SAFARI NJEMA an interdisciplinary field expedition to South-East Kenya

Transkriptio

1 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTON MAANTIETEEN LAITOKSEN TUTKIMUSRETKIRAPORTTEJA 46 SAFARI NJEMA an interdisciplinary field expedition to South-East Kenya Tino Johansson, Petri Pellikka & Jaana Sorvali (eds.) EXPEDITION REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI 46

2 Helsingin Yliopiston maantieteen laitoksen tutkimusretkiraportteja 46 Expedition Reports of Department of Geography, University of Helsinki 46 SAFARI NJEMA an interdisciplinary field expedition to South-East Kenya Edited by Tino Johansson, Petri Pellikka & Jaana Sorvali ISSN Yliopistopaino Helsinki 2009 Cover photographs: Tino Johansson

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4 Contents Contents Field expedition to the Coastal Kenya and the Taita Hills (Petri Pellikka) TAITATOO project Geoinformatics in environmental conservation and community based natural resource management in the Taita Hills, Kenya (Petri Pellikka) Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums (Elli Alho) Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya (Elina Piekkola) 13 Migration in Kenya (Reetta Koskela) 18 Street children and the implementation of children s rights in Kenya (Laura Tamminen) 23 HIV/AIDS situation in Kenya (Sofia Itämäki) 27 Development of tourism on the coast of Kenya (Kirsi Koskela) 32 Butterfly farming business in the Kenyan coast Kipepeo project (Eeva Ruuska) 38 Coexistence of people and wildlife in the Tsavo ecosystem (Tino Johansson) 44 The Kenya Forest Act 2005 Participatory Forest Management as a Method for Better Forest Conservation (Jaana Sorvali) 48 The multiple uses and values of Taita Hills forests (Nina Himberg) 54 Systematics and Biogeography of Wild African Violet Saintpaulia teitensis (Janne Granroth) 59 Cyanolichens of the Taita Hills and Mt. Kasigau (Jouko Rikkinen) 64 Wildlife corridors between fragmented indigenous forest patches in the Taita Hills, Kenya (Nina Kolu) 69 The impact of elevation and precipitation on land use in the Taita Hills, Kenya (Saara Käkelä) 74 Land use and agriculture in the Taita Hills a case study of Ngangao (Karoliina Zschauer) 78 Soil erosion control methods on agricultural land in the Taita Hills, Kenya (Sini Pöytäniemi) 81 Distribution of habitation in the Taita Hills (Hanna Piepponen) 87 Mapping the services of Wundanyi, Kenya (Nora Berg) 92 Expedition journals (in Finnish) 99

