James Ratemo
12 November 2007
Nairobi — Slum residents constitute more than 60 per cent of Nairobi's total population and a majority of the voters but remain the most marginalised in terms of resources and decision-making.
As the General Election campaigns reach fever pitch, they are now demanding maximum representation and participation in the national, social and economic agenda.
Politicians have become notorious for drafting gorgeous development plans for people they intend to lead but with no intention of fulfilling them.
Now, three major groups - Nairobi's People's settlement Network, Muungano wa Wanavijiji and the Miss Koch (Korogocho) - have come up with a paper dubbed, the People's Manifesto, in which they table what they call the wishes of the slum people to political aspirants.
"The people have woken up and the journey to genuine and effective participation has begun. The manifesto has prioritised the areas that the people demand from the new government. We intend to vigorously follow up all those issues using all the power and resources at our disposal," reads the manifesto in part.
In an interview with The Standard, some of the slum residents said some Nairobi politicians use public land to woo voters' support and to maintain their dominance in the slums.
They dish out pieces of land to people in return of political support. Some politicians even go as far as bringing their supporters from the countryside or other constituencies to own land and structures in the sprawling slums, they say.
Moreover, chiefs in most slum areas are still extorting money from poor residents right under the nose of their seniors in the provincial administration.
In cahoots with village elders, the chiefs have formed a strong cartel and make quick money through irregular allocation of land and illegal collection of money for construction or repairs.
According to Ms Beatrice Ajwang, a representative of Muungano wa Wanavijiji, the chiefs usually appoint his village elders who monitor the ground for any vacant land which they sell at a small fee to willing residents
"If you own a house in the slum, you have no authority to repair it unless you get the consent of the chief, and at a fee. Depending on your bargaining power and location of your house the fee charged can amount to anything between Sh500 to Sh3000 per house," said Ajwang.
They treat any repair as a new construction and they charge a fee which they purport is a way to control haphazard erection of structures. No receipt though is given whenever the payments are made, says Mr Humphrey Otieno, chairman of Nairobi's People's Settlements Network.
"It is a shrewd way the village elders commonly known as 'wazee wa vijiji' use to earn quick income they also collude with local police to protect illicit brew makers at a fee," he says.
Mr Julius Shiyonzo, a free land beneficiary in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, says he got the land and built a house after joining a cartel that is supporting one of the powerful MPs in Nairobi.
"Wazee wa vijiji are not paid by the Government. They get money through allocating vacant land and taxing illicit brew makers," says Shiyonzo.
With this haphazard allocation of land, it becomes hectic when the Government wants to develop the land. More often it ends up to forceful eviction or bloodshed," says Otieno.
It then becomes tricky to offer compensation or alternative settlement since the land was irregularly allocated.
"According to Government records, the land we live in is vacant we are not mapped anywhere hence when we are evicted we can't have a legal basis to support our case," says Shiyonzo.
"We are now fighting to have the land officially allocated to us. We are tired of verbal promises and verbal allocation of land. We need title deeds," he says.
In their new manifesto, the proponents now want clear eviction or relocation guidelines to be instituted to avoid unnecessary suffering of the poor.
They are demanding that no eviction should lead to homelessness and unnecessary suffering and that alternative shelter should be discussed and agreed upon between the evictor (mostly the Government) and the evictees.
The also want adequate compensation instituted whenever there is an eviction to enable the residents start off comfortably in new residences.
A UN-Habitat publication dubbed Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 pinpoints rapid and chaotic urbanisation as one of the causes of reduced urban safety and security worldwide.
The report launched recently reveals that more than 3 million Africans have been forcibly evicted from their homes since 2000. In Nairobi alone, at least 20,000 people have been forcibly evicted from the city's neighborhood since 2000.
On the ongoing Kenya slum upgrading (Kensup) project in Kibera, the government in conjunction with UN habitat is planning to relocate some residents from Soweto East Village to a decanting site in Langata to give room for the upgrading.
It is expected that the very people relocated will benefit from the upgraded low cost houses to be built through the Kensup project.
However many residents targeted to benefit are crying foul and are fearing that they would be short changed. Already, the process is taking longer than anticipated with the current rising political temperatures being blamed for the delay.
Currently, most Soweto residents pay between Sh500 and Sh1000 as rent and may not be willing to pay more in their new homes.
During the UN-Habitat 21st Governing Council held in Nairobi recently, executive director of UN-Habitat, Dr Anna Tibaijuka, said 40,000 eligible households had been identified and documented to avoid benefiting the wrong people like in the past where the rich ended up owning houses meant for the poor.
She said the beneficiaries would be allowed to sub-let their rooms as an economic empowerment mission since most would not be able to pay the rent to be proposed by stakeholders.
"The cohabitation would ensure the slum dwellers finally own homes and earn money to boost their living standards we picked the 40,000 households to act as a model," Tibaijuka said.
The Langata project entails construction of 17 blocks to cater for at least 600 households.
In Mavoko, Athi River, Tibaijuka said, 250 acres have been earmarked for the relocation of the other residents.
Some earmarked residents are, however, reluctant to move to Athi River since most have established their livelihood in the city.
The Kensup project was formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the UN-Habitat on January 2003.
The programme targets construction of about 45,000 units annually nationwide at an approximate cost of Sh35billion.
The estimated current urban housing needs in Kenya are 150,000 units per year. It is estimated that the current production of new housing in urban areas is about 20,000-30,000 units annually, giving a shortfall of over 120,000.
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