A group of graduate students from the University of California, Berkeley, last month visited UN-HABITAT for presentations and discussions relating to their field work “studio” on slum upgrading in Mathare, a slum in Nairobi.

The studio primarily involves drafting upgrade plans/improvement strategies for infrastructure, public health and livelihoods in the entire Mathare Valley. The Berkeley group came to Nairobi for field work, presentations and to work collaboratively with their partners at the University of Nairobi and Muungano Support Trust. After their visit, the group returns to Berkeley to complete their project by end of August.

The visit to UN-HABITAT included presentations on urban energy, approaches to slum upgrading and community safety and a critical review of slum upgrading in Nairobi. The Japanese Center of Conflict Prevention introduced their work in Mathare and representatives from True Heroes Under Grime, a group utilizing art as a tool, talked about community involvement.

The discussions involved safety and security aspects, traditional and alternative infrastructure, such as decentralized urban energy centers and thinking of art as a form of infrastructure, as well as considering and learning from previous experiences when working with slum upgrading.

PHOTO/PAUL WAWERU Mukuru kwa Njenga slum dwellers protest against the demolition of their houses outside the Milimani Law Courts on Monday. They petitioned the court to take action against the private developer, who carried out the evictions in total disregard of a court order. 

By PAUL OGEMBA pogemba@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, February 13  2012 at  22:30

Residents of a Nairobi slum have protested against the demolition of their houses by a private developer.

The developer had encroached on their homes and started evictions in total disregard of a court order, the Mukuru kwa Njenga slum dwellers claimed.

They petitioned the court to take action against Embakasi Developers Limited for forcibly and violently removing them from their houses in disregard of the order issued by Lady Justice Pauline Nyamweya on February 1.

Trampled to death

“The company is using an eviction order against the late councilor Simon Mwotolo Muteti and four others to institute a demolition against over 12,720 families and a population of over 63,600 despite the existence of a court injunction,” they said on Monday outside the Milimani Law Courts.

Violence erupted in the slums last week leaving three people dead and several others injured when the private developer sought to evict occupants of the disputed 15-acre piece of land.

The dead included two women and a child. One of the women was shot, the other electrocuted by a high voltage power cable that fell in the ensuing chaos, while the seven-year-old child was trampled to death as demonstrators fled from police officers.

Two policemen were seriously injured during the fracas. They had cuts on their faces inflicted by objects thrown at them.

Judge Nyamweya had issued temporary orders restraining Embakasi Developers Limited from demolishing houses occupied by the slum dwellers or interfering with their peaceful occupation of the land until the case they have filed was heard and determined.

The residents claimed that the eviction order used by the company was outdated since it was issued in 2009, and that it was issued in the name of another party.

As a result of the evictions, they submitted that they have been internally displaced, many of them injured and are still nursing injuries and their children cannot go to school because they have no place to stay.

They argued that forced evictions contravened the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and that the Constitution provides for the right to protection against arbitrary interference to a person’s privacy, family and home.

“Forced evictions also contravene the African Charter on Human Rights to which Kenya is a party to,” they submitted.

Spark catastrophe

They claimed that if the illegal evictions continue to be effected, the rights of over 63,000 people would be trampled upon, a situation they claimed would spark a massive socio-economic catastrophe.

They want the court to order the Commissioner of Police to refrain from aiding and abetting the abuse of law and court orders by slumlord cartels and private developers who they claimed are determined to ruin the lives of poor people.

Arif Hasan, a renowned Pakistani Architect, Planner, Activist was on a visit to Nairobi, Kenya on the request of The Slum/Shack Dwellers International to join African cities affiliated to SDI to discuss ways of seizing opportunities by analyzing trends in Governance, economic and social systems to foster development projects in their respective cities, to start with informal settlements.

Arif  Hasan(Left) compares notes with Rudith King(Left) of Ghana’s Kwame Nkuruhma University at the conference

The Urban poor, residing in cities in Africa face major challenge in accessing water, toilets, electricity, and security of tenure has remained a pipe dream to millions of people living in informal settlements across cities. In most cities the development of urban policies has been left to politicians to define cutting of the poor from the equation.