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6 Pellikka: Field expedition to the Coastal Kenya and the Taita Hills Field expedition to the Coastal Kenya and the Taita Hills Petri Pellikka The Department of Geography of the University of Helsinki carried out a first excursion to Kenya in early The second excursion led by Dr. Sakari Tuhkanen and Mrs. Ritva Kivikkokangas- Sandgren took place in I had the honour of being a participant on that excursion. The 1989 excursion had two phases: The first week consisted of a round-trip around Mt. Kenya with a small access to the heath zone of the mountain massif. Other places visited were Meru National Park, Thompson Falls, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha. The second week was spent in the Taita Hills studying land use change on the verdant but heavily populated mountains. Land use change in four villages, Bura, Dembwa, Werugha and Mwanda, was studied using an extensive questionnaire. After the excursion a number of graduate students stayed for a month in the Taita Hills in order to carry out fieldwork for their M.Sc. theses. The topic of my M.Sc. thesis was land use and its changes interpreted from SPOT XS satellite image. The research was partly funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The 2004 expedition was led by me and Dr. Jussi Ylhäisi. We spent a day in Nairobi and then climbed up to Pt. Lenana, the third highest peak of Mt. Kenya at 4,985 meters. A second week was spent in the Taita Hills carrying out survey about land use changes in Mwatate, Dembwa, Werugha and Mwanda villages. The expedition was arranged as part of the project funded by the Academy of Finland: Development of land use change detection methodology in East African highland applying geographic information systems. Six M.Sc. thesis resulted from the 2004 excursion as a part of the Academy project. About half of the topics were spatio-temporal analysis of the land use and its development using remote sensing and GIS tools, while the other half provides important background data for mechanisms governing land use. The M.Sc. students worked afterwards and are still working in developing countries for consulting agencies or for the Government of Finland, e.g. in Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Ethiopia. The field expedition of 2009 was led by me, Dr. Tino Johansson, and Ms. Nina Himberg who was a student during the 2004 expedition. We were also accompanied by Prof. Jouko Rikkinen and Mr. Janne Granroth from the Faculty of Biosciences who brought excellent botanical and environmental expertise into our group. The expedition was arranged as a part of another project funded by the Academy of Finland: TAITATOO - Geoinformatics in environmental conservation and community based natural resource management in the Taita Hills, Kenya. The structure of the excursion was similar to that of 1989 and 2004, but the content was different. The first days were spent in Nairobi visiting the Embassy of Finland, University of Nairobi, National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Forestry Service. The six following days were spent in the Tsavo East National Park and in the Coastal Kenya, and the last days in the Taita Hills, where we carried out research on natural resources, wildlife and communities. The excursion route is described in Fig 1. In the coast, in Watamu, we were fascinated by the physical environment and the friendliness of the people helping us to carry out our trip. We would like to thank Belinda, Henry & Rosalie at the Mwamba Field Study Center for providing us cosy accommodation and nice meals. Mr. Francis Kagema together with Dominic Mumbu and Alex Ngari from Nature Kenya Coast had organised us a great programme through Dakacha woodland, Arabuko Sokoke forest, Gede ruins and Kipepeo butterfly farms. Our collaboration seeked even beyond the excursion: in Marafa, close to Dakacha woodland we had an honour to participate a meeting organised for the conservation of the Dakacha woodland, and in Watamu we had a collaboration meeting with Nature Kenya and KEFRI (Kenya Forest Research Institute), during which my students were presenting their findings about the Dakacha exercise. In addition to the forest visits and meetings, the joyful divings and 5

7 Pellikka: Field expedition to the Coastal Kenya and the Taita Hills snorklings, and also football match on expanding football field on a coral reef one km from the coast, are never forgettable memories from the Kenya coast (Fig. 2). Figure 1. The expedition route of 2009 took us from Nairobi through Tsavo plains to the coast of Kenya and then to the Taita Hills. In the Taita Hills, we studied the forest use and conservation by the communities in Wongonyi, Kidaye and Mwanda villages and the disturbance for croplands by of wild animals around Ngangao forest. We also arranged a football match with local ladies team: Wundanyi Juniors Ladies against University of Helsinki Ladies (added by Prof. Petri Pellikka). The scores were 2 1, but after the match we shared a moment with our local football friends watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama on TV. On the last day, the participants had an opportunity to choose whether to climb to Kasigau mountain (Fig. 3) or to visit the community-based LUMO game park. We are grateful for Ken Gicheru, our driver, mechanic and storyteller for his humour and talents especially with cars. Important help was provided by James Mwan gombe from Taita Taveta Wildlife Forum, who organised the village meetings in Kidaye, Wongonyi and Mwanda. Hebron managed by Eunice, Granton and Dorothy provided us good accommodation and food as usual. Asante sana, chawucha and nimowea. 6

8 Pellikka: Field expedition to the Coastal Kenya and the Taita Hills In this report, the reports from the field excursion and the fieldwork are presented in English. In addition, the journals are presented in Finnish. Thanks for every participant of the expedition! Figure 2. The expanding football field by the coral reef. Figure 3. The Kasigau team at the top of Kasigau, 1,641 m a.s.l. From the left Elli Alho, Nina Kolu, Petri Pellikka, Eeva Ruuska and Ken Gicheru. 7

