Why Map Urban Informal Settlement?

Informal settlements are generally ‘unrecognised’ in many urban settings. In years that have passed places like Mathare, Kibera and Mukuru were not visible on the net. With the advent of participatory mapping and Open Street Map platform, it became practical for communities that are hidden from rest of the world to be visible.

Open Street Map has now become the alternative to showing what most governmens would not want highlighted due to ‘policies’. My experience of mapping Mathare was filled with anxious moments and too many questions by the village elders. Elders in 2010 looked at mapping as a way of  demacating land and plot allocation and regulization.

Upon mapping mapping Mathare;  boundries and resource distribution in the community became evident and this was followed by meaningful discussions with how the community looks like and what is not there.

Local leaders, NGOs and community based groups were not left behind. The map has been become a source of inspiration and motivation to proper community development.  The disparities in allocation of resources by the politicians and local administration became evident and discussions ensued.

The power of people mapping their communities can no longer be ignored as it brings out the true picture of the community.

Thanks to Open Street Map, the underprivileged, invisible can now be corrected and made visible- Simon

Children Using Space

Creating good a conducive environment for all to enjoy is the most challenging aspect in slum like Mathare. There are always huge piles of uncollected solid waste, broken sewers, use, noise pollution, limited space for children to exercise their right to play, lack of social amenities for the youth, no social halls or club house for elderly to meet and discussion about their own issues.

Despite all these, people still live and survive against all odds. The limited space available is shared amongst different groups. Like Huruma Sports Ground host various Christian crusades but it has produced some good and international soccer players while at the same provides bulk of players for street soccer in the Kenyan team.

On the other hand Mathare river host various socioeconomic activities despite high levels of pollutions. Various youth groups have managed to reclaim riparian land along the river and started urban farming activities. The good thing abour urban farming is that the youth do not use polluted river for irrigation.

Children make use of any available space to exercise their right play not caring much danger associated. It is common to find children playing next to a garbage hip or beside the river. – Simon

Elections and Food Insecurity

Urban farming demonstration centre in Mathare funded by European Union

Mathare depends on mainly food transported from outside. This therefore means that if a small disruption occurs then outsider traders cannot access Mathare and sell their food. It also mean that people will not have enough food for survival.

Walking down the valley, there is very little efforts being put by either the government or NGOs to invest in food security. It is common knowledge that during the last election period, traders could not access market to sell their commodities. In one of the villages-Mathare 4B and Gitathuru in 2008, people resorted to breaking houses to steal food and not electronics equipments.

I remember when peace had return after post election violence many NGOs started initiative addressing food insecurity. Currently the most visible programmes on food security in Mathare is the one being led by COOPI where by vulnerable community members are given Kshs. 1500 for food per household. This has been going on close to one year.

Given that we are nearing elections in Kenya, it will be good for various actors to invest more on ensuring that there will be enough food in the market by exploring ways of creating community based silos to store food in vulnerable communities so as to avert food crises. Currently various parts of Rift Valley such Burnt Forest have bumper harvest on maize. From previous elections in Kenya, it is common knowledge that whenever we have elections, case of food insecurity has always been reported.

There can be no free and fair elections if people are hungry. Democracy and access to food and security will always go together. In urban centres it is even worse. Investing more in urban farming and food storage facilities would help avert previous cases of food insecurity before or after elections. – Simon

City wide clean up campaign held in mathare huruma

Mathare: Changing House Design

Storey building on the background

Construction of storey buildings using wood and iron sheet has become an indicator that the population in Mathare Valley is increasing at very high rate. This is apart from increase in house rent. The houses vary in size and the number of people per household.

A normal house is about 10 x 10 in size housing 3 – 5 people on average. The safety of these houses is questionable as they are never supervised by qualified personnel. However most people preferred them as they are considered safe. Lack of space for slum expansion has made structure owners to be creative and change their design.The design is also dictated by how deep one pocket is.

In the early 70s and 80s the City Council of Nairobi had constructed toilets and bathroom. A community elder who has lived in Mathare for more than  50 year told me that the project was funded by the World Bank. This led to laxity by structure owners to construct washroom for the community. Unfortunately due to land grabbing many of these facilities are no longer there.

Permanent buildings are much more expensive than semi-permanent even though located inside slum. The rent ranges between Kshs. 500 – 3500/- for a single room. Power, water and washroom are not a guarantee by the landlords. – Simon

Access to Shelter in Mathare

Having a comfortable shelter is dream to many slum dwellers. The business of accessing shelter had always been in the hands of elected leaders, village elders and local administration (sub-chief and chief) in  Mathare Valley. In Mathare village 2, it was the village elders who would identify a space and collude with elected leaders and local administration to decide who to benefit.

One of the key requirements in the 1980s was availability of funds by the beneficiary to put up the structures. Failure to put up the structure on time would lead to the re-allocation to another ‘investors’. Since most of the people in Mathare could not afford to put up the structures, the community was invaded by ‘private developers’ who were mainly outsiders.

When allocating space to build houses elected leaders, village elders and local administration never considered leaving spaces for social amenities.  One of the repercussions of not engaging community in development matters is that by 1995, community owned nursery schools in Mathare and Huruma were dished out churches that were pro-establishment.

By mid 80s, most structures were owned by absentee landlord and village elders and cronies of the local administration.  This made it very difficult for tenants to make long term plans for the community.

However with time and opening up of democratic space in 90s, it led to the formation of human rights and social movements in Mathare Valley. These groups have been instrumental in engaging the elected leaders, village elders, local administration and other government agencies about their rights.

