African Press International (API)

By Harrison Mwirigi Ikunda, API/APN in Nairobi, Kenya.

By 2012 it is estimated that 65% of Kenya’s population will be living in urban areas. This is also in line with global trends where more and more people and actually majority of the world’s population will be living in urban centres in the next 10 or so years.

With the Kenyan economy in the upswing mood the push and pull to urban centres will be greatly enhanced. Additionally the returns from agriculture being relatively lower and harder to come by, plus the difficult albeit also a bit controversial and very problematic land tenure system in Kenya,  a bigger push to urban centres is quite inevitable.

But the Kenyan urban situation as is in most developing countries is also growing into a major calamity and that is to be found in poor planning and the growth of informal settlements otherwise called slums. Kenya is rapidly growing into a slum capital. The biggest slum in Kenya – Kibera- is the largest in Africa. And slum is a growing phenomenon in Kenya. Majority of the population in Kenya’s biggest cities led by Nairobi and Mombasa live in Slums.

Strangely or probably it is to be expected the highest number of
voters in Kenya’s cities like in Nairobi are to be found in slum.
Despite economic ‘boom’ nothing seems to change on the settlements side. More and more people are habiting in squalid areas. Even in not so slum areas and indeed in low cost housing areas like Githurai, Zimmerman, Kawangware, Riruta Satellite, Mathare North, Mlango Kubwa, Eastleigh, Huruma, Dandora and so on have a very thin line in differences to slum areas when it comes to social amenities like schools, health centres, crime rates, sewerage disposals, lighting and so on. Indeed simply stating there is almost nothing like planning in our Kenyan cities and towns. Then you wonder why traffic congestion on the roads not to mention in housing is the order of the day.

Now with all these chaos add the evil phenomenon of aids prevalence, poverty, moral decadence, corruption, negligence and so on. Kenya is growing a generation of children and young people who are simply hopeless. But not everybody has lost hope. A young man called Armstrong O’Brian Ongera, the Executive Director of Capital Youth Caucus Association (CYCA) a partner to ADDHU International (a humanitarian NGO from Portugal) is optimistic that something can be done about it.

Such optimism is rare. And coming from young people like Brian is even rarer. Recently he (Brian) and the president of ADDHU International, Professor Laura Vasconcellos visited the slums in Nairobi and other poverty alleviation centres around the country and got a scare so to say. But they are optimistic something can be done if there is political will and people with means including the corporate sector chips in.

The trip follows another one done by an investigative Journalist from New York (USA) a Mr. Robert Neuwirth who with the CYCA leader (Brian) visited Kibera extensively and other slums and interviewed a good number of people. Another Journalist from Public Radio International/BBC USA a ms Sheri Fink in the company of Brian visited the slums and developed a documentary on slum life. The documentary was named ‘slum life in Kenya’ and was initially aired by the PRI/BBC USA. They also published a book ‘Shadow Cities’. It was published in USA in 2005.

Strangely some foreign media outlets, Tourists, international
organizations seem more worried by the growth of slum life in Kenya than Kenyans themselves. When the current UN Secretary General Ban KI Moon visited Kenya for the first time he made a highly published detour of Kibera slums in Nairobi. Indeed Kenya is increasingly becoming a slum tourist centre. Shame on Kenya!

Something needs to be done and very urgently. Poor urban planning, poverty, congestion, a don’t care attitude, scarcity of water, insecurity, poor infrastructure, lack of very essential social amenities, prostitution (including child) and so on is a hard sticking time bomb!

Published by API/APN africanpress@chello.no