The Need for Change

Delegates attending the Conference from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa

The conference brought together government officials from different African countries, utility companies, slum dwellers federations from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania and Ghana. The deliberation at the meeting was to empower the African urban poor to seize the moment and take up their space of bringing about change and install a new governing order. According to Benson Osumba, Chairperson Muungano wa Wanavijiji, termed the conference as,” a forum meant to identify emerging trends in urban cities in Africa, by bringing about policy formulation that caters for the urban poor.”

Partnership Formation and Collaborations

It is indeed beyond human notion that for a success shift to occur , team play is essential to the realization of the objectives set. This was demonstrated by the working relationship between Muungano wa Wanavijiji and the Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company. Abdillahi Chebii, a federation member from Kisumu, Kenya, amused the delegates, at one instance; the Community dug trenches for laying of water pipes without the approval from KIWASCO, so as to speed up the process.

The community and the utility company then agreed on a model known as the Delegated Management Model (DMM). Milly Otom, an official from the Kisumu based utility company explains, this as “a bulk infrastructure where by the company supplies water to community through master operators who then delegate the water service to the communities through individual/communal connections.

Then the roles of the master operators who are part of the community ensure payments of the water bills to the company are done promptly.”This type of a model has never stood the test of time in the history of the utility company. Muungao wa Wanavijiji is in the verge of replicating this model in other towns.

Interfacing and Strategy Formulation

Interactions between the urban poor, planners/professionals and the politicians/government officials are beginning to register success stories that materialized through negotiations. This is because stakeholders have chosen to go beyond set standards and regulations.

Ben Bradlow, a member of the SDI secretariat expresses that, “One strategy popular among SDI federations is the need to build relationships that break down walls in communities. One of the strategies is the community- led information collection, sometimes known as “enumeration.” In Stellenbosch, a small municipality in the outskirts of Capetown, South Africa, an informal community called Lanrug is home to approximately 1, 800 households. After residents conducted their own enumeration, both the municipality and the community found space to engage whereas the previously the relationship had been full of protest, unmet expectations and little change on the ground.”

Left:A water Project between Nairobi Water Companyand the Mathare, Kosovo Community

A times achieving this kind of change, which is often small at first, means creating “a spirit of trust among all actors in this drama,” Hasan argues.” Trust will lead to better laws, less laws and less bureaucracy.”

Communities and professionals should therefore gear towards acting in new ways and letting be the relationships of exclusion and conflicts and characterize urbanization of poverty in our cities. Tools for community organization such as daily savings and enumeration, are working perfectly for Muungano wa Wanavijiji.

At the closure of the conference, Arif Hasan proposed a set of ethics that are useful for all actors regardless of their status;

• Development should cater for the needs of the majority population, which is usually low and lower-middle income.

• Planning should respect and promote the tangible and intangible heritage of the communities that live in urban settlements.

• Planning should respect the ecology of the region in which the city is located.

• Land use should be determined on the basis of social and environmental considerations and not on the basis of land value alone.

Three people have been reported dead while two others sustained serious injuries following an execution of a forced eviction plan. The Mukuru Kwa Njenga residents were sought to be evicted by a private developer on whose 15 acre parcel of land the people were living in.

The dead included a woman who was shot dead, while another was electrocuted while on the run to save her belongings from the bulldozers and a seven year old soul was lost in the melee after a stampede ensued when law enforcers started to fire at the charging crowd, who only wanted to save their belongings from the earthmovers.

This begs the question,” Did did the administration police have to use lethal force to the extent of shooting dead an innocent woman?”

It is absurd that the only assurance that the police are investigating the matter and would soon find out where the bullet came from. “We are investigating the matter. We want top know where the bullet came from,” said Nairobi Police boss Moses Ombati.

The affected residents were caught unawares because at the time of the evictions most of them had reported to work. The Mukuru Kwa Njenga residents had not been issued by an eviction notice by the said private developer either through leaflets or through the media. The residents have so far demanded an end to the evictions.

Embakasi Mp Ferdinand Waititu is raffled up by the police when he tried to stop the eviction

Mukuru residents speak to the Media on their predicament

 Also affected by the evictions were former residents of Kiang’ombe slums who until last year had faced the same fate. When will the government realize that forced evictions are not permanent solution to slum control?

