On May 4th, 2020, Nairobi County Government officers demolished homes and shops in Nairobi’s Kariobangi neighbourhood, leaving between 7,000 and 8,000 people homeless. The Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company claims the land; however, some residents also produced title deeds for their propoerty there. The Kariobangi evictions took place despite a court order restraining authorities from conducting these evicitions, and ongoing global calls to halt evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only do displaced residents now face increased risk of COVID-19 infection, they are shelterless during a particularlly wet rainy season in Kenya. In response, protests errupted in nearby Korogocho neighborhood and Nairobi’s ring road, and were met by police using water cannons, tear gas, and live ammunition.
Universidad de Navarra PhD student, Ángela Abascal Imízcoz, interviews Kenyan urban expert, Priscilla Kabiru, about the legal grounds for “slum” evictions in Kenya.
Ángela: Are there any official documents in Kenya that recognise “slums”?
Priscilla: The existing laws on urban planning and redevelopment — Physical Planning Act (CAP 286) and Urban Areas and Cities Act — do not explicitly recognize slums or informal settlements. The Urban Areas and Cities Act (clause 13, 2(c)) mentions neighbourhood associations, which are often present in informal settlements; the locally term used is “Nyumba Kumi,” which translates to “10 houses.” The Nyumba Kumi Initiative was formed as a community policing initiative that has evolved its functions, especially in informal settlements, as a platform for community participation. In my opinion, these two laws are where we would expect to see acknowledgement of informal settlements, but they fail to mention slums or informal settlements at all.
Ángela: What does being known as a “slum” mean in terms of risks and protections?
Priscilla: Re-development of infrastructure (such as highways) often follows “slum” evictions. For example, evictions took place in Kibera for a By-Pass linking Nairobi and Jomvu, and in Bangladesh Mombasa for the Mombasa Highway. Sadly, there are cases where eviction notices were offered (some up to 90 days) and others not. However, in either case, these populations were already vulnerable and left devastated afterwards with nowhere to go, and their property and few belongings damaged.
Ángela: How long does it take for an informal area to start processing land tenure (official title deeds for the land)?
Priscilla: Most of the informal settlements in Nairobi are either on public land or “squatting” on private land. In Kisumu, on the other hand, some “slum” residents have tenure security given that the land was rural and urbanization caught up with them. In Nairobi, I have seen successful tenure processing in Kibera for the Nubian community. Also, about two years ago, through support of non-profits, residents of Mukuru “slums” were able to get government support through use of one of the planning tools in the Physical Planning Act to start a planning process for that settlement – hopefully, the residents will get tenure security. You can read about it here.
Ángela: Are there any laws where the government can evict new informal settlements?
Priscilla: If a new settlement is located on private land, yes, the owner can go through the judicial system to get them evicted. But this also depends on how long the settlement has been present.
Ángela: What is the role of spatial data with regard to evictions?
Priscilla:
Kenya in particular carried out a project, Joint National Resource Mapping (JNAM), which is to offer digital cadastral system services. A system which would provide information on the persons owning the land, the size and value of the land, etcetra. If rolled-out, it could be used to obtain information on the particular households (in the case where tenure documents were issued) and offer compensation and/or take adequate measures to protect these individuals in the case of evictions. In the absence of such systems, different studies have proven successful in estimating populations (e.g. in informal settlements using satellite images). Without much computing – through visual inspection – satellite images can also give an indication of the characteristics of the households in the area of planned evictions as well as the comparative estimate of the population. Take Google Earth for instance, it’s affordable and accessible even though the resolution isn’t high. From it, you can note the differences between, and sometimes within, neighbourhoods. For example, informal settlements appear to have irregular street patterns, crowded and higher household structure densities among others in comparison to the planned, more formal residential neighbourhoods. Such information gives an indication of how vulnerable a population is and would call for better ways of handling evictions.
