NAIROBI/GENEVA, 29 AUGUST 2007: Forced evictions are threatening to break out across Nairobi and may affect more than 10,000 people, according to two human rights organisations, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and Hakijamii Trust.

Kenya emerged in late 2002 from the legacy of authoritarian rule with a new coalition government facing enormous challenges. In the capital Nairobi, more than half the city lives in informal settlements in slum-like conditions.

But threats of mass evictions in early 2004 led to a national campaign involving the Kenyan Coalition Against Forced Evictions and leading churches. Organisations like COHRE carried out international advocacy: see Letters sent to Government of Kenya (available to download below). The evictions were suspended on 1 March 2004 after some demolitions were carried out.

COHRE then carried out a fact-finding mission into housing rights of Nairobi to investigate continuing threats and the provision of alternatives. The mission report, which was recently revised and released, "Listening to the Poor" (2006) documents the experiences of victims of demolitions as well as those still living under the threat of eviction. You can download the full report below.

Improving conditions in informal settlements is a major challenge, particularly ensuring the accountability of local officials and the extension of slum upgrading. Yet, the mission report documents a tendency to ignore residents in housing projects and programmes, a problem that will need to be urgently redressed to ensure the success of these programs.

October-November Update 2006

Two high-level slum-upgrading programmes are underway in Kenya with international participation through UN-Habitat and the UN-Habitat/World Bank Cities Without Slums initiative. One is the Kibera-Soweto slum-upgrading project in Nairobi, the main pilot project of the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP). The other is the Cities Without Slums pilot project (also a KENSUP pilot project), which addresses the slums of Kisumu.

The downloadable paper below, by leading expert Marie Huchzermeyer from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, reflects on the challenges these two projects present for a balanced realisation of the seven internationally recognised elements of the right to housing – security of tenure, access to services and infrastructure, affordability, habitability, physical accessibility, location, and cultural adequacy. Through an analysis of the distortions in the wider urban housing market, which underpin the perpetuation of slum housing and the potential displacement of the intended beneficiaries of slum redevelopment (often referred to as ‘slum upgrading’ in Kenya), the paper puts forward suggestions that may lead to more successful improvements in Kenya’s urban settlements. The paper also discusses whether housing rights can be realised within a better regulated commodified system, or whether the provision of shelter, water, sanitation and refuse collection should be taken out of the hands of informal entrepreneurs and placed into the hands of local government or public agencies.

October-November 2006 Update

Over a billion people throughout the world live in slums, which UN-Habitat define as featuring lack of durable housing, insufficient living area, lack of access to clean water, inadequate sanitation and insecure tenure. Slum upgrading, as opposed to slum redevelopment or slum clearance, is now widely acknowledged as one of the more effective means of improving the housing conditions of the poor and has been hailed as a ‘linchpin’ of any urban poverty strategy. It has been defined by the Cities Alliance as consisting of ‘physical, social, economic, organisational and environmental improvements undertaken cooperatively and locally among citizens, community groups, businesses and local authorities’ The improvement of slums is now a Millennium Development Goal, a though the target of reaching 100 million slum dwellers is very low.

Slum-upgrading can also go beyond mere physical improvements and promote changes in policy at a city-wide or even national level, recognising that slums are not isolated problems, but indicative of an entire urban system that is not functioning and must therefore be addressed through city-wide planning processes. From a human rights perspective, slum upgrading can help realise the right to adequate housing and other human rights. Existing housing stock and access to services can be improved, which means that excessive reliance is not placed upon investments in new low-income housing. Slum upgrading can also provide protection from forced evictions through better tenure security. However, slum upgrading programmes can have adverse implication for human rights if they are poorly designed or implemented.

This publication available for download below, provides a brief analysis of selected slum upgrading processes from different parts of the world, placing special emphasis on the various human rights issues involved. It addresses all the different local stakeholder groups, from affected community members to potential and existing decision-makers. The case studies provide a range of ideas and measures that have positively influenced the development of low-income settlements in the past in order to provide inspiration for current and future projects in the field. Though slum-upgrading processes are certainly too complex to be replicated unchanged from one settlement to another, a comparison of basic phenomena and strategies, for example concerning tenure, community participation, financing mechanisms, organisational structures and engagement with municipal authorities can provide valuable information and be a source of encouragement.

The UN Human Rights Committee in New York reviewed Kenya’s performance on respecting civil and political rights in a session on 15 March 2005. COHRE submitted a report on Civil and Political Rights in Kenyan Informal Settlements to the Committee. Read the Kenyan Housing Rights Update above for more information about what happened at the Human Rights Committe. Also, COHRE's full submission and recommendations to this committee are available for download below.

COHRE is also supporting litigation efforts to ensure victims of forced evictions can secure a legal remedy. In the case of Dagane v Attorney General, COHRE is working with Haki Jamii and Kituo Cha Sheria to provide compensation to the Bulla Fot clan from Garissa in the Eastern Province who were evicted in August 2002. Read the article from "The East African" below.