* In this book, “Kibera” references the vast slums, not the surrounding lower-middle-class areas such as Olympic, Ayany, Karanja, etc., technically included in the area now designated as the “Kibera constituency.”

† Population estimates of Kibera are highly contested and politicized. They vary widely from 170,070 (2009 Government of Kenya census) up to 1 million (“Kenya: The Unseen Majority: Nairobi’s Two Million Slum-Dwellers,” Amnesty International, 2009).

* Taken from script created in the fall of 2007 by an ensemble of SHOFCO youth.

* A common position in Kenyan households, akin to a housekeeper.

* A. Erulkar and J. K. Matheka, Adolescence in the Kibera Slums of Nairobi, Kenya (New York: Population Council, 2007).