Referring to the demonstrations for free entrance and cheaper food and water this week, Toufik Ben Abdallah said he was very upset with some of the actions of what he called ‘a tiny minority of protesters’.

Ben Abdallah told TerraViva that some of the protesters were "too aggressive; who do they represent? Do they represent the whole city? They sent us three representatives: ‘we are representatives of the social movement’ they said – is it even democratic to say that?

"As organisers you have to respect our sovereignty. We subsidised more than 4,000 people from the slums," Ben Abdallah said.

‘Entrance was free’

He said the organisers had decided on the very first day of the Forum to charge a token 50 shillings as entrance fee, and that after the first day, even this was scrapped and entrance was made free.

"People who are providing water are poor sellers; they cannot afford to give water for free and as organisers we simply cannot afford to provide three bottles of water a day to everybody. The government should have provided water and their (the protestors’) struggle should be against them (the government)."

Ben Abdallah accused some "European actors" of having a hidden agenda and inciting people to protest. He said the issue of the protests would be raised at the international committee.

‘Protests Unfair’ Professor Edward Oyugi of the Social Development Network who also sits on the committee of the WSF said the organisers had tried to get as many poor Kenyans as possible into the WSF and dubbed the protestors’ criticism "unfair."

"Some of the loudest protesters asking for free entry are wearing badges that have been paid for by the organising committee. Many of these people are just using the media to express grievances that have nothing to do with the World Social Forum. It’s political."

Oyugi said the ideal situation would have been to have a special fund to ensure that the poor had access to cheap water and food. However, he argued that water was cheaper at the Moi Stadium than in most places in Nairobi.

Jose Chacon, a member of the organising committee, denied that it was the protestors who had forced him to open the Forum’s gates on Tuesday. "We had already opened it," he said, adding that the protesters numbered no more than 100 and that half of them were from outside the slums.