Poverty drives Kisumu residents to slums
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By winsley masese

Poverty has driven more than 300, 000 people in Kisumu to live in slums, with reports that the number is increasing.

Housing Assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru said more than 60 per cent of Kisumu’s 500, 000 residents live in non-formal settlements.

Wanjiru said Kisumu is under threat of being swallowed up by slums surrounding it, if no efforts are made to reverse the trend.

“This is a serious concern since the slums are barely four kilometres from the city centre,” she said.

She attributed the phenomenon to high poverty levels.

“The unique thing about Kisumu shanties is that the occupiers are the actual landowners,” she said.

The slums include Nyalenda, Obunga, Manyatta, and Kondele.

To reverse the trend and improve the state of housing in Kisumu, the Ministries of Housing and Cooperatives, in corporation with Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme have launched a plan to stem the growth of the settlements. Nyalenda and Bandani slums will be the first to benefit from the programme.

Wanjiru also underscored the importance of housing cooperatives as effective vehicles to improving housing in the country as she the launch of Nyalenda and Bandani housing cooperatives in Kisumu.

“We encourage slum residents to join cooperatives as efficient means to mobilising resources to improve their residential places,” she said.

She urged the Municipal Council to carry out proper planning of the town to ensure social amenities such as water and electricity are available to the residents.

She said without the provision of these services, slum dwellers are prone to insecurity, fire outbreaks and the HIV/Aids scourge.

“It is unacceptable that people use polythene bags to empty their bowels, instead proper toilets,” she said.

In June, the Ministry of Housing, UN Habitat, Sida and civil society groups unveiled a grand plan to upgrade Nairobi’s Kibera’s slum under the Kensup project as its first phase.

The project is also being implemented in Mavoko and Mombasa municipal councils.

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Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:07:56 +0000
From: william munene
Subject: We got the Prime Minister! Tinga Yawaa!