Urbanization In Kenya Case Study

The twenty-first century marks the first time in history that the majority of the world’s population live in urban areas (Buhaug & Urdal, 2013). Urbanization is continuing rapidly, especially in cities of the global South. Poverty is also urbanizing as reflected in the lack of adequate housing, infrastructure and services for a majority of poor urban populations. One third of the world’s population is estimated to be living in slum conditions characterized by high densities of low income residents (Phua & Ooi, 2007). City governments are unable to keep up with the needs of growing urban populations, and government corruption leads to further difficulty in addressing the low standards of living of the urban poor. The problem of slums has been …show more content…
The project has activities in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mavoko, and Mombasa with the aim of improving the livelihoods of people living and working in Kenya’s slums by the year 2020 through the provision of security of tenure, housing improvement, income generation, and physical and social infrastructure (Syrjanen, 2008).The government of Kenya recognizes that the challenge isn’t to slow down urbanization, but to cope with it and it’s challenges. In the past there have been efforts such as forced evictions, resettlement and site and service schemes, and now the focus is on slum upgrading (Syrjanen, 2008). KENSUP was originally planned to be piloted in Kibera, but it was later decided to limit the pilot to Soweto, one of Kibera’s villages in the south-eastern sector (see Figure 1) (Huchzermeyer, 2008). The Kibera-Soweto pilot project launched in 2004 with one of the goals being to temporarily resettle residents to a complex just outside of Kibera while new structures were built (MacDonald, 2014). The plan was to develop orderly blocks of flats which are 50 square meter two bedroom units to be privately owned (Huchzermeyer, 2008). The pilot project had some broad objectives as well, such as improving water, sanitation and waste management, improve mobility within Soweto, establish non-motorized transport, provide household power connections, support the community in business ventures, and improve technology skills among the residents (Syrjanen, 2008). Although the programme began in 2004, the learnings and outcomes of the infrastructures implemented still need to be consolidated and disseminated. So far, Soweto has formed Settlement Executive Committees, and has undergone socio-economic mapping. The housing scheme has been under construction, almost 5km of road has been under construction and four cooperatives have been formed (Anderson &