Nairobi — Nairobi has the unenviable reputation of hosting one of the largest slums in the world. Kibera, once a sparsely-populated settlement inhabited by retired Nubian soldiers (who were allocated the land by the British in 1912) is today home to more than one-tenth of the city's population.

Living conditions in Kibera are dire, even by slum standards. A recent survey found that over 80 per cent of residents live in single rooms that measure roughly nine square metres and which are shared by an average of five people.

Sanitation is almost non-existent: each pit latrine in the slum caters for almost 100 people daily; those who can afford it pay to use community toilets, while others resort to "flying toilets" (plastic bags used for defecation that are often thrown on rooftops or on the streets). More than 80 per cent of the residents are tenants, who pay between Sh500 and Sh1,000 for a single room.

Because of its notoriety, Kibera has joined the ranks of a "must-see" tourist site in Kenya, along with the Maasai Mara and Mt Kenya.

One travel agency even offers what is described as a "charity tour" where tourists are offered an opportunity to gawk at urban poverty and to take pictures of slum-dwellers while fulfilling their philanthropic desires by contributing a minimum of $30 to orphanages, schools, HIV patients or individual households of their choice.

But that is all set to change, thanks to a much-awaited slum upgrading programme which is set to benefit some 1,500 slum families in Kibera who will be moved to modern stone apartments in Kibera's Soweto-East area as part of a joint UN-Habitat/government-funded upgrading project.

The first batch of 100 families moved into their new units last week. These families now have the luxury of using a flush toilet and of not living in a home that leaks during the rains. One new owner described the move as "a miracle" that she never thought she would see in her lifetime.

Under the project, the new allottees are encouraged to form savings groups or co-operatives and to let out two out of the three bedrooms in their units to meet their mortgage payments.

Tenants paying roughly Sh1,000 a month will help finance the mortgages of the new owners. Technically, this is a win-win situation for both the new owners and the new tenants.

But like all things in Kenya, the project is not without controversy. Slum landlords, including the Nubian community that is fighting to gain communal rights over land that was bequeathed to them nearly a century ago, feel that the project undermines their ownership of both the land and the structures built on it.

Some of the beneficiaries worry about the higher cost of electricity and water in the new apartments. Others claim that by encouraging residents to rent out the remaining two rooms in their unit, the upgrading project had not solved the problem of overcrowding.

Slum upgrading has never been an easy task in any country, least of all Kenya. In open, democratic societies, slum upgrading tends to be a slow, negotiated process. In Kenya, vested interests and corruption have complicated the issue further.

Home owners in slums are often allocated land through a corrupt system that allows them to build cheap mud and tin shacks that do not even meet the bare minimum durability or sanitation standards. Huge profits are made with very little investment. An investment of just Sh6,000 in one such shack can reap profits within 10 months.

Many have argued that shacks in slums are the only kind of housing that Nairobi's urban poor can afford. Indeed, in a city where low-income housing is either unavailable or inaccessible to the poorest groups, a shack in a slum is an affordable option.

The problem is that condemning large numbers of people to dehumanising living conditions for long periods of time is a recipe for political, economic and social disaster.

Inequality in access to housing, basic services and infrastructure can create political and social fractures that can lead to social unrest and conflict. Slums are also sites of disease, crime and environmental degradation, all of which affect the economy.

The move by the government to upgrade Kibera should therefore be welcomed. Let us hope that unlike other upgrading projects in the past, this one will not end up benefiting the middle classes, who have been known to buy off upgraded units from allottees who can no longer afford to meet the mortgage payments or who need the cash more than they need the housing.

Ms Warah is an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.