a5
>>In these figures, it can be seen that garbage is dumped in a massive pile right next to the settlement. There is a small stream of water in the figure above, like the one seen in Figure 1 used by many for waste disposal. People know that the environment needs to improve, but priority goes to surviving the day and family welfare.
a6
Some people live in slums with no light or ventilation. See Figure 4.
a7
>>Children in slums are constantly ill. Most likely, these children lack proper nutrition, so their immune systems are weak and easily defeated.
There are about five to eight people living in every small shanty dwelling without electricity, water supply or waste disposal. Since some squatters are tenants, powerful bosses demand that they are required to pay rents of $5 to $40 a month for one-room slums (b). This places burden on families because many do not have jobs, as unemployment is high. Criminality is high because people tend to steal when they are in poverty and cannot pay rent. In many cases, when parents have to work, the children are left to fend for themselves. Many do not know about personal hygiene due to young age, so this is how some come in contact with diseases. Other times, children set up stands of their own in an attempt to sell some goods. See Figure 5.
b1
>>Outside of their shanty, these two children are selling goods as a way to make money for their parents.
b2
>>This is a typical store found in Mukuru, Nairobi. Families may run stores like this.
Letting children go out to find food can be dangerous because many are abused and brutally attacked. In worst cases, fathers of some families abandon their wives with the children, leaving the wives to raise the children on their own. Fertility rate of Kenya is 5 children per woman (b3), which can give the idea of how tough life is for woman who have to work and raise her children. See Figure 6.
b4
>>This woman brings her child to work with her. She is sitting in front of a hair salon selling roasted corn in order to make some money for her child.
Some children are fortunate to have access to education. Figure 7 shows a photo of one of the schools found in Kibera’s slum.
b5
>>Like any other shanty, this school is located next to a disposal stream. Children must be carefully looked after in order to make sure they do not get near the contaminated water.
However, many children do not attend school because studying would be too difficult. There is no light inside shanties, so studying at night would be impossible. As well, since Kenya is right at the equator of Earth, studying outside on sunny days is too much for smaller children to stand the heat. In Nairobi slums, only 37 percent of the people complete primary school as compared to 95 percent nationally (b6).
Looking back to Map One, Nairobi is situated right by the Athi River. Naturally, river water is quite clean, however, with thousands of people using the river for disposal (dumping garbage), it becomes contaminated. See Figure 8. If the garbage is not dumped into the river, it piles up in one area, as seen in Figure 3.
b7
>>In this figure, the colour of the river appears to look as gray as the colour of smoke. People who use or come in contact with this water has high risks of getting swelling abdomens, skin disease, and worms.
When it rains, paths become flooded with water, sometimes, with contaminated river water. See Figure 9.
c
>>This street here can be seen flooding with rainwater. This water can contain harmful, disease-causing bacteria of human waste. The bacteria can contaminate the food and water people consume and use. This increases the risk of diseases for many small children whose shanties are flooded.
So then, due to no water systems in shanties, squatters must collect their own everyday from public water taps. See Figure 10.
d
>>These children are collecting water for a whole day’s use, including cooking and washing purposes. The water collected must be used wisely in order to have enough for the whole day.
e
>>This photo shows a mom using the water collected from public taps to wash her baby.
Figure 1 simply just shows a typical shanty people in Nairobi live in. There are differences in materials used for each shanty settlement, but the commonality of these shanties is that they are unsanitary, poor, and constructed out of any materials people can find.
>>END OF STEP 2<<
DO WE NEED THIS?
Few health care services are available in shanty settlements. See Figure 11.
