Chapter I: Challenges of the Nairobi Slums 4
Nairobi Slums Statement of Problem.............................................. 4 Is It Really That Bad? ..................................................................... 7
The Bulldozing Begins.................................................................. 11
Laying the Foundation.................................................................. 12
Moving Back in With Ground Rules .............................................. 13
Governance, Stability and Economics .......................................... 14
Chapter III: Developing the Model 16
Franchise-able Model................................................................... 16
No More Band-Aids ...................................................................... 17
The Root of the Problem .............................................................. 18
Chapter IV: Strategic Plan 19
Upgrade Projects for Nairobi's Kibera Slum.................................. 19
Visualization of Kibera's Revitalization Project ............................. 21
Nairobi City Annexation of Parts of Kibera Slum........................... 22
Slums Near Airport Critical ........................................................... 23
Far Westside Nairobi Slum Areas................................................. 23
Notorious Northeast Nairobi Slums .............................................. 24
Chapter V: Economic Development Completed 25
Mobile Enterprises........................................................................ 25
Additional Benefits........................................................................ 26
Emergence of Local Brands ......................................................... 26
Maintenance of Project and Hope for the Future .......................... 27
References and Works Cited 28
Background Reading 28
Media, NGO and Internet Articles 28
Online Links to Slums - Pictures Worth 1000 Words 30
The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to Mutoto Mwanamke for long hours of discussion on African Poverty and slum life. Without this valuable insight of reality this work could not have been possible. Indeed, the information gained from KENWA International and the inspirational stories of Asunta Wagura working in the trenches of the Nairobi Slums caring for HIV/AIDS orphans gave the motivation for this work.
Thanks also goes to the US Ambassador to Kenya in Nairobi for his efforts to clean up corruption and encourage keeping the humanitarian crisis issue alive, while others ignore the problems. Famous Authors; Joseph Conrad, Paul Theroux, John le Carre and Blaine Harden also assisted with excellent background to launch this project through their works.
The World Trade Organization, Davos 2007, World Bank, World Food Program and the United Nations also served as in valuable sources for data and fact finding, particularly the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN Habitat) Study. The number of research reports, Blogs, online videos, newspaper articles used to compile this eBook are all most too numerous to mention, yet they were very much appreciated.
[Getty Images/AFP/Marco Longaro]
[Practical Solutions Organization]
The challenges of the Nairobi slums are not going away. Sending in good money after bad will not solve any of the problems there. As the estimated population in these slums grows to well over 2 million there will be more mouths to feed, more trash piled up, more sewage, more disease and less water. Currently the growth of these slums is a huge issue, although HIV/AIDS is taking a serious dent out of the total number, somewhat slowing the growth.
Kibera Slum, Nairobi KenyaThe largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya is called Kibera and has over 800,000 inhabitants. The roads or pathways are littered with animal waste, garbage and human waste. Although most of the children do not wear shoes the roads often have jagged rocks. Many travelers come to visit Kibera and "Slum Tourism" is getting popular, still no major improvements to the area have been done despite the popular topic in the media. Humanitarian band-aids are helpful, but not enough.
[Private Tourist Photo 2004]
Recently the rents were raised there and it became a political hot topic leading to severe violence, fires, protests and riots. Most feared for their lives. The sewage runoff from the Kibera slums runs into the already highly polluted Nairobi River, which is used downstream for people washing their clothes. Still even worse most of the landlords of the slum (60%) are government officers or politicians, corruption is another huge issue. [UN Human Settlement Programme (UN Habitat) Study].
Kibera means "forest" but it seems the city officials of Nairobi are having a hard time seeing the forest for the slum. Not long ago, The Kibera Urban Environment and Sanitation Master Plan was introduced even so the problems run much deeper than the proposed measures and it appears to have been more political window dressing. The Kibera Slum, golf course adjacent, is not the only shanty town in Nairobi, just the largest. One other shanty town in Nairobi, "Korogocho" got street lighting after a huge vocal firestorm to prevent civil unrest, so much more is needed.
