Policy planners and officials in the land and urban sectors in Kenya need to follow closely the debate on slum dwellers recently elicited by reports in the Nation.

Informal settlements in Kenya have acquired a life of their own. And the apparent neglect by authorities, the daily hardships and the occasional brutal evictions have hardened the dwellers.

And since their numbers have swelled with time, slum dwellers have lately acquired a potent weapon — voting power

Opinion

Plight of slum dwellers cannot be ignored

By IBRAHIM MWATHANE
Sunday Nation September 23^rd, 2012: Posted  Saturday, September 22  2012 at  18:12

In Summary

• Urban planners and managers can therefore no longer afford to ignore them.
• Moreover, our land policy, the Constitution and land laws provide friendly terrain through which slum dwellers can mitigate their land rights.
• The proliferation of slums in Kenya in recent years has been driven by rural-urban migration and insufficient low cost housing in most urban areas.
• But poor planning and inappropriate allocation of land in urban areas have aggravated the problem.

Policy planners and officials in the land and urban sectors in Kenya need to follow closely the debate on slum dwellers recently elicited by reports in the Nation.

Informal settlements in Kenya have acquired a life of their own. And the apparent neglect by authorities, the daily hardships and the occasional brutal evictions have hardened the dwellers.

And since their numbers have swelled with time, slum dwellers have lately acquired a potent weapon — voting power.

In Nairobi, for instance, they nowadays receive swift attention from political leaders whenever they cry out.

Urban planners and managers can therefore no longer afford to ignore them. Moreover, our land policy, the Constitution and land laws provide friendly terrain through which slum dwellers can mitigate their land rights.

One, therefore, expects to see these citizens apply the new laws to demand their rights through our justice system.

Undermine the economies

Slums undermine the economies of urban areas. Yet urban areas drive over half of Kenya’s gross domestic product today. Nairobi alone accounts for close to 50 per cent of our GDP.

Sadly, we don’t have a comprehensive inventory of all informal settlements. This complicates high level planning.

But what’s not in doubt is that slums in Kenya are characterised by poverty, insecure land tenure, overcrowding, sub-standard housing and lack of infrastructural services and social amenities.

The proliferation of slums in Kenya in recent years has been driven by rural-urban migration and insufficient low cost housing in most urban areas.

But poor planning and inappropriate allocation of land in urban areas have aggravated the problem. How?

Plans held by the affected Local Authorities and the ministry of Lands don’t reflect parcels of land on which such settlements stand.

Where the settlements stand, for instance, on public land belonging to government or local authorities, the plans reflect such land as unallocated land, hence available for allocation.

Therefore, during the craze for the allocation of public land, there were those able to easily influence the allocation of such land to themselves or their cronies.

But the tragedy would have been avoided if the surveyors commissioned to survey occupied land for registration of titles advised that the land was in the occupation of slum dwellers.

But it would appear that on finding the land squatted, some surveyors shrewdly compiled theoretical survey records — such as those used to aid the grabbing of Ngong and Karura forests while the trees still stood — therefore enabling titles to be produced for land under the occupation of slum dwellers.

An investigation of the titles to the land on which such settlements stand in major urban areas like Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri and Thika may reveal that most such allocations happened within the last 15 to 25 years, long after the dwellers had taken occupation.

For this reason, registered owners of such plots have never taken occupation and have little hope of ever doing so. But there are cases of parcels which were vacant at allocation only to be later invaded by slum dwellers.

Frustrated, some owners approached lending institutions and acquired loans. But lenders of such cash seem not to have bothered to reflect upon how they’d ever evict the slum dwellers to take over such land for sale in the event of default in payments.

If we had good records, conscientious professionals and responsible management in local authorities and the ministry of Lands, the scale of this problem would be far lower.

As things stand today, land under slum settlement is home to millions of citizens. And experience during the 2007/08 post-election violence shows that almost everywhere, informal settlements were the epicentres for the waves of violence that hit urban areas. Violence and aggression thrive in poverty and helplessness.

This is why we must plan and mobilise resources to mitigate the social plight and conflict of interests. But for their livelihoods to be improved, land tenure security must be assured.

Ibrahim Mwathane is a consultant in surveying and land information management and former chairman, Institution of Surveyors of Kenya. www.ibrahimmwathane.com