Jane Weru, the Executive Director who spoke at the scene of the demolitions termed the incident as unfortunate and a deliberate disregard of the law. Mean while Prime Minister, Raila Odinga has issued a statement calling to an end to planned evictions country wide.

Photos by Nyasani Mbaka

Background

Kiandutu Informal settlement is among the largest informal settlements in Kenya and arguably the largest informal settlement located outside Nairobi City. It lies within Thika municipal and to a regional context within the Nairobi metro region. The settlement is expansive, occupying an estimated 100 acres of land and with a population of about 13, 00 people and 5, 000 households (2009, Kenya Census). This is one of the targets informal settlements in Kenya’s major towns that MuST is prioritizing for upgrading through infrastructure, security of land tenure and housing.  This settlement is further clustered into 10 No. clusters (Mtatu 1 & 2, Mukinduri, Biashara, Stage Wariah, Kianjau, Molo, Mosque, Centre Base A & B). These clusters display a unique socio-economic and spatial dynamics but generally there is a high level of heterogeneity throughout the entire settlement. These clusters have emerged gradually through the organic growth of the settlement over time.

                                                                                                     In the heart of Kiandutu

Federation Building and Partnerships

To strategically drive the settlement towards upgrading, MuST innovative community skills organization came into play and with the aid experienced Muungano members (Federation), they embarked on mobilizing the community on organized daily savings. It’s currently estimated that the federation network in this settlement has close to 700 members and with enumerations and mapping having taken place; this figure is projected to have multiplied considerably. With the formation of the federation, the engagement with Thika Municipal council begun with a focus on working jointly to profile the settlement, as well developing mutual partnership between the community and the authority. Another strategic partner in these engagements is the University of Nairobi, Urban Planning School-Department of Urban and Regional Planning of which MuST partners with in aiding the federation develop their own solutions to their urban challenges.

Need For Profiling the Settlement

Kiandutu is a settlement lying on Thika Municipal Council land. The municipal is currently developing strategies for regularizing and formalizing informal settlements within its authority. Also the Municipal is currently undertaking a sanitation improvement project in the settlement. The key deliverables of this is project is the construction of various sanitary blocks (pit latrine) and currently an ongoing sewer line construction. However the sanitary blocks are inadequate and the model typology is not sustainable, this is yielding to high demand for sewer infrastructure in the settlement. Water supply in the settlement is as well inadequate and haphazardly reticulated making it highly inconvenient for accessibility. Waste management is almost non-existent with garbage deposits scattered all over the settlement. There is no single paved road within the settlement, which makes mobility and circulation during the rainy season a nightmare. This was a major challenge faced head on, by the technical and community teams that were conducting the profiling exercise as it took place during the December short rain season. With regard to housing, earth walled and timber walled structures dominate the housing typology in the settlement. Nevertheless like many other informal settlements, the housing is in pathetic condition.

The settlement lies on a trust land and regularization of the tenure could be a prerequisite for housing improvement in the settlement. It is notable that the settlement has considerably low housing densities, when given some households the luxury of fencing their compounds, a scenario so difficult to sight in Kenya’s informal settlements. The spatial implication being that there is adequate space to accommodate all households in the settlements without displacement in the eventuality of planning and upgrading.

                                                                         Housing Typologies in Kiandutu

With the council having expressed the will to upgrade the settlement, the federation initiated the data collection exercise through enumerations and mapping. This was jointly driven by MuST in collaboration with the Municipal Council of Thika and the University of Nairobi. The federation played a key role in mobilizing teams and ensuring that the process was highly participatory. The process saw participation of the various council officials and leaders (area councilor, assistant Mayor) during the launch. This had a great implication notably the political will expressed in this process by the area political leadership.

                                             Thika Deputy Mayor, Cllr. Yasin Wote addressing the Community Members during the Launch

                                             of the exercise

The settlement has experienced numerous disasters in the past with the most recent being a fire outbreak in July 2011, that blazed a section of Centre Base cluster affecting over 200 households. The haphazard structure layout was a factor leading to difficulties in putting off the blaze. The families affected have since reconstructed while others were totally unable to reconstruct. The MuST technical team had started negotiations with the community on the need for re-blocking and developing post disaster management strategies. With the federation having rooted itself in the settlement, igniting discussions on planning and upgrading can now be up scaled.