The sanitary situation in Nairobi's shanty-towns and slums causing serious health issues such as;
Skin Disease
Worm Infestation
Typhoid
Due to the altitude and temperature Malaria is not as bad as other parts of the Nation, but Climate Change promises to change all that. Volunteer health clinic workers say that over 50% of the problems they see are hygiene related. One huge problem has been that poor folks with no jobs cannot afford to pay for some of the open pit latrines and instead hold it until night time and defecate into a plastic bag and throw it into the street or on a neighbor's roof. They call these "Flying Toilets" and unfortunately nearly all the roofs leak or are in a state of disrepair.
[UCBM file photo]
Today over one billion people live in Urban Slums on Earth and that number is rising at an alarming rate. Kibera in Nairobi is merely one humanitarian crisis and there are many more like it Africa, Asia, South America and Indonesia. Africa had an estimated 14 million orphan children of HIV/AIDS victims and that was a figure from 2001, some believe the number now is nearly double if not triple today. Even without the AIDS crisis, 32.5% of the Earth's human population lives in Urban Slum areas with very similar living conditions.
Indeed, it is worse than that. What is being done? Well, there have been many "total plans" floated, but none have worked because they do not address the real issues. One large project built Low income housing multi-story buildings, but the people of the slums do not want to live there. Caring water up stairs was another factor. As soon as they were built many who were eligible, sub-let the rooms or used them to shelter animals. Worthy cause, nice attempt, but it turned out to have been a complete waste.
There are people, literally Angles or Mother Teresa Types working with the slum communities from the inside, but they are overwhelmed with the HIV/AIDS victims, orphan children, disease, starvation and sanitation issues. And without such basic necessities as;
Trash and Rubbish Pick-up
Running Water
Electricity and Power
Sewer Hook-ups
Shelter from Weather (marginal roofing, repairs)
Fire Fighters or Fire Stations
Police other than Neighborhood Watch
These extraordinary folks just cannot keep up and those in need are growing in numbers, dying of HIV/AIDS or have no way to support themselves. The filth taxes even the strongest with the most robust immune systems; 15% die before age 5. Many young girls take to the streets to make extra money to eat and risk getting HIV/AIDS and their chances are not very good. 26% will be sexually abused by age 14 and most start their sexual promiscuity between ages 9-12.
If we really look at the slums of the World in places like Africa, Haiti, Palestine, India, China, Indonesia, South Africa, South Asia and Central America much of the problems are indeed similar in nature. Is there a solution or is the solution so horrific to consider that no one will talk about it, such as;
Do Nothing at all
Sterilizing humans
Eliminating people
Bulldozing the slums
Paving over the slums
Burning the slums down
Kicking all the people out
Moving them to another location
Allowing HIV/AIDS to Kill the People
The aid that the first world citizens send is more about allowing donors to satisfy themselves so they can feel that they are doing something, yet in reality often they are making the problems worse. Many times the money and aid never even makes it to the people that really need the help. Of course you cannot tell them that or they get hostile and even accuse you of having no empathy. Throwing good money after bad is a silly waste and although the cause and calling are noble, the ends fall far short.
People do not like to hear these things, but this is the reality. Removing someone's suffering for or month or a year might be nice, but in the end they go back to the same old life. It often, crueler to show someone something they can never have than to help them in their own chosen environment or the slums where they live? Straight out giving also inhibits self-reliance. To fix these issues responsibility must be placed back onto those slum communities to solve their own problems for themselves from within. But first, these slums need basic infrastructure;
Water
Sewer
Schools
Paved roads
Street Lights
Trash pick-up
Health Centers
Security or Police
Local Government
These are the very basics, as a starting place. But how can you fix an area that has 2 million plus (estimated) and growing, where HIV/AIDS is running ramped? It will take some brave people to make the challenges to be met. It appears that once the basic infrastructures are completed most of the major challenges will be met and then the HIV/AIDS issues can be tackled.
In considering all this there seems to be 150 to 220 different shanty towns or slums in Nairobi depending on your method of counting and it makes sense to put a deadline on the project to revitalize the areas; less than a decade should be the goal; that will mean 15 to 22 slums per year.
Now then, such a project is obviously easier said than done because each of these slums consists of 10s of thousands, if not 100s of thousands of people. Although 60% of Nairobi's population lives in Urban Slums these shanty-town inhabitants only occupy 5% of the land area of the city.