Mercelyne Nyambala
19 December 2001
Kibera may be one of the six slums in Nairobi whose upgrading commences next year under a Government of Kenya (GK) and Habitat joint project. According to the Minister of Roads and Public Works, Mr William Morogo, if this happens, residents are set to have greater security of tenure. They would also begin to enjoy better infrastructure, social amenities, and other services.
This is based on the premise that informal settlements can no longer be ignored. According to the Department of Housing in the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, the subject is still being discussed, and fine details on the upgrading of the slum are yet to be released.
Kibera currently has 13 villages including Makina, Kisumu Ndogo, Gatwekera, Soweto, Kianda, Lindi, Silanga, Mashimoni, Soweto of Laini Saba, Laini Saba, Kambi Muru, Raila Quarry and Kichinjio where nearly 800,000 people live.
Yet Kibera is just one among nearly 100 major and small slums in Nairobi today. Globally, 100 million people live without shelter at all. Some 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe water, while 2.4 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation.
According to the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, under its policy framework for slum upgrading, slum improvement will feature as part of the Government's policy on urban housing.
In its presentation at the recent Freshwater Conference in Bonn, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WASH) estimated that the people of Kibera pay up to five times for a litre of water than the average American citizen.
One toilet serves about 50-500 people with a large number of people resorting to "flying toilets". Bathrooms are either lacking or poorly constructed. Refuse collection is non-existent, while most roads are classified as earth, temporary or footpaths. There are few telephone booths and health facilities, and only a few houses have electricity.
Despite all this, rent ranges between Sh250 and 3,000. Some people live along the river banks in mud houses. In its launch of the Habitat agenda and security of tenure for the urban population, Habitat said governments and local authorities must be convinced that squatting is not a problem.
Executive Director of Habitat, Ms Anna Tibaijuka, urges governments to broker partnerships with the poor slum dwellers to solve the problem of squatting. "They need secure tenure - the right to housing and the right to land," Tibaijuka says.
She adds that information about the land, its location, ownership and use are vital for easy identification of plots or parcels of land, records of owners and vacant land.
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