                                            Post Fire disaster Construction

Enumerations and Mapping-the process

The profiling of the settlement was conducted concurrently using three tools; enumerations, mapping and household sampling survey.  With the nature of enumerations being at times a political process, the technical team ensured that the tool designed for the enumerations is simple and effective for uncomplicated data capture. This tool was shared with both the community and the municipal authorities where each party endorsed it for use in the enumeration.  The process took place in three phases: mobilization of community, training of community teams and actual ground work. To set the process rolling, the Municipal council was in attendance during the launch of the actual activities.

In an effort to capture detailed data vital for supporting planning, the university spearheaded a baseline household survey which ran parallel to the enumerations with none interfering with each other. The mapping was interlinked with enumeration, with the numbering process acting as the link between the two. Enumeration forms had a unique structure code that was mapped making it possible to link and associate this data after data entry. Mapping focused on detailed mapping of structures and the existing infrastructure.

Various training sessions for both community enumerators and barefoot mapping teams were conducted in series. The training was held in 3 sessions, each comprising various clusters for effective trainings. Through the traditional empowerment of communities by SDI and affiliate NGOs such as MuST, the trainers comprised of technical team as well as seasoned federation members; community enumerators and organizers from other informal settlements in Kenya. The community teams comprised various representation from key segments of the community; the federation, village heads (wazee wa vijiji), youth leaders, opinion leaders, women leaders and other non-federation members.

                                           Community Mapping Training in session

After building the capacity of the community to collect its own data through trainings, the first activity for the project was rolled out. This was the numbering process which was unique to each of the ten clusters but with a common code segment for the settlement. The numbering process took a rapid two days to to complete. This set the stage for enumerations and mapping to follow.

                                           Structure Numbering

The mapping took a maximum of four days to complete. This was an exercise that was coordinated by the MuST technical team supported by research assistants from the university as well as federation members. With enumerations being dynamic, the enumerations team made sure that high ground coverage was achieved. One of the most challenging facets of enumeration is that of devising a strategy for taking into custody households that are almost unavailable during normal enumeration time.  This was strategically resolved through various approaches.

                                             MuST technical team member assisting a member of the community to interpret  Maps

Post-Enumerations and Mapping

It is usually difficult to attain a hundred percent coverage of all households in an enumeration and for this usually a viable target is set. The un-enumerated households are later enumerated should the need for verification exercise succeed. The viable coverage target develops a viable data base that can be authenticated through a verification process. With ground enumeration have been conducted, the next key phase of this process is data processing that is projected to be finalized the soonest to pave way for follow up activities and engagements. The technical team is working on data entry for both spatial and the socio-economic data, that will eventually be linked to the mapping data in a GIS database for easy management. Part of the major planned activities is a joint planning studio. This studio is being organized by various partners: MuST & SDI and the African Association of Planning Schools (University of Nairobi being the local representative).

The municipal is also anticipating the use of this data in aiding in the planning of the settlement. With the settlement having interest from various development outfits, this process is perceived as an avenue for initiating various development projects in the settlement.

The aftermath of enumerations and mapping is the challenge of managing community expectations. Enumerations and mapping is no doubt a powerful tool for mobilizing communities. With the process having been endorsed by a key stakeholder, Municipal Council of Thika, it is probable that strategic engagements among all partners will yield to a development initiative that will positively impact on the physical and socio-economic character of the settlement.

Kiandutu in the Future

The deficiency in data on informal settlements has always been a contributing factor towards driving limited attention to informal settlements upgrading. However the role of the slum federation (Muungano wa wanavijiji) with the facilitation of support organizations such as MuST in mobilizing poor urban communities to collect their own information has consistently led to the empowerment of informal settlement communities. This has been generating positive interest from various strategic quarters such as municipal authorities and utility service providers. MuST in collaboration with its partners is striving towards achieving improved well-being of Kiandutu residents in the coming future through various development initiatives.  It’s certain that with the federation having set a firm ground in the settlement, the community is now better positioned to surmount its development inefficiencies.

