Kibera, Nairobi

In September I attended a Young Planning Professionals (YPP) workshop organised by ISOCARP in Nairobi, Kenya. This workshop preceded the ISOCARP Annual Congress, on the theme of Sustainable City, Developing World.

The workshop was hard work but very interesting. Our project area was Kibera, specifically Soweto East village, the site of the first stage of the implementation of the Kenya Slum Upgrading Program (Kensup) being implemented by the Kenyan government. So far, the first phase has involved moving a number of families into a "decanting site" in another area of Kibera. This decanting site consists of a few apartment buildings with flats for rent. The idea is that families will be here temporarily while their former houses are upgraded into flats. The problem is that as most of the structures in Kibera are rented out to tenants, and not lived in by their owners, the "structure owners" as the landlords are called (since they do not own the land, which belongs to the state, only the buildings) do not see it as being in their interest to redevelop Kibera. They have therefore caused a delay in the implementation of Kensup by taking the government to court. Who knows when the issue will be resolved, when the new flats will be built, and when the families currently in the decanting site will be able to move to their new homes.

While many families have been moved to the decanting site, many still run small businesses in Soweto East village, and therefore have to travel from the decanting site to their former location daily. We had the chance to talk to a few of the residents of Soweto East, and they seem keen to move into the new apartments once they are built. Certainly, though, conditions in the decanting site are pretty good, and each flat comes with three rooms, with the option of one room being rented out for extra income. Meanwhile, those still in their shacks in Soweto East face exorbitant rents - we visited one lady's room, with walls made of tarp, dirt floor, low ceiling, and she was paying 2000 shillings monthly (20 euros).

A couple of observations struck me. Firstly, that the Kensup project was reverting to building apartments, which have largely been discredited as a solution to slums. When I brought this up, the explanation was lack of space. However, I still think that building apartments is short-sighted, and as part of our YPP projects the group dealing with shelter came up with an innovative solution of 3x3m houses in a grid layout which demonstrated that it is possible to upgrade horizontally too. It requires a bit more thought, and less space given to large roads, but given the terrible traffic in Nairobi one wonders whether the through-road currently under construction will be the best addition to the area. The YPP group dealing with infrastructure suggested an emphasis on making Kibera bike-friendly, as well as the route between Kibera and the industrial area where many of Kibera's residents work, and currently spend one hour walking to, and an hour walking back, per day. An interesting fact is that in Nairobi's CBD, bicylces are banned, because they cause chaos! One couldn't get a much more anti-poor, and short-sighted, policy.

The other thing which struck me was that Kibera residents did not seem much involved in the Kensup project. While there was a degree of community organisation, in the form of a representative committee representing 14 (if I remember correctly) groups (faith-based, youth, etc) given the thousands living in Soweto East village, a dozen or so representatives sitting on a committee would not be truly representative. The ideal solution (for me) would be for households to be organised in a sub-group system, similar to the Thai case in savings groups. For example, 10-20 households would form one subgroup, and 10 subgroups would form one group with one representative and so on. From what I understood, the current system only represents those that are part of a youth group or faith-based group etc, rather than a household or location-based system.

Finally, the residents seemed to have faith in the Kensup project, despite the fact that it has been indefinitely delayed by the structure owners' court case. At this rate, I don't know when those currently living in the decantment site will be moved back to their original area, let alone when the next phase of upgrading will occur... It is this faith that things will improve that really struck me, especially as none of the residents seemed to be actively doing anything to improve their housing. Clearly the situation in Kibera is still lagging behind that in Asian low-income communities, where residents are much more organised and empowered to take charge of improving their living conditions. As I have previously exposed only to these organised communities with strong leaders, it provided a strong reality check to me, that there is still much to be done in terms of community organisation.