you.

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But this is only to let the cartel know
they have yet to receive their kickbacks.

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Back to Quinter\'s story.
The woman we met at the doctor\'s.

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What happened to her,
is telling of the area\'s water scarcity.

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And the perpetrator is still out there.
But I\'ll get back to this later.

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Shutting down illegal pipelines
endangers the entire community.

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Truth be told,
it doesn\'t really surprise us...

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that fires break out every so often.

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Trust me. A few days from now,
a new family will have moved in already.

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Fortunately, everyone survived this time.
But they\'ll have to look for a new place.

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After the party, I heard people
yelling out: \'There\'s a fire.\'

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I heard a child\'s voice.
So I ran outside.

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I shouted:
Wake up, there\'s a fire.

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Then I went in again.

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I tried to save
whatever I could get my hands on.

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If we had enough water,
we could have saved most things.

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But there wasn\'t enough water,
and the fire brigade turned up too late.

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That\'s why most things
were lost in the fire.

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If you have enough money,
you will also have enough water.

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For several years now,
the water cartel is facing a new rival.

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So you\'re going to buy pipes...

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for the rooftop tank, or what?

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Okay. Okay, thanks for the call.
See you in the afternoon. Okay, bye bye.

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This foreigner has taken it upon himself
to stand up to the water cartel.

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He\'s very proud of the machine
he developed.

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He gave it a catchy name:
the prepaid water ATM.

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We gave birth to the so-called
prepaid water ATMs.

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With these water dispensers
Marcel is hoping to solve our problems.

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I had a wife and two children
in the Netherlands.

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I never intended for such a long stay.
It was supposed to be a year at most.

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But things turned out differently.
And...

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The prepaid water ATMs
have proven to be a huge success.

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Users are no longer dependent on
the few people in charge of water supply.

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The Nairobi water cartels, for example,
or anyone else in a position of power.

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Of course there\'s always the risk
of some form of exploitation.

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Would you say
you\'re rivalling the water cartel?

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You could say that.

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I\'m sure they\'re unhappy with
our water dispensers...

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that allow people to buy water
whenever they want.

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The cartels obviously want to remain
the only water suppliers...

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and sell it for exorbitant prices.

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I\'ve been able to find a house.

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Over there.

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It\'s okay.
I\'ll stay here for now.

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There\'s a sewer down there,
but they have built a brick wall.

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I don\'t have any strength left.
I\'ve lost all my strength in the fire.

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Do it for your little girl.
Don\'t say you\'ve given up hope.

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Kayla needs you.

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You shouldn\'t say you\'ve given up hope.

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Quinter isn\'t just sad
because of the fire.

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She\'s in trouble with the water cartel...

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and all of her friends know.

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That\'s a big one.

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Use the bag to cover this area.

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Here\'s the mattress.
This is where you\'ll sleep.

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Be careful.

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I never expected
our saviour to look like that.

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But I\'m giving him
the benefit of the doubt.

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By now he has already sold
over 200 water dispensers in our district.

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But has our situation improved?
I don\'t know.

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I\'ve decided to tell him the truth
about his water tanks.

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So we call these people cartels.
-Yes.

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They\'re dominating the area.

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They own the area
when it comes to the issuing of water.

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Most of them don\'t work.

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Out of 17,
only 2 are in operation.

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The cartels are fighting back
to protect their interests...

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and are making sure that whatever is
helping the community should not operate.

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There\'s a number of them
that have been totally demolished.

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They just come with a big hammer
and smash it.

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They take away the stones
and take the tanks.

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And everything... You just find...
It is flat. Nothing.

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What happened to this machine?

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This one always has a mechanical problem.
It\'s now almost three years.

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Almost three years of not working.

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Installed five years ago,
and now three years already not working.

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I\'ll definitely follow up with
the big boss of the informal settlements.

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He\'s called Kagiri.

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Yes. Hello, Kagiri.
How are you?

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I\'m good, thank you.
-That\'s okay.

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I\'m in Mathare. I was checking
on a few of the ATMs...

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with one of the community leaders here.
What is the reason that repairs...

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are not being done?

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Marcel thinks he can get us water
just by making a phone call.

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But the government doesn\'t care
whether or not we have water.

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Sorry, all of a sudden you got lost.

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The contract had to adapt.

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Because after the warranty ended,
we were getting replacement parts issues.

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I can also maybe share your number.
I can\'t promise anything. I can\'t.

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After a sale, customers are free
to do as they please.

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At the same time,
it\'s a shame.

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Because the dream we had six years ago...

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of installing 2,500 dispensers to provide
the slums with water at a low price...

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hasn\'t come true.

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I\'m not cynical about Marcel.
At least he\'s trying...

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I\'m not giving up yet.
-...to help those without water.

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All the same, the cartel is still
the sole supplier of water in the area.

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Most of my customers are female,
as they use the most water.

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If a customer is unable to pay,
and she\'s pretty...

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I\'m not always able to contain myself.

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If no one else is around,
I fondle them and sleep with them.

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Are you aware that sleeping with them
is considered rape?

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I know it\'s wrong,
but it\'s the only way to help them.

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I did it to eight or ten women.
But I didn\'t really want to.

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Have you ever been investigated
by the police?

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No. I tell these women:
If you tell the police, I will kill you.

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So they\'re too afraid to say anything.

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So you raped Quinter?

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That\'s right. I raped Quinter.
She never told anyone.

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Neither of us wanted to, but it was
the only way to help each other.

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Why did you agree to this interview?

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I agreed to this interview
because I want to provide for my family...

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and turn my life around.
I would like to be a better man.

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Do you want to take a nap?

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Why don\'t you lie down for a bit.
You can sleep here.

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When I got off work it was already late...

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and I didn\'t have a drop of water
in the house.

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So despite the late hour,
I decided to get some water.

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I saw a man who always
put my water purchases on the slate.

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He said:
\'Do you need water at this hour?

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I hope you brought the money
you owe me from last time as well.\'

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But I didn\'t have any money with me.

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He pushed me to the ground...

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and tied me up.

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And then he forced me
to have sex with him.

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But we didn\'t use any protection.

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Afterwards he told me
my water debt had been paid.

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As long as the cartels stay in power,
the government turns a blind eye...

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and continues to take bribes,
foreign water projects are demolished...

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and the drought gets worse...

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there\'s only one person you can turn to.

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I want to bring this to your attention.

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That fire is a kind of calamity.

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Water is also a kind of calamity.

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We\'re crying because we don\'t have rain.

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Rain shall surely be a blessing to us.

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To bring a blessing,
so that we can have enough food.