9 Pellikka: TAITATOO project TAITATOO project Geoinformatics in environmental conservation and community based natural resource management in the Taita Hills, Kenya Petri Pellikka Climate changes and rapid population growth cause increasing pressure on the East African highlands. The results of the pressure are manifold: intensified agriculture, decreasing amount of forestland, loss of biodiversity, intensified land degradation and soil erosion. These consequences introduce high demands on land use and land use planning in these areas. TAITATOO is a follow up project from the TAITA project, in which the aims were to develop land use change detection methods using geoinformatics. In the TAITATOO, the aims are to apply the developed geospatial datasets to landscape restoration and other applications, as modelling soil erosion potentiality and population distribution, but also for studying the resources for conservation in terms of agroforestry, natural resource management and land use conflicts. TAITATOO project started in January It is funded by the Academy of Finland, Council of Development Studies until the end of The TAITA project resulted in 6 M.Sc. theses and material to one Ph.D. thesis, and TAITATOO project has so far resulted in 2 M.Sc. thesis and 1 Ph.D. thesis, while 3 M.Sc. theses and 4 Ph.D. theses are expected to be finalised in The topics of the M.Sc. thesis has been ranging from monitoring indigenous tropical montane forests in the Taita Hills using airborne digital camera imagery to the studies of potentiality of ecotourism in the Taita Hills, and studies of land use conflicts in the surrounding plains, only to mention but a few. The Ph.D. thesis to come are concentrating on using remote sensing and geoinformatics to study the natural environment of the Taita Hills, to model the land cover changes in the past and future, to model leaf area index of the forests of the Taita Hills, and to study how these changes affect the agricultural production and water resources in the area. The landscape conservation aspect is to model forest corridors between the fragmented indigenous forest patches using land cover models generated using airborne remote sensing data and ecological knowledge of the habitat preferences of various bird species. In the first place the modeling is an academic exercise, but in the long run the aim is to establish the forest corridors. In order to achieve that, collaboration is practiced with several Belgian universities, University of Nairobi, Kenya Forest Service and Taita Taveta Wildlife Forum. Besides the implementation of the forest corridors, further collaboration aims at studying the linkages between land cover and climate change, impacts of climate change on ecosystem services, water resources and agricultural production. For more information, please refer to < 8

10 Alho: Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums Elli Alho Abstract The Kenyan capital Nairobi is the East African financial centre. Since the foundation of Nairobi in the late 1890 s, it has grown from a British railroad camp to an international city with millions of inhabitants. The citizens of the early Nairobi had come there besides Africa from Europe and Asia. In the colonial times there was racial segregation in Nairobi, which divided the city in four sectors. These sectors were populated by Africans, Europeans or Asians. After the Kenyan independence in 1963 the segregation started to become more and more based on the socio-economic factors as the amount of Europeans and Asians diminished compared to the growing number of Africans. Nowadays more than half of the inhabitants are living in spatially segregated informal areas that cover only about 5% of the city s residential areas whereas in the more sparsely populated zones the population density may remain as low as 350 persons per square kilometre. Background Today the cities in developing countries are facing a rapid population growth which often leads to increasing amount of problems such as homelessness, poor residential environment, poverty and crime. Many of these problems are rooted in cities historic, socio-economic and physical development and structures. African cities are growing mostly by expanding peripherally, not by increasing the population density in central areas. Also, most of the growth is happening unregulated which creates poor housing conditions and environment. For example Nairobi has grown from an uninhabited plain to a metropolis with ca. 3.5 million inhabitants only in about 100 years. At the time of Kenyan independence in 1963 the population of Nairobi was about 350,000. Colonial Nairobi Nairobi was founded in the late 1890 s as a British railroad camp. In July 1899 the Uganda Railways headquarter was moved from Mombasa to Nairobi and same year in August the railway opened to the public. From 1899 to 1905 Nairobi served as a British provincial capital and in 1905 the city became the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate, called Kenya Colony from 1920 to In 1963 Nairobi became the capital of independent Kenya. The citizens of the early Nairobi had come there from different parts of the world. Europeans were mostly colonial officers and the Asians who were mostly Indians were mainly working at the railways or were shopkeepers. The Africans were mostly labourers by the railway or the government, domestic servants or shop assistants (Kervanto Nevanlinna 1996). There has been racial segregation between Africans, Europeans and Asians in Nairobi until the time of Kenya's independency in Segregation was reinforced by planning laws and exclusionary zoning regulations. Racial segregation separated the city in four different sectors because the colonial government wanted to limit the overgrowth of the city and they had a policy of controlling the African urban population. The government restricted the influx of Africans into urban centres to persons who had employment skills. The desire was to keep the amount of Africans in Nairobi low, partly because the government thought that in that way it was easier to ensure a reasonable standard of public health among them. The policy was executed through a stratification of settlements, based on racial groups and ethnicity as well as income. North and East of Nairobi was mostly populated by Asians, East and South East was characterized as being the African sector, in South East and South there was a small Asian enclave and in North and West there was an European area. In European areas rents and 9

