On weekdays, the roads in this area are
filled with large trucks coming in and out from factories. The traffic here is crazy even from the local
standards (heavy traffic is a part of daily life in Nairobi). Due to the factories and heavy traffic,
people are living in a harmful environment.
Air pollution, water contamination… you name it. Moreover, the slum is built on a huge swamp,
which makes dwellers vulnerable to frequent floods especially during the rainy
season. Sadly, it is a global phenomenon
in urban areas to see poor people living in worse environment.
As the Mukuru slum is an informal
settlement, the infrastructure is not maintained by the government. Although many roads in Nairobi are unpaved,
the condition of the roads in the slum is still eye-catching. People hop from one rock to another to cross
the “road” that has turned into a swamp.
Cars make brown splashes, and brave motor cyclers dive into the
mud. But some roads are completely
impassible due to huge brown puddles that submerge the whole surface under
water. Water pumps are made by the
dwellers, but they are poorly maintained.
Some are leaking, and thus people loose their precious water. The sewage is exposed to the air, surrounding
the area with stinking smell, and children get sick as they play around the
sewage.
The inhabitants of the informal settlement
are in a vulnerable situation. I saw
some houses built in bricks, which implies long-term settlement. But the dwellers are not entitled to the land
as it is government-owned, and the settlement is always at risk of turning into
rubble. They need to move out from the
slum in order to truly settle down and sustain their living. However, living outside Mukuru is expensive,
and commuting to the industrial area will add financial strain. The key is to increase their income via
capacity building, but even if people gain skills, the chance of finding
high-paying job remains slim. One
breakthrough may be child education.
Children in the slum usually do not interact with people outside their
community, and thus they don’t learn about life different from their parents’. Girls get pregnant early, and marry with a
boy who is also from the slum. If we can
cut the negative spiral, we may be able to make a significant change in the
situation years later.
[This piece is based on interviews with NGO
workers, community workers, and dwellers during my visit to the Mukuru slum on
June 30th.]
