Lucas Barasa
20 April 2007
Nairobi — American presidential aspirant Barrack Obama was there. UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon also visited, as did comedian Chris Rock.
Trips to Kibera have made the slum, which is regarded as the biggest in Africa, well known in the world.
To locals, the slum has been turned into a tourist destination. Nothing much, they say, has been done to uplift their standards of living, despite high-profile visits.
Kibera people live in abject poverty, in tin shacks without toilets, running water and electricity.
"Seen from the air, its corrugated iron sheets twinkle like stars scattered on the ground. Step a little closer, though, and the first thing that will hit you is the stench of human waste," says freelance writer Rasna Warah, who is among the contributors to a book, State of the World 2007: Our urban future.
While addressing Kibera residents, Mr Ki Moon said: "The situation here is very serious. We have to act. The UN is coming. Please be patient and don't lose hope."
The residents carried banners, some of them reading: "Secretary-general, we are hungry. We are sick and dying. We are overcrowded. We want credit for affordable housing."
Rapid and chaotic
But Kibera is just one of more than 200 slums or informal settlements in Nairobi which have mushroomed due to rapid and chaotic urbanisation.
The UN-Habitat says 60 per cent of Nairobi residents stay in slums and squatter settlements. The 60 per cent is crowded onto only five per cent of the land - without adequate shelter, clean water and decent sanitation.
UN-Habitat executive director Anna Tibaijuka says the number of slum dwellers is forecast to reach one billion this year, or 30 per cent of the total urban population.
"Current trends predict the number of slum dwellers will keep rising, reaching 1.4 billion in 2020, and almost five billion by 2030, if no corrective action is taken."
More than 90 per cent of slums are in cities of the developing world. From every 10 new houses that are built, four are slums.
UN-Habitat said that in many developing countries, poverty was severe, pervasive and largely acknowledged.
It is for these reasons many housing ministers, city mayors and other stakeholders have been meeting this week to find ways of ensuring sustainable urbanisation.
And President Kibaki announced a Sh885 billion strategy to eradicate slums in the country in the next 13 years. It envisages improvement of livelihoods of 5.4 million people living and working in slums countrywide.
Saying the Government has been allocating Sh500 million annually towards the strategy, and that the figure will be doubled in the next financial year, the President appealed for support from donors to bridge the deficit.
He said the Kenya Slum Upgrading, Low Cost Housing and Infrastructure Fund would pool resources from the Government and other development partners, the private sector and beneficiary communities.
"Construction of 600 units is well under way at the Kibera decanting site. We are also carrying out water and sanitation interventions in Soweto village, Nairobi, as well as in Mombasa and Kisumu slums. A similar project will be implemented in Mavoko before June, this year."
The President said the Slum Upgrading Strategy would also spell out measures to prevent the development of new slums, "even as we upgrade existing ones."
The measures include strengthening the management of Local Authorities, supplying sufficient quantities of housing for low income households, providing urban housing infrastructure, and improving security of tenure.
The President cited urban planning in squatter settlements, urban re-development initiatives and urban land banking to cater for future development of low-income housing, as other measures to check the spread of slums.
The envisaged measures are outlined in the Draft Sessional Paper on National Land Policy that the Government intends to table during the current session of Parliament.
Inadequate financing and lack of capacity for efficient urban planning were the greatest challenges to effective local action in urban centres, the President said.
Local Authorities have a central role to play in creating the appropriate environment for sustainable urbanisation. The Government is deepening local level planning and financial reforms in the councils, he said.
Amend the Act
For the councils to perform effectively, a Bill has been prepared to amend the Local Government Act to provide for direct election of mayors, deputy mayors and county council chairmen.
Housing minister Soita Shitanda said rapid urbanisation and increased poverty were the greatest challenges to humankind in the new millennium.
He called on UN-Habitat to allocate more resources to provision of infrastructure in Kibera - including access roads, water supply, street lighting, markets, stadia, social halls, micro-enterprise and jua kali sheds.
To reduce the cost of constructing houses, he said, the Government is promoting the use of appropriate materials and technologies. The minister said Appropriate Building Technology Centres will be set up in eight provincial headquarters.
"The Government is also developing one centre in Nairobi that will serve both the nation and the entire East Africa region," the minister announced.
The centres will facilitate improved and affordable housing.
Bahrain Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa was awarded the Special Citation to the Scroll of Honour for his work in improving the conditions of people living and working in abject poverty. The award is the highest that UN-Habitat can give to an individual.
Throughout the 35-years that he has been prime minister, Shaikh Khalifa has helped uplift the living standards of Bahrainis, with a focus on economic development and welfare programmes to eliminate the root cause of poverty.
Japan ambassador to Kenya Satoru Miyamura said urban slums were more serious than ever before. He called for urgent strategic actions for sustainable urbanisation.
African Ministerial Conference chair LN Sisulu said an Africa focused financing mechanism/fund for slum prevention and upgrading that would catalyse increased official development assistance and investment, should be established within UN-Habitat.
Record best practices
"This would provide research into ways to stem the growth of slums and their upgrading. It would also record best practices, establishment of pilot projects and implementation of review and monitoring systems whose development is fairly advanced."
He said Africa might not meet millennium development goals without deliberate attention by UN-Habitat.
Ugandan minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development Michael Kafabusa said his country was looking forward to technical support from UN-Habitat in housing finance for the poor and slum upgrading.
"Kampala is reviewing its structure plan, which expired in 2004. UN-Habitat has already been approached to extend support to this exercise," he said.
He said that in many countries, especially in Africa, there were very few local and international organisations that provided pro-poor financing mechanism.
The 2006/07 plan gave incentives to Kenyans to build and own permanent houses through tax exemption on personal savings in a Home Ownership Saving Plan.
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) said many Kenyans live in informal settlements with poor amenities, hence there is need to prohibit construction of informal settlements to reduce the burden on sewer systems and water.
The organisations said the Government should help communities build their own houses using suitable local material and voluntary labour.
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