11 Alho: Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums land values were high and population density low. On the contrary, African areas were densely populated. The colonial government also discouraged the supply of large-scale public housing to be able to restrict better the excessive flood of the Africans into the city (K'Akumu & Olima 2006). Land use and residential segregation in Nairobi During the first decade of independence in Kenya, further residential segregation was carried out by both racial and socio-economic aspects as well as ethnic dissimilarities. Most of the African population remained in the former African locations in Eastlands in the City Council housing. According to the census of 1962, 73% of the African population lived in the Eastlands area, 83% of all Asians in Nairobi lived in the former Asian residential areas, and 82% of the Europeans lived in the former European settlement areas. A similar structure existed until 1979 with the development of some racial mixing. It is difficult to say whether this residential segregation originated mainly from racial factors or whether it was mainly actually economic segregation based on income status (Olima 2001). In 1963 the boundary of Nairobi was extended to cover an area of approximately 689 km² and since then the boundary has stayed unchanged (K'Akumu & Olima 2006). This extension brought agricultural and sparsely populated land within its area. In spite of later development, there is still a semi-rural fringe round the northern sector of the city. Karen and Langata area is practically isolated from the rest of Nairobi by the Ngong Road Forest (NCC 2009a). The land use in Nairobi is complex which makes it difficult to divide the area into clear land use zones. There are extensive variations in population density which reflects to different land utilization patterns. The average population density in Nairobi is about 5,170/km 2, but population densities vary within the city; in high-income zone the average density is around 350/km 2 while low-income areas have densities as high as 53,000/km 2 (Oyugi & K Akumu 2007). Six different land use divisions can be identified; the central business district (Fig. 1), industrial area, public and private open spaces, public land, residential areas and undeveloped land. In Nairobi five residential areas of varying population density and social mix can be identified. These are: (a) Upper Nairobi is located to the west and north of the CBD. It is an area of high income population and low density and it comprises many of the former expatriate residential areas such as Woodely, Schlaters, Lavington, Muthaiga and Thomson. (b) Parklands, Eastleigh and Nairobi South, are areas of medium income and medium density population. They consist mainly of owner-occupier housing. Lot of housing is owned by Asians. (c) Karen and Langata, to the South and South East, are high income, low density residential areas where large housing and gardens are typical. (d) Eastlands in the marginalised urban fringe to the east of and away from the CBD, is a low-income densely-populated area with the core region of old Nairobi City Council housing areas and a new institutional housing estates. It has seen progressive expansion eastwards in high density housing estates for the last 50 years. (e) Mathare Valley to the east of the city and Kibera to the west are the most famous and largest uncontrolled urban settlements in the city. These areas are characterized by the uncontrolled, spontaneous growing of squats (Olima 2001). Based on the economic status, the residential land uses fall into four categories: Upperincome (low density) zones that cover an area of about 11,000 hectares consisting of privately owned homes, some of which have plots as big as five acres, Medium-income (medium density) zones that occupy 4,070 ha with variations in population density and levels of development as some of these estates are owned by public or private sector, Low-income (high density) zones covering an area of 4,500 ha mainly located in the eastern part of the city and the informal settlements that are occupied 10

