Citizens must be involved in planning, building our cities

If public spaces are essential for citizenship and cities, why do we know so little about our parks, playgrounds and forests and engage them so rarely? A report on the state of public spaces in Nairobi was released this month. It offers us several reasons to start deeply reflecting on our cities and ourselves.

While Africa is still the least urbanised continent, within a few decades, there will be more people living in urban areas than rural ones. With eight of the fastest growing cities in the world on our continent, we must ask ourselves what quality of life we expect of the African city.