Nairobi — The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) has stressed the need for slum upgrading programs and improved living conditions in urban centers following the upsurge in rural-urban migration in the country.

According to the NCPD State of Kenya Population Report 2023, the poor living conditions in urban centers, particularly in the slums, have subjected internal immigrants to lacking privacy and basic amenities such as toilets and poor waste disposal.

According to NCPD, the country has in the past few decades experienced a sharp increase in rural urban migration.

This increase has been attributed to the rapid development and increased opportunities in the urban centers.

Despite urbanization offering these opportunities for economic and social development, NCPD has stressed that solid measures have to be laid to address housing sanitation and unemployment, which remain a challenge to internal immigrants.

Due to these challenges, the rapid rural-urban migration has led to an increase in homeless people and a high crime rate, mushrooming of informal settlements, overcrowding, child malnutrition, and other social ills in urban areas.

"Anxiety among the rural-urban migrants is caused by low monthly incomes in urban areas that tend to limit their access to necessities such as housing, food, and medical care," it stated.

According to statistics, 56 percent of urban dwellers in Kenya live in slum areas in abject poverty where they do not have access to basic social services and lack stable livelihoods majority of whom are youths.

"Kenya is urbanizing very rapidly with an annual urban growth rate of 4.3% in 2014, and although only 26% lived in urban areas in 2015, the urban population is projected to increase to 44% by 2050," it stated.

Furthermore, NCPD has urged the government to execute appropriate interventions that will help migrants cope with family separation and also promote the integration of migrants into host communities/countries and their social ties.

"Migration, regardless of whether it is recent or lifetime in-migration and recent or lifetime out-migration and settlement, is a stressful process because it involves the loss of social support from the community and family members," it stated.