f
However, due to poverty, many people cannot afford medical care, so many people rely on family members to continue looking for food.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mcgibbaa/EastAfrica2007/photo#5094227055768623746 (picture)
Part 5
These policies previously listed have both pros and cons, reflecting the government’s competence and compassion for the people of the Squatter settlements of Nairobi. The bulldozing policy is the most inept of the policies and does nothing but stem racial hatred and civil unrest. This is reflected by the racial persecution of the Kikuyu in 1990 by president Moi, which also reflects the deep divides within Kenya through its various racial groups. Another thing to note is that when the squatters homes get destroyed, they temporarily move into the core of the city for a few days as they do not have anywhere else to go, and in which most would either overcrowd the streets begging for food and money, work for a few odd jobs, or go to crime, robbing the residents for the smallest amounts of cash. This is already done when the squatters still had their homes, but a giant increase occurs after the demolition of their homes, which results in huge problems for the city, including economic strain, deaths, and destroyed businesses, it is also important to note that as one racial group occupies certain settlements, the destruction of these settlements would result in a temporary influx of one desperate, angry, bitter racial group in the city, which can cause racial attacks against enemy racial groups and the racial group they think is responsible for their eviction. Most of these people would than move back out of the relative shelter of the city, or maybe forced out, and reconstruct a shanty settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi, with nothing different except the destruction of a community that has to scavenge materials for a shanty town again, disorder in the city, increased racial hatred, and potential for civil strife, and all the city has is land up for development by rich land owners who want to be richer. This is a policy of greed, uncompassionate business, and of temporary “solutions” to fix the eyesore of Shanty dwellings.
The policy of ignoring the problem and letting the people help themselves is an improvement of the bull dozing policy but is still inadequate for the solution of this problem. One important aspect of this policy is that it is not free, as it does indirectly cause a financial burden to the government. One example is how the squatter settlers bribe police to allow them to illegally connect to the water pipeline, bringing fresh, clean water (this doesn’t occur in all settlements), which has resulted in unaccounted amounts of water unpaid for, such as how in November of 2004 the chairman of the Nairobi Water Company reported that 50 percent of the city water was unaccounted for, costing 10.4 million a month. The pit Latrines installed by the residents may be dangerous at night, but provide basic sanitation for the residents, helping to give a better quality of life. The vegetable fields and farm animals promote independent sustainability and reduce the strain for food from outside sources, but the animals and the close proximity that human contact is made with them helps to promote disease and poor sanitation. This policy helps the situation in the beginning but is extremely limited to a certain level of development, and creates indirect strains, as residents indirectly take millions of dollars worth of water, electricity, land use, and money from the economy through robbery and muggings, a last resort for the truly desperate. And yet these people do not pay sufficient amounts of taxes, not contributing to society as one with a real job or occupation would, this is not because there is not enough of jobs, true, there is not enough jobs for the farm skilled worker to do unskilled work, but there is a need for more skilled jobs such as nurses, engineers, architects, teachers, and trained construction workers, but the money to educate them is hard to find in such a poor country( education could occur for the people with housing in the cities where there is easier access, and these educated people will help bring industry and free up jobs for the unskilled, allowing an opportunity for the unskilled workers to have steady jobs and to contribute to the economy, and would also bring wealth into the settlements improving the living conditions, but this can only happen with money to support proper education in the city, and this is the commodity that Kenya and Nairobi lacks the most) . So this policy results in a continuous strain on the economy, with no real solution in sight, giving very basic amenities to the residents of these squatter settlements.
The international help to this problem in Kenya has helped the situation. When the World Bank projects started in the 1970s, in the suburb of Dandora, it led to declining rents in the city and greater availability of sanitation and potable water than in other African cities. These international projects were not free and were paid for by the residents and people of Kenya. When, in the 1980s, the wealthy residents stopped paying charges and taxes, the fees were than directed to the poor beneficiaries of the project. These people rioted against these high taxes. Situations similar to this occurring around Nairobi and with the cumulative arrears in loan repayments from the tenants of the municipal housing projects were below 60 percent of the amount due that year. In 1996 a World Bank evaluation of its Nairobi projects showed that the Nairobi City Council had failed on its loan recovery efforts and the management of property. It was now unable to promote home ownership, failing to reduce the proliferation of informal settlements. This resulted in a loss of structure to continue the internationally sponsored slum upgrading projects. International aid now occurs in isolated cases around Nairobi, providing basic Amenities to the cost of the international organization, upgrading the settlements. But this upgrading is being discouraged through the fear that the government is just going to bull doze these upgraded settlements.
