By STEVE O. AKOTH

It is encouraging that the Cabinet Secretary for Land, Housing and Urban development has recently re-asserted the commitment of the Jubilee Administration to reverse the current trend where 60 per cent of Nairobi dwellers reside in slums. The Cabinet Secretary is quoted to have said, “As Government, we will work with the private sector to meet the Jubilee manifesto’s target of 250,000 houses annually and ensure that affordable houses are available to low-income earners”.

This rhetoric is no different from many roadside declarations made by government functionaries in the past. The response to the slum problem in Kenya does not require mere roadside declarations nor is it about blanket implementation of the erroneous notion that an individualised land tenure system can spur growth and larger agricultural investments.

To resolve the slum question in Nairobi and the larger parts of Kenya, the Ministry must start by understanding that manifestation of poverty as seen in the slums is more than absence of title deeds and housing. Rather, the slum situation in Kenya is a product of exclusion, physical and economic insecurity, fear of the future, and a constant sense of vulnerability. It is the lack of qualities that facilitate a good life, defined in terms of access to the conditions that support a reasonable physical existence and enable individuals and communities to realise their spiritual and cultural potential — opportunities for reflection, artistic creativity, development of and discourse on morality, and contribution to and participation in the political, social and economic life of the community.

This perception means that resolving the slum question shall require more than housing, economic empowerment and an increase of social housing stock that Ngilu talked about. Instead, it shall require cogent and deliberate efforts to ensure that what are currently designated as informal settlements in Nairobi are integrated into the city’s Master Plan and a Slum Prevention and Upgrading Policy from the perspective of equity and social justice. It also requires that the Ministry accepts leadership of the National Land Commission in implementing the National Land Policy.

The National Land Policy outlines clear and systematic steps that should be implemented towards regularising and reversing the current state of indignity in Kenya’s slums. The policy requires that an inventory should be undertaken to develop a detailed register and characterisation of those living in the slums. Without this kind of information it is mere talk for anyone to say that they are going to “eliminate the slums”. At the same time, this inventory would be useful, as it shall assist in creating a distinction between those who are present in the slums as a business as well as those who reside in the slums out of destitution and absence of housing stock for the poor in our urban areas.

When conducted, the inventory of the slum areas should respond to some of the glaring questions such as those raised by the UN Habitat Report on Rapid Economic Appraisal of Rents in Slums and Informal Settlements (2001).

The report stated that 57 per cent of all structure owners in the slums were ministers, civil servants, and government officials or politically connected business people and they are the biggest beneficiaries of the continued existence of slums. Pamoja Trust research in 2008 established that 67 per cent of all the housing in Nairobi comprises of single 10’ x 10’ shacks that attract an average monthly rent of Sh2,000.

With over 1 million slum dwellers paying Sh2,000 monthly, the total rent collected is Sh2 billion and over Sh24 billion per annum. Question is:  Who are these making such large amounts of money from the urban poor?

Then there is the issue of equity. According to Pamoja Trust’s data, about 2.65 million people live in over 200 slums in different parts Nairobi, the biggest in population densities being Mukuru, Kibera and Mathare. The most glaring contradiction, however, is that while 1.62 per cent of the land in Nairobi currently has very high density habitations (slums), 1.72 per cent of the land in Nairobi is used for recreational areas such as parks/gardens, golf courses, play grounds & race courses. How then, shall the ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development deal with this inequality?

Seeing how complex the slum question is, it may be most appropriate for the Ministry to first pay attention to policy options such as those suggested in the National Land Policy. Second, it is now time to move beyond roadside declarations. If the Ministry and the CS are intent on resolving the slum question, then the required budget should be allocated to the National Land Commission while allowing the Commission to take the lead in resolving the slums question in a more comprehensive manner that is free from political tokenism.

Dr. Akoth is Executive Director, Pamoja Trust.