12 Alho: Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums by the poor are covering an area of about 2,190 ha (Oyugi & K Akumu 2007). The residential distribution in Nairobi is sociospatially polarized. Western areas are wealthy and eastern part is more impoverished. In the west of the city, upmarket private landlordism dominates while in the eastern parts large-scale private rental investment is booming. Investors, who are often housed in the West are benefiting from the provision of rental housing for lower-income households in eastern parts of the city. Rental accommodation has a dominant role in housing in Nairobi, as 84.7% of households rent or lease their accommodation. Private landlordism has dominance since 70.7% of the households renting their housing rent from private companies or individuals (Huchzermeyer 2007). As the amount of Europeans and Asians has diminished in relation to growing number of Africans, it is normal that the typical features of the residential areas are changing and segregation is more based on socio-economic class than race. Still, even today there exists some level of this partition to three different groups by ethnicity. It has also transformed into socio-spatial difference of formal and informal settlements. Today almost 60% of population lives in the spatially segregated informal settings that cover only about 5% of Nairobi s residential areas (K'Akumu & Olima 2006). Some problems and challenges in urban development In the colonial times private residential homes were constructed on large plots, particularly on the ridges to the west and the northern part of the city. That can be seen as the beginning of the evolution of land uses based on races. The African areas were left to develop on their own with very little attempt to provide them with infrastructure, while the European zones were carefully planned in layout and aesthetics in conformity to accepted standards and densities. This pattern has lasted to date with low-income zones experiencing poor planning and low levels of infrastructure provision. The colonial legacy is still a notable feature, which is reflected in the city s built environment (Oyugi & K Akumu 2007). Today Nairobi is experiencing rapid urban growth estimated at 4.3% per annum. Currently, the city s population is growing at a rate that is not compatible with working opportunities and infrastructure provision (Oyugi & K Akumu 2007). One of the main problems of urban development in Nairobi is the access to affordable housing. This is especially true for medium- and low-income groups and is complicated by high cost of infrastructure development, high land prices, lack of realizable long-term financing instruments for low and medium income housing, urban poverty and high planning standards. These and other socio-economic factors have placed housing beyond the reach of over 75% of the city s inhabitants. The result is increased development of informal settlements that are currently accommodating approximately 60 percent of the city s population (Oyugi & K Akumu 2007). In the future decentralized planning would help to create better and more equal living environments in Nairobi. Plans are to create more small urban centres in the Nairobi area to be able to produce adequate services to every resident of the city. Nairobi City Council launched a Decentralization Programme in 2003 and the aim of this programme is to delegate responsibility for specific decisions to broader base of executives who work at a lower level of hierarchy. A target is also to give the residents better possibilities to enhance their participation in developing their residential environment. It is supposed to bring greater democracy in planning actions as well as give opportunity for residents and other interested parties to have a say in identifying and solving problems in their neighbourhoods (NCC 2009b). 11

13 Alho: Nairobi Skyscrapers and slums References Huchzermeyer, M. (2007). Tenement City: The Emergence of Multi-storey Districts Through Large-scale Private Landlordism in Nairobi. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31: 4, December K'Akumu O.A. & W.H.A. Olima (2006). The dynamics and implications of residential segregation in Nairobi. School of the Built Environment, University of Nairobi. Kervanto Nevanlinna, A. (1996). Interpreting Nairobi. The Cultural Study of Built Forms. Hakapaino Oy, Helsinki. NCC (2009a). Residential areas. Nairobi City Council. < NCC (2009b). NCC s Decentralization Program. Nairobi City Council. < Olima, W.H.A. (2001). The Dynamics and Implications of Sustaining Urban Spatial Segregation in Kenya: Experiences from Nairobi Metropolis. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Conference Paper. Oyugi M.A. & O.A. K Akumu (2007). Land Use Management Challenges for the City of Nairobi. Urban Forum, 18: 1, January March Figure 1. Skyscrapers of the Central Business District of Nairobi (T. Johansson). 12

