Case Studys on Slums and Informal Settlements
Employment
Formal Sector employment
Many of the workers in the formal sector are subjected to very harsh working conditions including long hours, heavy manual labour and unclean and unsafe working environments. Here are some examples.
"I work in the Industrial Area for a company that makes boxes. I work nine straight hours a day operating a dangerous machine. I have to stand up all day without resting. We are working with toxic chemicals and glues and the company gives us no boots, gloves or goggles. Every day at least five or six workers are too sick to work and stay in the infirmary". (a parishioner of Kibera Christ the King), from the book "Parish transformation in Urban Slums".
Under the labour laws of Kenya, workers are afforded very few rights and can be easily dismissed and denied their benefits. One parishioner of Christ the King, Kibera explained:
"I worked as a store clerck for a company in athi River for six years on a kibarua (informal employment) basis earning Ksh 240 per day. When I asked the management to consider making me a permanent employee, I was falsely accused of staling a company bicycle and fired. they said that because I was a thief, they did not have to pay me my benefits for all of the years I worked. The parish Human Rights Desk felped me to take the case to court and I won. Even though the court found I did not steal anything, the company has still refused to pay me my benefits of Ksh 30,000." From the book "Parish transformation in Urban Slums".
Parishioners reported many cases to the Human Rights Office of Kibera Christ the King Parish, where they had worked for many months and in some instances for over a year without being paid. One young man said:
"I was hired to put up electrical lines for a company here in Nairobi. They promised to pay me Ksh 120 per day and told me to keep a record of the days I worked. At the end of each month, the foreman told me they did not have money but I would be paid next month. I had no other job and really needed this money so I kept working for six months. I have never been paid even one shilling for the work I did. When I go to the office to ask for my money, the security guard refuses to let me enter the compound." From the book "Parish transformation in Urban Slums".
Informal sector employment
The informal sector economy is vibrant in Kibera and is seen in the hundreds of kiosks and all kinds of trade throughout the entire settlement. Virtually anything needed for daily life is available, even coffins.
The informal sector has grown larger as the formal sector of employment has slowly collapsed over the last few years....
Casuals of "kibarua" workers such as welders, painters and housemaids work for daily or weekly wages. as daily workers, they are not considered permanent employees, although many work for ten or more years, and therefore not entitled to benefits under the Emploment Act in Kenya. Kibarua workers are often exploited. One parishioner of Christ the King reported:
"I worked as a house maid for a European family for three years. I worked twelve hours a day and was paid Ksh 100 per day. When I asked for my annual leave, I was fired and told I was not entitled to any employment benefits because I was not a permanent employee and did not sign an employment contract."
Another parishioner reported: "I worked twelve years in a private security firm. When my gather got sick, I asked for leave to go to my rural home to take care of him for two weeks. After I got back to Nairobi, the company told me I was fired for deserting my duty and therefore I was not entitled to any benefits. They said my personnel file was lost and my copy of the permission letter was forged. I lost over a year's salary in benefits." From the book "Parish transformation in Urban Slums".
Shelter and Housing
The houses built by residents of Kibera consist primarily of one-room structures that are crafted from temporary materials. The most common building materials for a structure are mud and wattle walls with a second-hand corrugated iron roof. Most houses have an earth floor and unplastered walls. An average of four to six people stay in a room that averages 3 to 6 square metres. One parishioner explained:
"We live in very bad places. When you are inside you can see people who are outside through the cracks and holes in our houses. And uet we are forced to pay Ksh 700 to stay in a place like this."
Another lamented: "Our walls and roofs are full of holes. Our houses are not good. They are not made with stones."
One elderly parishioner said: "Everything is built with dirt and they don't last. We have mud floors like the outside".
The most repeated complaint about housing is the small size. One parishioner said: "Houses are too small. There can be five kids in one room with two parents. We have visitors coming and no space for them. Children and parents have to sleep in the same one room with rain leaking in. Young girls are sleeping near their uncles and older male family members, which can even encourage incest."
Another aded, "It is common to have mature sons and daughters sharing a bed let alone one room."
There are also a complete lack of privacy and peace. One parishioner explained, "Because the walls are paper thin, you can do very little without your neighbour's knowledge. There is no peace because you are confined in a small space you have to share but the noise comes into your house".
Anotehr noted: "As parents we cannot control what our keds hear and see. Even if we want them to grow up properly, we can't control what they are seeing in the society."
Many complained: "If rain comes in, we repair the leaks, but we are forbidden by the government from putting in cement or stone. If you use stones, the chief will come and tear it down."
Another parishioner noted, "We can use plaster on the walls. But if you want to put up tin sheets, you have to pay a bribe from Ksh 5,000 to Ksh 10,000."
Many said: "You can't do any repairs without the permission of the landlord and sometimes the chief too, who usually wants a bribe paid first."
Case Studies by Rebecca Kabura - Community organizer,
Nairobi urban poverty partnership project - The following case studies illustrate the results of some of ITDG-EA's work:
Urban upgrading project gains momentum in Mavoko
An urban upgrading project gains momentum in the slums where health and land security are the biggest worries Nairobi Urban Poverty Partnership Project: the desperate situation facing the elderly in the expansive informal settlements of Nairobi Case Study 2: Regulatory Guidelines for Urban Upgrading
"There are lots of mosquitoes around here," says Susan Kamene, a widow who lives in the Mavoko Slums. "Sometimes they attack in waves at night. The next day you're tired from lack of sleep, then a few days later you go down with a deadly fever – Malaria fever."
"My grandmother sent me to fetch water for washing the dishes from the stagnant pool because she does not have the one shilling I have to pay at the water point. We only buy water when it is for drinking," says four-year-old Susan.