By Irene Karanja

Arif Hasan is a retired architect and currently a planning advisor to many local and foreign Governments, national and international NGOs, and bilateral and multilateral donor agencies. Since the 80′s, he has been involved with the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) and is the founder Chairman of the Urban Resource Centre (URC), Karachi, since its inception in 1989.

Mr. Hasan is also a founding member of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) in Bangkok and continues to be one of its most active members. He has been a Member of the very prestigious Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. He is on the Governing Board of numerous local, national and international civic and public affairs institutions, including the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in the UK.

SDI (Slum Dwellers International) has been very keen to support “city” reflections. On the invite of SDI, Arif Hassan will be making a tour of African cities, with a great will to share and assist us all to reflect upon “the city”. In a space with players like governments, private sector, academia, slum federation networks and NGO’s, how do we all play a role is advancing our fast urbanizing cities? And what is that space that we can occupy amidst all the dynamics of the city [land, inflation, politics, large infrastructure expansions, vibrant real estate etc]

Participating countries will include; Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.

In this regard, we would like you all to bring your cities to Nairobi. To assist us in this, we would like to request that you all put together presentations which you will present within your 15 minutes allocation. Please plan to present alongside your country team with whom you have come with.

Here are some housekeeping and conference preparation things that invited delegates need to know and have;

1. Travel & Hotel: Delegates will be arriving on 21nd January 2012, and will be picked from the JKIA airport. There will be a site visit to Huruma and Mathare on Sunday.
2. The workshop starts on 23rd Monday up to 25th Wednesday. You will be staying at the Panafric Hotel for ease of interactions after and before sessions. We will have an informal social dinner at the hotel. The sessions will begin at about 9:00am.
3. Presentation preparations We would like to reiterate, please do come prepared with what we have suggested bellow in order for us to have interactive sessions together.
1. a brief country background;
2. A brief background of a city in your country that you have chosen (maybe because you have or plan to have interventions in)
3. A small back ground to the evolution of slums, informal settlements in your city or country,
4. Your intervention as an affiliate in your country/city: you can also select 1-3 projects that best describe your highlights/achievements as an affiliate.
5. Any government policy stands out to support/encourage or to challenge your interventions.
6. Any Questions, clarifications or expectations you may have (that would form part of the discussions and learning)
7. You will have 15 minutes to present this at the workshop.
8. Please do suggest using anyone from your team who would be a good candidate to moderate any of the sessions when called upon.
We look forward to having very interactive, fun and exciting discussions.

Below is a programme for the Event
Muungano Support Trust
Cities where the urban poor live in dignity meeting basic needs to scale

Saturday 21st January 2012
All day Arrival of Delegates

Sunday 22nd January 2012
09:30 – 13:00 Field Visit and Orientation
• Huruma – Kambi Moto and Gitathuru
Host : Mr. Mukeku
13:00 – 14:30 LUNCH AT SAROVA PANAFRIC
14:30 – 17:00 Field Visit
• Mathare – Zonal Planning, Water Services Trust Fund
Host: Muungano Federatand Professor Ngau
17:00 – 20:00 Cocktail Reception and Dinner

Monday 23rd January 2012
08:00 – 09:00 INTRODUCTIONS
• Arif Hassan -Renowned Architect and Publisher
• Irene Karanja – Muungano Support Trust
• Benson Osumba – Muungano Wa Wanavijiji
09:00 – 10:30 CITIES
• Understanding Nairobi City
• Describing your city, generally – Each country to have 15 minutes to describe their cities.
Moderator: Jack Makau
Panelists: Arif and City Officials
Guests: KISIP
10:30 – 11:00 TEA BREAK
11:00 – 12:30 • Describing your city
15 minutes discussion per country with the Panelist

12:30 – 14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00 – 16:00 How cities are dealing with Slum Issues
City – Mombasa
16:00 – 16:30 AFTERNOON TEA
16:30 – 18:00 Conclusions on the day’s discussions – Mr. Arif Hassan
18:00 – 20:00 Dinner