Currently any development being initiated in Mathare Valley, the community must be engaged. This has helped control illegal evictions. – Simon

Right to Sanitation-Mathare

Mathare area DO joins in celebrating sanitation with residents

On 28 July 2010 United Nations General Assembly declared, “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” Kenya being a member of UN I believe Mathare people are too.
Looking at the situation in Mathare, it is sometimes too much to bear for the residents. The government officials are overburden with situation due to lack of equipment and little investment by the local authorities. This has forced youth groups to organize themselves to bridge lack of resources by the government to address water, environment and sanitation challenges in the slum.

Today (11/5/2011), I was part of a team that saw the launching of new type of toilets by Plan Kenya through partnership with local groups such as Community Cleaning Services, Tunaweza Youth Group and MANYGRO from Mathare.
The event was attend by Plan representatives from Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Plan Australia and Kenya office among other countries.

It is now apparent to the resident that the right to clean water and adequate sanitation has to be led by the people and not by government officials. The joy exhibited by the residents during the launch was a demonstration of their determination to make it a reality and an enjoyable right.

Having access to clean water and sanitation is no-longer a matter of health but people appreciating their environment and respecting their surrounding.

The water, environment and sanitation is the next biggest employer in the slums. Nearly all toilets employ more than ten people per toilet. All water points are managed by people who ran them on daily basis. Tunaweza Youth Group in Mashimoni has been able to construct a bio toilet. Through this venture, they have a meeting hall and are in the process of harnessing gas to generate electricity and sell to the community.

The Map Mathare group has been mapping water and sanitation points to establish the real situation. It is through generating information that the community can engage either development partners and government top facilitate more development projects. Mathare team has managed to map nearly all the open drainage in small section. This will help identify points where there broken sewer and water pipes.

Plan Kenya and Plan Australia have managed to help the community achieve their potential to enjoy their to water and sanitation. – Simon

Slums: Upgrading People’s Livelihood

Main street in Mathare 4A

I like my sister very much. She is the only girl we have in the family amongst five boys. We had a heated debate about slum upgrading which people have already started saving for in Kosovo. She is part of leadership for savings scheme and also a structure owner. While the intention is good, my worries was about the real tenants, who pay rent but do not own any structure within the community. Are they going to benefit? I think no. Since all the land has been occupied within Kosovo and structure owners have taken over. She had a difficult time trying to convince me that the process is inclusive for the the structure owners and tenants; My question to her was, where will they get the extra land for tenants? Land is never exported or imported but rather it is the people who move to where there is land. She was not convincing despite her insistence that all will benefit.

After sometime, the topic changed to livelihood with the community. According to her and neighbour who joined in the discussion, the current economic activities in the slums should be catered for while designing any upgrading project. People withing the informal settlement are able to save on a daily basis because of their involvement in the informal trade. 

In Mathare, most people are either selling within or working as casual labourers in the nearby neighhoods of Eastleigh, Town and Industrial area. It is this kind of informal trade that enable people to aspire f0r higher activities. Some of the economic activities currently taking place might not fit into the newly upgraded houses. It is important for planners to also factor in livelihood. It is through informal livelihood that people are able to save, service loans, feed their families and provide education to their children.

At the end of our discussion we were all in agreement that Slum Upgrading is not all about upgrading houses but also upgrading people’s livelihood. – Simon

Mapping Poverty

For the last five months, I have been part of a wonderful team mapping public places in Mathare. These places included social and economic issues which concern the community. The team is composed of 20 active mappers who are all residents of Mathare from different villages. The team was trained by mappers from Kibera on how to do it using the GPS and loading the information in the internet.

After five months of mapping one can clearly see what is there and also form question of what has not been mapped.  I asked one community elder from Kosovo how many toilets are there? He quickly mentioned 5! But when I showed him the map, he got a rude shock. He said, “I always thought that I know many things about community”. Participating in the mapping exercise was a time for reflection on what we have in the community and how we can transform the information for fighting poverty in the Mathare.

Critical part of the process was the people as a resource! Without their blessing and involvement, there is no way we would have penetrated the slums. It was good to note that the District Officer for Mathare division appreciated the work and he hangs one map in his office.

But above all these, what clearly comes out is the naked truth on the level of poverty and how the community is coping with the challenges. On water and sanitation, there are many types of toilets and water points of interest to the community. The number of toilets seen on the map might give an impression that there are enough toilets but this is wrong. If assessed how many family members share one toilet, then you will get shocked. This brings out the limited access of sanitation. Looking again where and how the raw sewer flows over to the next phase! Then one can see the time bomb waiting to explode-DISEASE OUTBREAK. Looking deeper, how many hospitals are there are?

On water points you will expect that the water is always there since water points are many. But what a shock as the water is never there and when it comes, it is sold between Shillings 2-5 per twenty litres far much expensive than in rich places like Muthaiga and Lavington.

The open defecation areas have taken over the children play grounds. Children have no-where to play

The next phase is to use the maps to engage local leaders and government officials towards action.

What do you see in the map of Mathare? – Simon

Mathare: Lights at Night

Light the slum

When dark falls in slums to some it become a source of worries. For small businesses selling vegetable and shop operators this means they have to close early. For the women, darkness is associated with insecurity. But with time, the government has tried to light the slums through the Adopt A Light. High masts fitted with powerful bulbs have been erected in some parts of Mathare. In locations where the lights have been erected, businesses have increased while insecurity has greatly reduced. -Simon