One problem that waves through every single policy and its method, and the reasons why such a problem exists is corruption throughout the entire country. One has to pay off people in the hierarchy of power to get materials into Nairobi to even start implicating programs set up by the government and international organizations. One example of how bad corruption is in Kenya is that the international monetary fund had frozen funding in 2001. Also the EU suspended 50 million Euros in budget support. Corruption not only prevents aid to the problems of Kenya, such as the squatter settlements, but also creates the problems for squatter settlements. One example is the bribing of police from squatter residents to illegally use piped water, to use electricity, and when one commits a crime, one can bribe the police, which promote crime as it seems that such acts will go unpunished. Corruption is in every form of government and is the real problem that is preventing the improvements for squatter settlers and also for most of the problems in Kenya. One example is that the infrastructure of Kenya is in shambles because of corruption as the civil servants responsible for the maintenance of roads are poorly trained and poorly paid, giving motive to take money from the funds to keep for themselves, this is reflected by how less than 15 percent of the roads in Kenya were in good condition by the end of the 1990s.
Part 4
%% The squatter settlements, as seen in fig. X, and described earlier are in dire need of help. One would expect, although maybe or maybe not that likely, that human beings would deserve better treatment with better hygienic conditions. One would hope that these people would be able to get piping to bring in clean water, to have decent human waste disposal sites, to have basic, safe electricity, to have improved building supplies to build better buildings, to have the tools to clean clothes properly (manually), to have proper garbage disposal, and to lessen the discrimination dealt to the rural-urban migrants. These are basic suggestions and goals for the Kenyan government and the city of Nairobi should try to acquire and achieve, but is restrained by many factors, such as racism towards the migrants themselves, a lack of funds, and more pressing matters which demand their attention, such as the election and the civil strife, racial conflict, riots, and death that followed.
The most practiced government policy is excuse after excuse, running away from the problem as far back as the 1960s and earlier, when the British colonial system gave a heritage of ignoring the plight of the poor and for the rich to acquire as much wealth as possible, ignoring the plight of thousands, soon to be millions. The policy of the colonial government was to just simply send the squatters back to the rural areas, making it easier to manage the city; this method was different than the ones that Kenya practiced after independence. None which have appeared to be that effective in solving the problem. The Kenyan government has of course many excuses, many which are valid but cannot be completely blamed and could be overcome, the biggest is that these people live on land illegally, and thus the government is not obliged to take care of them, another is that this is a result of racial discrimination under colonialism, that it stems from African urban poverty, that it is a product of Kenya’s heavy international debt burden, and that it has been worsened by foreign international aid.
Obviously, he government’s overall reaction to the situations is unimpressive, to say the least, and borders on suppression and inhumanity towards the residents of the squatter settlements. The Kenyan government has a much bigger issue on hand currently than the dealings of squatter settlements, as civil strife and racial conflict rage through Kenya, but Kenya has had ample time in the past to deal with these people, and they have. Another problem is that the problem falls under the Nairobi city council, listed the fifth most corrupted public sector organisation by Transparency International. Past policies have reflected this greed and corruption, with the demolition of these settlements by bulldozers to either free up the land for settlement, or just too temporarily hide the problems of Nairobi; this is fuelled by old tribal prejudices and racism. The current policy in Kenya today is the Cooperative Housing Program which encourages people to use initiative to provide themselves with better housing. The government essentially gives the raw, basic material to the Squatter settlers (very basic, such as cheap wood, thin sheets of metal, etc...). Another government method is “upgrading” squatter sites, by giving basic amenities.
***** An important policy for squatter settlers is the international aid given by the rest of the world. This stems to the 1960s when USAID and World Bank Officials had the government install non-traditional housing for squatters in Nairobi, with water, sanitation, roads, and public schools, encouraging self-help. There are currently 14 international organizations working in Nairobi, giving basic necessities to the squatter settlements in isolated cases, unlike the case earlier where the World Bank tried to have proper land ownership, which would allow private ownership legally by the resident at a low cost while providing upgrades through international and government programs. This idea has collapsed in 1996, through continuous conflict between the beneficiaries resentment of paying the burden of the cost while the wealthier residents have unloaded their share to these poor residents. This failure has ended up to having international organizations independently arrive to Nairobi and to upgrade slums in isolated cases. There has been a severe hindrance to the motivation of people to participate in slum upgrading currently, and that is the ever longing fear that their settlement will just be bulldozed down and it would not be worth the cost.