Tuesday 24th January 2012
08:00 – 10:00 Federations
What is your federation doing about Slums?
• Venue: Sarova Panafric
• Moderator : Joseph Kimani
• Panelists: Arif and Jane Weru
Presentations by Kenya and Tanzania (30 mins per country)
10:00 – 11:00 TEA BREAK
11:00 – 12:30 Presentations by Ghana and South Africa (30 mins per country)
12:30 – 14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00 – 16:00 NGOs / PARTNERS / ACADEMICS
• Presentation
• How can you scale up your efforts
Guests
• SIDA
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Umande
16:00 – 16:30 AFTERNOON TEA
16:30 – 18:00 Conclusions on the day’s discussions – Mr. Arif Hassan
18:00 – 20:00 Dinner

Wednesday 25th January 2012
08:00 – 10:00 PROJECT PRESENTATION
Venue: Sarova Panafric
Moderator : David Mathenge
Panelists: Arif, Mukeku
Kenya – 1hour
Tanzania – 1 hour
10:30 – 11:00 TEA BREAK
10:00 – 12:00 Ghana – 1 hour
Guests:
• WASUP
• KIWASCO
12:00 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 16:30 Discussions with the Invited guests
16:30 – 17:00 AFTERNOON TEA
17:00 – 18:00 Conclusions on the day’s discussions – Mr. Arif Hassan
18:00 – 20:00 DINNER

Wednesday 25th January 2012
08:00 South Africa Stellenboch team visits to Thika town
09:00 – 13:00 Team meets with Thika Municipality
Host: Dominic
13:00 – 14:30 LUNCH BREAK
14:30 – 16:00 Discussions Continue
16:00 Team leaves for Nairobi
18:00 – 20:00 DINNER

Thursday 26th January 2012
09:00 – 10:30 Venue: Sarova Panafric
Thika Municipal and Stellenboch team convene a discussion
Moderators: David and Dominic
10:30 – 11:30 TEA BREAK
11:30 – 13:00 Teams continue discussions with delegates
13:00 – 14:30 LUNCH BREAK
14:30 – 17:30 Delegates meet university students on question answer sessions
Venue: University of Nairobi
Host: Prof. Ngau and Prof. Abonyo
18:00 – 20:00 DINNER

Friday 27th January 2012
09:00am – 13:00pm • Exhibition by the Muungano wa Wanavijiji
• Shopping
13:00pm Delegates Departure

Muungano wa Wanavijiji encourages and supports urban poor communities to get organized around Savings and Loans schemes. Members can save for building a house, securing tenure, implementing a development project in to improve their living environment, or for their own individual purposes.

The entire savings process is designed to maximize contact that people have with each other. When people interact with each other on a daily basis – whether it be over savings or loans or an impending demolition – their sense of being a community intensifies. Economic and social networks are formed around their shared identity as members of the urban poor class.

According to Muungano approach, the loan proposal, proposal vetting, loan sanctioning and daily savings collections are the community savings groups’ entire responsibility. It also allows the community to look upon the money as their own and grow in confidence as they learn how to manage their own funds and operate their own savings and loans system. These are usually organized in a decentralized manner to maximize people’s participation.

Housing Projects

Muungano with support from its support organization MuST and Slum Dwellers International help slum dwellers design housing and infrastructural facilities in ways that best respond to their needs and financial capacities.

House model exhibitions are large, open-air events attended by housing professionals and members from the government. Slum dweller communities gather and show real-size house models which they have designed and constructed for themselves. Such exhibitions allow the poor to discuss and debate-housing designs best suited to their needs.

It also allows them to enter into dialogue with professionals about construction materials, construction costs and urban services. Slum dwellers have always been the architects and engineers of their settlements. In many cities, local governments are now beginning to see that the urban poor can play a significant role in creating housing stock for low-income communities. 

Enumerations and Profiling

Muungano promotes information as a powerful tool and asset for the urban poor. With knowledge and information concerning their settlement and living environment, the slum dwellers develop a strong tool for negotiation with the local authorities. The methods used by Muungano wa Wanavijiji to gather information on slums are all based on slum dweller community participation. They are the ones to conduct enumeration and mapping of their settlements, to count the services available in and around the slum, to define the status of land tenure, tenancy ratios and government structures. Communities receive support from Muungano support Trust, other slum dweller communities in the Kenyan Federation, and fellow SDI affiliates.

