KARIOBANGI, Kenya—On a rainy afternoon in the Kariobangi slums near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Caroline Achieng’ tries to keep herself warm in her house made of iron sheets.
The 40-year-old mother of six has breast cancer and says that the chemotherapy she is undergoing has made her weak and prone to cold. She used to sell fish in the slums but can’t do it anymore.
Achieng’ says her mother helps support her, but besides that, she has had very little family support since her husband died nine years ago. As she was her late husband’s second wife, her brother-in-law refused to recognize her entitlement to inheritance, and she was thrown out of their rural home in Siaya County.