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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:53 am
Time: 3:53 am
Results for slums (nairobi, kenya)
2 results foundAuthor: Okombo, Okath Title: The Challenge of Mending Ethnic Relations in the Nairobi Slums Summary: Nairobi’s informal settlements and slums were the epicentre of the post-election violence (PEV) that erupted in December 2007 and led to massive destruction of property, looting, displacement and forceful eviction of some ethnic communities from their homes. In many cases, minority rival communities were forced to relocate to other estates where their community members constitute a dominant group. Slum-based vigilante and militia groups consolidated themselves into two main rival factions in order to defend their communities and lawlessness threatened to engulf the city. Despite the fact that youth were at the centre of the crisis, most interventions that were initiated soon after the PEV failed to involve them. It is against this background that the Citizens Against Violence (CAVi) in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) sought to make a contribution to the country’s peace restoration effort, targeting six affected slums in Nairobi. In 2008, the “slum tenants and landlords dialogues” series began. This was a special intervention to reduce ethnic tension and reconcile the two groups so that residents could return to their homes. This led to the formation of interest groups representing the landlords and tenants respectively for purposes of formal negotiation, paving the way for some landlords to recover their houses and tenants to move back. The initiative also enabled youth and community leaders to deliberate on postpoll challenges in their estates as a step towards finding sustainable solutions to violence. Issues of cultural assimilation, access to land titles, widespread poverty and unemployment among the youth and fanatical support for some political players emerged as challenges that could still precipitate future ethnic conflicts. Candid discussions provoked many of the young leaders in the slums to aspire for better living conditions and improved socio-ethnic relations. This led in 2009 to the launch of the Nairobi Slums Assembly, a forum in which the young leaders from the six slums met every month to discuss specific issues affecting their particular environments and to come up with proposals which they then shared with the provincial administration, the police and elected leaders. In many cases, this has led to positive change as well as the building of bridges with the authorities. However, more work needs to be done. Integrated ethnic co-existence may be difficult to achieve in the urban slums without a multi-pronged effort by both government and civil society. It is our hope that sharing the findings of the project with a wider group of stakeholders will mobilize public interest and goodwill towards improving the conditions in the Nairobi slums for sustainable peace and socio-economic development. Details: Nairobi, Kenya: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), 2010. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 2, 2013 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/07884.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Kenya URL: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/07884.pdf Shelf Number: 129508 Keywords: LootingPoverty and CrimeSlums (Nairobi, Kenya)Socioeconomic ConditionsVigilantismViolence |
Author: Sana, Olang Title: Taking Stock of Socio-economic Challenges in the Nairobi Slums: An Inventory of the Pertinent Issues between January 2008 and November 2012 Summary: Kenya's post-2007 elections violence was a landmark event in the country's political history. The violence led to the death of over 1, 300 people, displacement of others, and destruction of property of unknown value especially in the then Nyanza, Western, Rift-valley and Coast provinces. Howevwer, the social cost of the violence was greater than the visible dislocations reported in the media and elsewhere. Over four and a half years after the violence, the social cost of the phenomenon still lives with the victims: survivors who suffered in not-so-visible ways, the internally displaced persons, people who lost property, victims of sexual assault, and people who sustained different kinds of physical and emotional injury. And whereas post -2007 elections crisis speeded up the pace of reforms in Kenya's body politic including the completion of the hitherto stalled constitutional review process, it is surprising that the Kenya government has made frail efforts to address the socio-economic needs of the communities and families affected by the scourge of violence. More surprisingly, very little attention to understand and act on the potential effects of post 2007 elections crisis on the forthcoming polls already slated for March 2013. The Nairobi slums are one area that was adversely affected by the December 2007-January 2008 post elections violence. The slums occupy one-eighth of the land space in Nairobi but host three-quarters of the city's population of four million people. Many factors combine to make the Nairobi slums the most violent and vulnerable neighborhoods in Nairobi. And as media reports indicate, post-election violence started in the Nairobi slums (Kibera) before it spread to other parts of the country. Consequently, the slums bore the heaviest brunt of the violence (relative to the up-market neighborhoods of Nairobi). A lot of information is still outside the public domain regarding how the violence erupted, immediate issues that provoked the violence, the ethnic character of the violence, the nature of disruptions wrought by the violence, and how various slum villages are coping with the trauma. Also outside the public domain is information regarding how the actual socio-economic conditions that prevail in the slums add to their violent character, and an exposition of some unresolved issues as well as emerging threats that could affect the stability of these neighborhoods both before and after the March 2013 polls. More importantly, there is an urgent need to re-examine the slums with reference to the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and other gains so far made towards the implementation of the Constitution. Can the (new) Constitution be used as a reference document for increasing service delivery, advancing rights protection, and laying the foundation for the rule of law in the lives of the three million slums dwellers? What can be done in the pre-and post-March 2013 elections to not only rid the slums of their violent character but also to initiate programmes geared towards changing the face of the slum permanently? The purpose of this booklet is to provide some insight into the concerns outlined above. The authors of the booklet note that there has been some good progress towards addressing some or a combination of the above concerns especially in the aftermath of the violence. However, the intellectual discourse about the slums and violence is as yet embryonic and far too incoherent to guide focused interventions before and after the forthcoming polls. Primarily, the booklet aspires to provoke some thought about the slums and slum dwellers with a view to encouraging government policy makers, the civil society, the international community, the academia and other actors to make informed interventions geared towards improving the physical conditions in the slums without depriving the dwellers of dignity and rights. Details: Nairobi, Kenya: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2012. Source: Internet Resource: accessed June 14, 2017 at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/09860.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Kenya URL: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/kenia/09860.pdf Shelf Number: 146172 Keywords: Neighborhoods and CrimePoverty and CrimeSlums (Nairobi, Kenya)Socioeconomic Conditions and CrimeVigilantismViolence |