1.      Structure counting

When a settlement gets visited by a Federation for the first time, a large number of Federation members hold meetings with the residents, and talk about themselves, their work and what they have come for. In most cases, the communities know of or have heard of the Federation’s work, and credibility is usually established. To trigger the process of participation, the Federation leader, together with community residents, take paint and begin to number the doors of houses. It is always necessary for the local community to be directly engaged and active in the process since they are best positioned to establish criteria for the numbering of the houses in their neighbourhood

2.      Mapping

The next step is to begin a rough mapping of the settlement. This is as much to help the plane-table surveyors later, as it is to help communities understand what surveys represent.

Much of the community and slum profile is completed while the mapping exercise is underway. Toilets, water taps, facilities, services, amenities, are all identified. Note is also taken as to how households get goods and services, where they shop, what transportation systems they use and so on.

This exercise not only creates knowledge but also creates a direct link between the external Federation investigators and the active members of the community. This forms a part of the on-going process of community mobilization, self awareness and empowerment.

3.      Numbering

The third step is to match house numbers with the map and to redo the chalk numbers on each dwelling in more permanent paint. Communities are normally informed that government and city officials will be checking on this process, and ensuring accuracy is essential to establish good faith and the credibility of the communities.

4.      Cadastral survey

At this point the Federation surveyors take over and mark and measure the sites.. The enumeration process forces the contradictions around internal power relations and resource allocation to the fore. These internal dynamics are normally dependent on power relations in the broader society and are a reflection of the contradictions created and sustained by the state and the market. It is for this reason that people from formal institutions, especially government and private real estate and construction companies (but also NGOs) feel uncomfortable about this process.

Exchanges

 The most significant vehicle for community learning is through the direct exchange of information, experience and skills between the urban poor communities themselves. As part of the learning and training process for community-led slum upgrading, Muungano wa Wanavijiji organizes exchange visits and events between the different savings groups at city scale, national scale, and at international scale in partnership with other Slum Dwellers Federations from overseas countries affiliated to the Slum Dwellers International network. These exchanges also help to spread knowledge about how urban poor groups can take up initiatives to improve their living environment themselves. It is also an important mean to strengthen the federation process that joins together the different savings groups, and to support a continuous learning cycle among its member groups.

Advocacy and Security of Tenure

 The Muungano advocacy teams in each county works to facilitate and support grassroots-led advocacy efforts aimed at building a strong, self-reliant Federation of Urban Poor capable of negotiating effectively at all levels of government.

Poverty is a multi-faceted phenomenon: it not only involves a lack of income, but also an unstable asset base, inadequate shelter, public infrastructure, and basic services. The project aims to help slum dwellers improve their housing quality, stall forced evictions of the urban poor, secure tenure, and improve access to basic infrastructure and services.

Income Generation Activities 

The Kenyan SDI affiliate supports and encourages group initiatives aimed at improving community living conditions. Community groups are managing to support and sustain small businesses, such as selling cloths, poultry keeping, goat rearing, bricklaying, mushroom growing, plastic recycling, and soap making. These initiatives increase group savings and provide employment to group members.

Exchange visits provide a tremendous opportunity for communities to share lessons and ideas on how to improve their income generating activities and stimulate innovative income generating activities in different communities.

Muungano Development Fund-MDF 

As the Kenyan Federation continues to grow in size and confidence, the need for finances to support community group initiatives becomes more eminent. Muungano, SDI, and the Akiba Mashinani Trust have worked together to start a Kenyan Urban Poor Fund – called the Muungano Development Fund.

The main of objectives of the Fund is to;

• Reach out to the urban poor with high quality financial, enterprise and investment services on a sustainable basis.
• Mobilize and invest resources for the benefit of members.
• Undertake any other activity as deemed necessary by the members for the benefit of the community.