"There is a lot of excreta all over this place during the rains and when the toilets are dirty. Anybody can tell from far when the latrines are full or when they are very dirty. They smell bad and nobody wants to use them. Even grown-ups leave their excreta outside the latrine," laments eleven-year-old Jane.
These are voices from Carton City, 39 Kijiji, KMC, Slaughter and Kaswitu – the informal settlements in Mavoko Municipal Council, located 20 km from Nairobi, along the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway. The settlements, characterised by shacks constructed from old carton boxes and plastic paper, are homes to some 1,800 families. The structures offer the dwellers little protection from adverse weather elements. Being illegal occupants they are not permitted to put up anything of a more permanent nature.
The slums sit on a flood plain and are exposed to the danger of flooding whenever it rains. "There is more danger when the rains come at night," says Joseph Mulove, a resident of Carton City. "If that happens there is always a mad rush in the darkness. There are always your children, and your property to salvage. Often times, many are not lucky to save both."
At Carton City, there is only one pit latrine for every ten households – the same or worse goes for the rest. During the rainy season the pit latrines overflow discharging their piquant contents all over the place. "You can understand then, why the risk of disease outbreak is ever present at the slum," complains Mulove.
The Mavoko slum dwellers have no access to clean water. They beg for the commodity from the adjacent wines and spirit distillery plant. The Athi River and other small streams that they rely on for domestic water supply are now murky messes, thanks to the heavy industrial activity in the area. Residents who use the polluted Athi water suffer from fluorosis – a dental condition that causes the teeth to turn brown.
Besides the constant threat of eviction, malaria remains the slum dwellers' deadliest enemy. However, the biggest nightmare is the issue of land ownership. These people are not the legitimate owners of the land they occupy, yet some of them know no other home, having been born and brought up there.
Current shelter legislation in Kenya, like in most developing countries, is inappropriate for poor people who live in the rapidly growing urban centres. Many urban poor residents have been unable to adhere to planning standards, regulations and administrative systems. The regulatory frameworks in place prevent the urban poor from improving their physical assets and making the most of these as a source of income. This contributes to poor health, productivity, and vulnerability to eviction and violence. Complaints have been voiced over the length of time it takes to comply with the regulations and eventually have services and facilities delivered. Several government and municipal departments have to be consulted before a service is provided. Insecurity of tenure and limited access to credit further constrains investments in housing. As a result, the number of towns in which the population living in informal settlements is larger than in formal settlements is increasing rapidly.
The Regulatory Guidelines for Urban Upgrading (RGUU) project hopes to help the low-income communities gain capacity to regulate urban development; improve their standards of living and incomes; become less vulnerable to eviction; improve their housing conditions; improve the relationship between them, and the local authorities and CBOs, and improve their environment.
Diverse interest groups and various stakeholders have expressed the urgent need for changes to existing regulatory frameworks. Leading amongst these is the Nairobi Informal Settlements Coordination Committee (NISCC) - a consortium of actors from the public, private and NGO sectors that are active in Nairobi's informal settlements, of which ITDG-EA is a prominent member. Others include NGOs and CBOs affiliated to Shelter Forum (SF), as well as community groups that were among the key stakeholders in the Integrated Urban Housing Project initiated by ITDG-EA in Nakuru.
The Mavoko project is a logical continuation of earlier work that ITDG-EA did on the Enabling Housing Standards and Procedures (EHSP) Project in Nakuru Municipality under the World Bank funded Local Authorities Reform Programme.
Case Study : Nairobi Urban Poverty Partnership project
An old man has nothing to look forward to "You are asking me about the land demarcation? Will they even think, let alone consider me? Although I am one of the earliest settlers here I know that they will not consider me. I am waiting for God, after all life has nothing to offer me. Nobody will miss me when I am gone since I am poor and all alone". These are Mzee Mwaniki's words, echoing the pathetic situation facing the elderly in this expansive informal settlement.
Mzee Mwaniki was born in Nairobi and is one of the earliest settlers in the area. He recalls the days before independence when the white settlers used to occupy the area. Maili Saba was then a sisal plantation.
He is not able to tell his age since he did not go to school. However, from his looks, I estimated his age to be about 80 years. His mother was a single woman who earned her living as a commercial sex worker. He does not remember his father. In the 1950s Mwaniki joined the armed struggle for independence against British colonial rule. He was detained for many years as a result. When he was finally released, he found that his mother, who was the only relative, had passed away.
Fighting poverty and living in several informal settlements in Nairobi characterized his subsequent life. Although there were very few people in Maili Saba then, he found himself living here because he was able to get casual jobs in the adjoining farms. After independence, a few people began moving into Maili Saba although the progress was slow due to the distance to the city center. The informal settlement is about 7 kilometers from the city center.
The octogenarian is single and has no dependants. He describes the house he lives in as a "toilet" due to its size and the lack of proper sanitary facilities. He depends on the kindness of the landlord because he is not able to raise the Ksh 200 monthly rent. Mzee Mwaniki is not bothered about lack of social services. According to him, they are less important compared to getting food. For a toilet, he goes to the bush and cannot recall when he last had a bath. The landlord gives him food once in a while. There are times when he can go without food for many days. Other times he goes scavenging in the garbage heaps in the affluent neighboring estate of Dandora Phase 5.
"An old man like me has nothing to look forward to. Life for me is the same everyday" was his reply when asked about his aspirations. "I have nowhere to go since I cannot even afford a meal, leave alone a ticket to go anywhere." was his snap response as he limped away. It was not clear whether his limp was due to hunger or pain.
By Rebecca Kabura
Community organizer,
Nairobi urban poverty partnership project |