14 Piekkola: Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya Elina Piekkola Abstract Many developing countries have their biggest problems on overgrowing cities which are impossible to control. These countries lack funds and people to make changes. Slums have been developed because of people s movement pressure and lack of government s ability to make new cheap rented houses. Slums are also an evidence of poor governance and lack of planning strategies. Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Africa. It is situated near the city center of Nairobi. It has been estimated that about 600,000 to one million people live in Kibera. These people face a challenging living environment and the standard living conditions are poor. According to the UN-Habitat definition of a slum, Kibera is a typical slum with all the characteristics. Even though the living conditions are poor many choose to live in Kibera and save money for something other than housing. In Kibera everything is recycled and there are some local shops where people can buy their daily food. Background I have studied planning geography for four years. I have always been interested about cities and their development. The opportunity to travel to Kenya with a university group gave me an idea to look for something that I cannot see in developed countries and where city planning and its failure joins together. This gave me an idea to study slums in general and the living conditions that they offer. The purpose of this work is to define the term slum and to think of different aspects of slums in general. As a case study I will look closely to the Kibera slum (Fig. 1) in Nairobi and try to answer my research questions. My research questions in this seminar work are: What is the definition of a slum? What kind of slum is Kibera and what are the living conditions in Kibera? These living conditions have been determined to follow the UN- Habitat characteristics of slums. Figure 1. View to Kibera from Nairobi Kisumu railway line, Jan 7th

15 Piekkola: Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya Foreword Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Africa. Depending on different sources the estimate of people living in Kibera is around 600,000 to over a million. Today most of the slums in the world are situated in developing countries. Reasons are many but usually in these countries there are or have been poor policies on land use, lack of resources and information and also deep economical and political problems. There are many reasons that all together make slums like Kibera even possible and we have to remember that living conditions are seen very differently around the world. Mainly there are just too many people moving into one area at the same time and the control of habitation becomes beyond the countries abilities. The problem of studying slums is fundamental; there is no available information on the number of people living in slums or about the nature of poverty that people are facing in slums. Understanding and information about slums is insufficient, urban poverty is still poorly examined and because of the fact that many slums are located in developing countries, there is no research made on basics indicators. Living conditions are always seen differently but for example in Kibera, Nairobi, it is notably expensive to live in the area even if the housing in slums or in Kibera has not improved or consolidated (Gulyani & Talukdak 2008: 1917). Planning of the city has been characterized by laissez-faire policy. Laws have been respected only in making of buildings but not in the use of land. Land was easily rented or sold to individuals without further look into the development of the city. Nairobi s one problem is urban people without stability. To many Africans this city represents only a place for temporary residency when they work in the city. For foreigners and Europeans it seems that their home is still in Europe or elsewhere. Nairobi s city layout is a grid-iron. That causes certain problems to the traffic and to the growth of the city (Morgan 1967: ). The opening of Nairobi railway in 1988 started the growth of the city. The government administration moved to Nairobi and commercial development began. In a very early state of the city, Nairobi was function as a future capital of the country. In the beginning of 20th century many low standard buildings lacked drainage systems and water supply, and this contributed to the creation of slums. By 1906 definite land use zones were already visible but not conducted by planning but by the will of the inhabitants. The patters of these zones are still present in Nairobi. By the end of 1909 most of the roads in the city were built and Nairobi River and Nairobi Hill determined the boundaries of the city. Also the city started to expand (Morgan 1967: ). City of Nairobi Kenya s development has concentrated highly into the urban areas which have lead to urban migration, people moving from rural areas to bigger cities (Fig. 2). Country s unstable situation in economic and political issues has done its job by forcing people to move to find work and making more and more people live below the poverty line. (Gulis et al. 2004: 219). Nairobi is a young city where everything has been built in the last 100 years. Until the 1980`s the area was a large swamp. When the rails of East Africa build a railway stop in the Nairobi, city soon became the administrative nerve-center of the Uganda Railway. (Parkinson et al. 2006: 96). Nairobi center is limited by geographical features, by the Nairobi stream and by the Nairobi Hill. Figure 2. Chicken and its chicks in Kibera, Gatwekera. 14