The Fund, which is managed by representatives of the savings groups, was formulated in accordance with the experience of other SDI urban poor funds, but tailored to fit the Kenyan context. Federation members commit a non-refundable amount of money that helps build the fund. “We are setting up the fund in all six regions where Muungano is located and towns where the government facility is targeted in order to build slum dweller capacities to draw down resources for their development.

When organized member communities contribute to such a fund, it is hoped that they can attract additional funds from outside sources like governments, donors and the private sector.

An excavator demolishes a building near Moi Airbase, Eastleigh in Nairobi. High Court judge Justice Mohammed Warsame issued an injunction stopping further demolitions of the houses November 24, 2011. WILLIAM OERI  

By PAIGE AARHUS paarhus@ke.nationmedia.com

As hundreds of slum residents know all too well, nothing is safe or certain when the threat of government eviction looms.

Last month, machines rolled into Eastleigh to demolish a handful of long-standing apartment buildings deemed to be too close to the Moi Air Base. “They gave us no time. I couldn’t save anything,” said George Mwangi, who’d lived in his Eastleigh apartment building for 12 years before it was demolished.

The government’s recent crackdowns on dwellings have left thousands without homes in Nairobi.

But in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums near Mombasa Road, a powerful collective will is fighting the problem one shilling at a time.

Mukuru Kwa Njenga is home to an estimated 75,000 people, and was formed in 1958 when farm labourers lived there on land then owned by white settlers.

Eventually it drew in thousands of urban poor who established makeshift homes, and today covers 80 acres of government-owned land allocated on long-term leases to private owners.

Land tenure is non-existent for tenants here, but they have a plan.

Over the past four years, a collective of Mukuru residents that has now grown to over 2,000 people have used personal savings to raise Sh60 million.

Their plan is to take over a plot of land adjacent to the slums and build permanent, affordable housing — housing the government can’t demolish.

“Most of the slums in Kenya have the same characteristics: Insecurity, people always in danger of their houses razed by the government or fire, being mugged or robbed or killed.

“They all live in danger of their daughters and wives being raped, and also their sons or daughters may be influenced by negative elements and become criminals themselves,” said Benson Osumba, national Chairman of Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a slum advocacy group.

Muungano wa Wanavijiji was formed in 1996 as a loose collective of Kenyan slum dwellers who fought for security, land tenure and service rights. Today it has grown to represent tens of thousands of slum residents from Mombasa to Kisumu.

Its showpiece project is located on a muddy stretch of land next to the slums. This 23-acre plot, dubbed the Greenfield Project, sits next to an abandoned quarry and doesn’t look like much more than a field of mud and garbage.

But Mr Osumba said his organisation has worked with the Mukuru collective so successfully that Mukuru residents now have enough money to buy the plot from a private owner.

No one expected the power of daily savings to have such an effect,” he said.

Since 2007, members of the collective have received help from the Rockerfeller Foundation and NGO Akiba Mashinani Trust, working in partnership with Muungano wa Wanavijiji.

Mukuru residents contributed tiny amounts of money — as little as one or two shillings — each day for four years. Membership in the collective snowballed over time, with the group growing from nine members in 2007 to 2,200 today.

“The government officials were not happy at first. We were even arrested by the police. They did not want us to populate the area, but we didn’t stop,” said Robert Mironga, chairman of the Greenfield Project.

As its savings grew, the Mukuru collective negotiated the land price from Sh110 million to Sh81 million, and approached various banks to secure financing.

Now they have Sh60 million in capital, a land title, and a mortgage through Eco Bank, to make their dream of safe, secure housing a reality.

“Securing land tenure is the most important thing. Right now no one has documents to prove they have the right to live here. But the land you see here belongs to us. We bought it legally,” said Martin Mutie, a Mukuru resident and member of the collective.

The group plans to begin construction on a number of two-storey apartment buildings, which will eventually contain 3,000 units, early next year. Tenants will pay Sh10 per day towards their mortgage, with each home owner contributing Sh45, 000 in total.

If everything goes as planned, thousands of Mukuru residents will have permanent, legal homes within the next five years.

“Everyone is so excited to see the project become a reality. We want to show other slum residents that it is possible to pull themselves up and find their own security,” said Mr Mutie.