Why Is Kibera The Largest Urban Informal Settlement In Africa?
Formed during Kenya’s Colonial rule, as a byproduct of Colonial segregation and institutionalized racism, Kibera is the largest urban informal settlement in Africa. The city of Nairobi was built on the intention of creating a vibrate city for the non-African population (White, 1990). The necessity for infrastructure created an influx of Africans looking for manual labor in urban employment. Because of the intent to separate Europeans from the African inhabitants, these new populations were segregated from living in the city and forced to the outskirts of Nairobi. This was the start of informal settlements within Nairobi, one of these being Kibera.
Although, throughout colonial rule, there were numerous attempts to reorganize or destroy the …show more content…
This governmental neglect has also harbored continued tension and mistrust between the Kibera population and Kenyan government. It is this systematic exclusion of the population of Kibera from the benefits of urban planning and development that has created the necessity for interventions to fill in the gaps left behind by this neglect. Today, the gap in sanitation, water and hygiene services is one of the many neglected areas that has been focused on by NGO’s and other organizations implementing development projects within Kibera. Umande Trust is one of these …show more content…
Political freedoms and transparency guarantees along with protective security are freedoms that are barely reached in many areas of the world, and would be hard pressed to demand in a place considered an illegal settlement. For unlike social opportunities, the other field of fundamental freedoms cannot be reached from the grass roots of Kibera. There must be a larger change in the system at place in order to make substantiate change in these other fundamental freedoms. Taking actions from a grass roots perspective and demanding more from the system may result in the betterment of life in some areas, yet the systematic exclusion of benefits will still perpetuate the overarching problem of poverty, and only a change to with overarching system will create any lasting change in this
Although, throughout colonial rule, there were numerous attempts to reorganize or destroy the …show more content…
This governmental neglect has also harbored continued tension and mistrust between the Kibera population and Kenyan government. It is this systematic exclusion of the population of Kibera from the benefits of urban planning and development that has created the necessity for interventions to fill in the gaps left behind by this neglect. Today, the gap in sanitation, water and hygiene services is one of the many neglected areas that has been focused on by NGO’s and other organizations implementing development projects within Kibera. Umande Trust is one of these …show more content…
Political freedoms and transparency guarantees along with protective security are freedoms that are barely reached in many areas of the world, and would be hard pressed to demand in a place considered an illegal settlement. For unlike social opportunities, the other field of fundamental freedoms cannot be reached from the grass roots of Kibera. There must be a larger change in the system at place in order to make substantiate change in these other fundamental freedoms. Taking actions from a grass roots perspective and demanding more from the system may result in the betterment of life in some areas, yet the systematic exclusion of benefits will still perpetuate the overarching problem of poverty, and only a change to with overarching system will create any lasting change in this