Better housing thrills some, angers others

By Kenfrey Kiberenge and Joe Kiarie

Some slum dwellers say they will not move to new houses constructed a few metres away, despite being charged a modest rent of Sh1,000.

Ms Jane Ngoiyo, who has lived in Kibera for 30 years, is worried about her grocery business

Mr Josephat Mukuna says he cannot pay the Sh,1000 rent for new houses.

Mr Cyrus Kimemia fears outsiders may take over the houses. [PHOTOS: ANN/STANDARD]

And they are giving all sorts of reasons –– some hilarious and others baffling –– to justify their defiance. Some claim their children would contract waterborne diseases once they move to clean houses. Others say they are accustomed to squalor life in Kibera that they would not know how to live differently.

Yet others fear the Sh1000 rent they will pay in the new houses is a rope to hang them. They say the rents may be hiked and they may not afford. They also fear they might not find affordable schools for their children since most of those in Kibera are sponsored.

Why the jitters?

Some women fear they may not be allowed to use firewood in the new houses. They say other fuels like kerosene, gas or electricity are out of reach.

Traders say they will lose their livelihood.

Josphat Mondia, 28, calls the decanting site ‘The Hague’. He is jittery about moving because of the uncertainties that lie ahead.

"Life in Kibera is cheap. With Sh50 you can eat three meals in a day and sleep. That can’t happen at the location. There, you won’t get sukuma wiki or tomatoes worth Sh5. Again, I feel the Sh1,000 rental fee is just a bait and will be increased progressively, eventually forcing us out of the houses when we default," he said.

Mondia who was born in Soweto East says he knows no other home and would want to remain at the village all his life.

He said his children might fall ill with waterborne diseases once they move, ‘which is unheard of in Kibera’. "Watapata cholera na watoto wa Kibera huwa hawapati haya magonjwa (our children will be infected with cholera and other diseases unheard off in Kibera," he says.

Mondia also says unlike in Kibera where there are many donor sponsored schools, at the new site, parents will be forced to part with Sh5,000 every term.

"That is like burying me alive," he says.

Philip Kiliswa, 40, who works as a security guard in the city centre is opposed to the shifting because it will move him further from his workplace, yet walks there.

He is sceptical that the project might turn out like the Highrise National Housing Corporation project in which Kibera residents had been promised housing units that were later taken up by outsiders.

With a monthly income of Sh5,000, Kiliswa who has lived in Kibera since 1997, says he cannot afford the Sh1,000 rent but says he will move because "samaki mdogo humezwa na samaki mkubwa".

Jane Ngolyo, 76, who sells groceries. She told us that her future looks bleak if she is to move to the new houses.

"I know the city council will not allow me to operate my small business there so I will be left without any income to pay their rent and feed myself. They will eventually evict me and throw in the streets without anything to eat," she says.

want guarantee

She has lived in Soweto for 30 years. She says she can only afford to pay the Sh300 that she has been paying at her current house. This is because she earns between Sh50 and Sh100 from her business.

With no information about world recession of the ever-increasing inflation in the country, the granny said that her business has lately been on a downward trend. Ngolyo, though, said she would move out of the slum when time comes.

Josephat Mukuna, 37, says the new housing programme is reminiscent of the Highrise National Housing Corporation project, in which he contributed money, only for outsiders to take all the houses upon completion.

"I am not prepared to leave for now. I know this project is based on falsehood and the

Government wants to just get us out of Kibera, demolish our houses, chase us from the new buildings and leave us as IDPs. I am not ready for that," says Mukuna, a father of four who has been a tenant in Kibera for the past 18 years.

He says his monthly rent is Sh600 and will not afford to pay for the new houses.

Simon Omrda, a 31-year-old father of three says he cannot pay rent above Sh400.

 

 

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