Business Daily (Nairobi)
17 September 2009
editorial
Kenya's latest efforts towards upgrading slums into decent precincts for human occupation started yesterday with the relocation of the first batch of shanty dwellers to newly constructed flats adjacent to the Soweto area in Kibera, arguably Africa's biggest slum.
Despite overcoming the resistance posed by landlords to the move, the relocation represents a relatively easier task. The key challenge lying ahead is to ensure that sites vacated by the tenants do not end up in the hands of self serving interests as has happened in the past.
That means the government has to fence off the vacated areas and start construction work on them. If this is not done, squatters will invade the prime land rendering the relocation effort meaningless.
The other lies in ensuring that harsh realities of life do not force back the relocated into the slums, leaving the houses for occupation by fairly well off residents as has happened with previous efforts in Kariobangi, Mathare 4A, Huruma and Kariobangi.
That means taking social amenities to the relocated areas, preferably through incentives that attract private capital in view of the government's yawning resource gap.
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