DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: So Much for Promises

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Nov 15 2005 (IPS) - They thought that, by this time, things would be different. But little seems to have changed for the inhabitants of the Kenyan slum of Kibera since last year’s pledge by government and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) to improve their living conditions.

Mud-walled shacks with rusty iron sheeting are still engulfed in heaps of garbage. And, sewage still flows freely in the slum, said to be Africa’s largest, a magnet for buzzing flies. Human waste wrapped in polythene bags litters the pathways, while elsewhere women queue patiently for water.

In October 2004, Kenyan officials and UN-HABITAT announced that residents of Kibera would be moved to affordable accommodation in new, medium-rise apartment blocks.

The move was to take place in phases, with the first round of construction beginning in the Soweto region so that residents could be resettled by October this year.

The region is named after the black residential area built near Johannesburg under apartheid. There are 12 such regions in Kibera, which is located on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, and which has an estimated population of 700,000. Soweto houses about 60,000 residents.

However, not a single house has been put up in Soweto. In fact, there is no sign of any construction work at the site where President Mwai Kibaki laid a foundation stone in 2004.

A new office has been put up for government, also a UN-HABITAT onsite office. But both lie vacant.

“We feel cheated. We do not know what is happening regarding construction, and no one is telling us anything,” Donald Kilindi, chairman of the Kenya National Slum People’s Organisation (KENSPO), told IPS. KENSPO lobbies for fair housing policies for Kibera residents.

“We have waited for so long. One year is a long time. We are tired of waiting – we want action now from both the government and UN-HABITAT.”

But Sharad Shankardass, spokesperson for the UN agency, has a different interpretation of matters.

“Just because someone has not done any digging does not mean no work is being done. Slum upgrading is a very slow process and a great deal of energy is being spent on physical planning and social mapping: we have spent the last two years doing this,” he told IPS.

Joshua Kaigainaine, UN-HABITAT programme manager for Kibera, agrees, saying that while construction has not begun, the agency has completed an exercise to determine income amongst Kibera residents.

This is seen as key to determining how much the residents will pay for rent in the new accommodation. Planners are also anxious to prevent wealthy persons from taking advantage of the improvements.

“There is danger in rushing to start digging…(to) find that the structures end up in the hands of the rich, and not the poor which they were meant for. That is why it is important to do the social mapping to establish the real residents of Kibera,” noted Shankardass.

For its part, government says progress is being made, and that construction will begin soon.

“We have already gotten a contractor. He will be on site by end of this month or early next month,” a senior official at the Ministry of Lands and Housing told IPS.

However, the official admitted that lengthy procurement procedures had occasioned delays.

“It is the procurement system that takes time. We had first to design the place; it took long because it had to be approved and re-approved by a chain of signatures,” said the official. “Then we recently advertised for a contractor. This has to take a minimum of 28 days, after which we have to wait for another 21 days for any appeal to be made.”

Lack of funding also poses a problem. “Not all funds have been raised. There is a shortfall and we are trying to work on financing mechanisms,” Shankardass said, without giving figures for this shortfall.

Government is reportedly banking on the goodwill of donors for money to complete the project, as well as similar upgrades elsewhere in Nairobi before moving to other cities. According to statistics from Shelter Forum, a regional organisation that lobbies for improved housing regulations, there are 199 informal settlements in the capital alone.

But these funds may prove elusive in the wake of claims of massive corruption that have dogged Kibaki’s government, now in power for close to three years.

Certain donors have made aid contingent on government intensifying its war against graft. Last year, former British envoy to Kenya Edward Clay claimed that corruption had cost the country 187 million dollars since Kibaki’s was voted into office.

The refurbishment of informal settlements in Kenya is a joint initiative between the government and UN-HABITAT. Known as the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme, the project got underway in 2003, and is expected to take between 10 and 15 years.