The policy of bulldozing squatter settlements began early in Kenya’s history after independence from the British in 196w, and stemmed from the failure of early international slum “upgrades” projects in the late sixties and early seventies, and resulted to about 40000 people being evicted in the 1970s (in one area), and could be connected to Kenya’s, and more specifically Nairobi’s economic and population growth, requiring more legal houses for those to afford them, and thus the city needed to knock down the settlements for economic reason. Bulldozing of squatter settlements in the 1980s was rare, but in 1990, President Moi allowed the demolition of two large settlements, displacing forty thousand people, most of them Kikuyu, who, coincidently politically opposed the president. In 2004, the government “relocated”, or bulldozed and destroyed forty two thousand structures in two area claiming that the land the squatters were on were needed for building roads on, and other projects.
The easiest and probably one of the most used policies is that of government ignoring the problem and allowing the squatters to take care of themselves. This is up held by the squatters as they form racial communities, relying on one another for help. Children help find materials over the city to build their houses, they also go into the city to beg to earn money for the family for food. This community also work together to tap into the power supply illegally, and to get access to piped, clean water, illegally and at the hidden cost of the government. These communities also build pits for human waste containment, which are usually shared with fifty other r people, and they also bring chickens and other farm animals, which is most of their expertise as they were farmers before they arrived in the city. Settlers also use illegally gained fresh water, or water from a near river, to irrigate their vegetable fields for food. Unfortunately, this self help also include getting money through begging in the city, working in odd jobs, many are very dangerous that no one else would do unless they were very desperate, such as most rural to urban migrants, and robbing people in the city for any amount of cash.
Part 3
The shanty settlements in Nairobi have arisen due to many factors. In the past, Nairobi’s public resources were unbalanced; some areas had wealthy housing while other areas ended up in slums. European colonists were usually the people who lived in wealthy housing areas. Today, natural increase and rural-urban migration contribute to the growth of shanty settlements. Many squatters have lived in rural areas of Kenya before settling down in slums. On the farms of rural areas, life is hard when crops fail and people are trapped by famine. In an attempt to find food, these people migrate into urban cities, in this case, Nairobi. However, once they migrate to Nairobi, they encounter many more problems. Many rural-urban migrants cannot find jobs in the city due to lack of literary skills, skills that are needed to work in many city jobs. These migrants cannot find affordable housing because they do not have an income-earning job. Rent in urban Nairobi is around 20,000 Kenya Shillings (21), which is approximately $288.88 CAD, per month. See Figure 11.
22
>>These are Nairobi’s furnished apartments at a price that is impossible for jobless people to pay. Low-income workers who live in shanties earn an average of 2712 KES per month (23).
Compare this price to just 5 to 40 KES per month in slums (as mentioned earlier), of course these people would rather build their own shanties for housing. Rural-urban migrants are usually looking for better quality of life in Nairobi, but they end up living in poor squatter settlements. More importantly, some migrants can open up small stores when they live in slums and make a small amount of money that is just enough for survival. See Figure 5 for photos of shanty stores.
Despite these horrific conditions, people are still flooding into Nairobi, partly because there is a lack of open communication that portrays the realistic realities and future for rural-urban migrants in Nairobi, and also because of what is happening in the rural areas that push people to want to try for a better life in the city. One reason is that Kenya, with its high fertlilty and population growth rate experiences large familiesw in rural areas, which results in more children to be part of a will, yet a farmer only has a limited amount of land, and must than give the land to the eldest, and sometimes eldest and econd eldest son to own, with the rest of the sons not getting any land, they will have to go to the city to get a job to support themselves as they cannot get a job in the village. A more recent factor is the current civil strife in Kenya, with riots and protests. These riots and protest stems from racial hatred and spreads all over the country, destroying land and farms, which results in a loss of farm land, the farmer must still get money to support his family, so he moves to the city to work and to send the money back home for support, this occurs in different variations with drought and natural disasters destroying the farm and the farmers only source of income.
This racism described earlier is not forgotten in the city or with people in the exact same position as oneself. This is reflected in the way that squatter settlements are consisitant of the same racial groups separated from one another, keeping to their own community. This helps make it harder for these people to unite and confront the government for better housing and to make them to stop evicting them, but also helps to create violence in