16 Piekkola: Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya History of Kibera Kibera is situated about seven kilometers South -West from Nairobi city. The area is about 225 hectares large and it is divided by Nairobi Kisumu railway line. The Kibera area is surrounded by middle class housing area (Fig. 3), the Nairobi dam, wasteland and ironically by a golf field (Warah 2007: ). Kibera is formed from 12 different villages, each having their own name. Name Kibera means forest or jungle in the Nubian language. In 1918 Nubian solders received a piece of land as a reward from serving in earlier wars. Kibera area grew little by little and during the British colonial government the area grew without any control or planning. After Kenyan independence in 1963 the government built many illegal houses to Kibera and the area became unauthorized on the basis of land tenure. In some of the Nubian solders rented their property from Kibera and more people started to move to the area, also from different tribes. (Kibera article <en.wikipedia > 2009.) Slums in general The concept of a slum appeared during the 1820 s. At that time, the term slum was used to identify the poorest housing and the most unsanitary conditions. Today the characteristics of slums are defined by seven different attributes by UN-Habitat (UN-Habitat 2003: 9 12). 1. Lack of basic services Lack of services is mostly connected to the characteristic of slums. Features like lake of sanitation, poor safe water access, waste collection system, electricity supply, surfaced roads, street lights and rainwater drainage (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). There are two pipe lines of water that run to Kibera. Still many people collect their water from the Nairobi dam which is situated on the edge of Kibera. Rainwater drainage system is not planned and there are mainly some trenches created by rain water or by people. There are no proper toilet facilities, only one latrine per every 50 shacks. Once full this latrine is emptied to the river, so the overall process is still insufficient. About 20% of Kibera s area has electricity. Electricity Figure 3. On the left there are houses of Gatwekera in Kibera and on the right-hand side new houses built by the Kenyan government for the inhabitants of the slum. 15

17 Piekkola: Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya is mainly distributed and shared by people. There are some surfaced roads in Kibera but mainly streets and paths are made by foot. During the dark hours it is unsecure to move in Kibera because of the lack of street light and crime. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). 2. Substandard housing or illegal and inadequate building structures Slums are normally built on substandard housing (earthen floors, mud and wattle walls, straw roofs) and non-permanent materials that do not refill requirements of minimum standard buildings (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). Houses in Kibera are normally built with mud walls, screened with concrete. Roofs are corrugated tin roofs (Fig. 4) and floors are normally dirt or concrete. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). 3. Overgrowing and high density Overgrowing is associated with low space per person, cohabitation within families and high density in one area (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). The average size of a shack in Kibera is 16 m². Many share their house with other families to share the rent and in many houses there have more than 8 inhabitants. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). The total area is about 256 hectares large and the estimated population density is about 1,200 persons per hectare. More than a quarter of Nairobi s population is living in Kibera so the number of people in this area is too high.(kibera article <en.wikipedia > 2009). In the future there will be more people moving from the poor country side to get a job in the city. 4. Unhealthy living conditions and hazardous locations Living conditions is a result of lack of basic services. Environmental issues like pollution, dumping waste, open sewers are all figures that fakeness living condition of slums. Hazardous location refers to the fact that slums are normally illegal and built on land that is total waste, near polluting factories or waste disposal cites (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). In Kibera the living conditions are unhealthy (Fig. 5) because of the lack of basic services. The environment is also contaminated and the small area is over used. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). Figure 4. A footpath in Gatwekera, Kibera. 5. Insecure tenure; irregular or informal settlements One of the main characters of slums is also a lack of formal document on rent. Normally the owner if there is any has rented the land forward without any legal permission to do so. Slums can often been built on land that has no planned use (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). The government owns all the land in Kibera. Mainly during the British colonial time the area was left without any control so the area grew informally. In the time of the Kenyan independence in 1963 many forms of houses were made illegal by the government. Because of these actions the land tenure in Kibera is not lawfully binding (Kibera article <en.wikipedia > 2009). 10% of people are shack owners and they own many other shacks and sub-let them. Many people do not have any rights or any legal papers concerning the rent. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). 6. Poverty and social exclusion Poverty is a cause and consequence of conditions in slums. Slums are often places that have perceived to have high levels of crime. Often people living in slums are part of minor groups of society, ethnic groups and immigrants (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). 16

18 Piekkola: Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya In the case of Kibera many inhabitants are unemployed but still many are working in the city to where they can even walk or take a Matatu in the morning. Kibera is near to Nairobi s industrial area which employs many inhabitants of Nairobi. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). 7. Minimum settlement size Some minimum settlement size is required to determent that the area is a slum. Normally municipals make there definitions about the minimum settlement size (UN-Habitat 2003: 11). It is clear that with the amount of people and the size of Kibera, people are living in very small houses and the living conditions are poor. (Kibera UK <kibera 2009). Nairobi s housing markets are twisted. Some estimates say that over 80% of the houses in Nairobi are rented. Slums are a cause of poor city planning, lack of good governance and many other reasons. Slums form when peoples have to move to cities; this mass movement of people is normally from rural areas. The city does not have the capacity to offer low rental houses on the same speed that people are moving into the cities. It is also true that some people that live in slums do not want to move to other places; instead they want to invest their money in other purposes. Conclusions Even when the living conditions are not sufficient there are many things that are still working in slums and in Kibera. In Kibera the recycling rate is high, nothing is wasted, shoes, clothes and other things are made of recycled materials. Many people who live in Kibera have arrived from countryside hoping to get a job from the city. It is also true that many who live in slums do not consider that the living conditions are too bad, they rather save money to something else than use it on housing. Figure 3. A small stream in Gatwekera, Kibera. References Gulis G., J. Mulumba, O. Juma & B. Kaksova (2004). Health status of people of slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Environmental Research 96, Gulyani S. & D. Talukdak (2008). Slum Real Estate: The Low-Quality High-Price Puzzle in Nairobi s Slum Rental Market and its Implications for Theory and Practice. World Development 36: 10, Kibera article, Wikipedia, article (2009). < Read Kibera UK- The Gap Year Company (2009). Kibera, Facts and Information, < Read Morgan W.T.W (1967). Nairobi, City and Region. 154 pp. Oxford University Press, London. Parkinson T., M. Phillips & W. Gourlay (2006). Kenya. 6th edition, 416 pp. Lonely Planet. UN-Habitat (2003). The Challenge Of Slums. Global Report On Human Settlements 2003, 310 pp. UN-Habitat, Earthscan Publications Ltd, London and Sterling, VA. Warah, R. (2007). Kaupunkikuvassa Nairobi, Elämää Kiberassa. Maailman tila Urbaani tulevaisuutemme. 261 pp. Worldwatch-instituutti, Gaudeamus. 17

19 Koskela: Migration in Kenya Migration in Kenya Reetta Koskela Abstract The aim of this study is to get an overall look on migration in Kenya. Internal and international migrations are both discussed. The main method for this work is literature review but also observation in Kenya has been used. Poverty and big differences in development indicators between regions in Kenya affect the volume and course of migration. Global economic and political order and government policies as well as community level possibilities and networks all affect migration by creating push and pull factors for people on the move. Agriculture is still the biggest sector of employment and only less than one fifth of the land in Kenya is arable so that is one big factor affecting migration. Rural-rural migration is still the biggest type of migration but because of the land scarcity and pull factors in the cities rural-urban migration is very big and a growing phenomenon. Nairobi and Central province next to it are the biggest in-migration areas. Migrants are most often young men but the number of female migrants has increased. In regional level Kenya is more of a destination than origin area and most of the migrants come from the neighbouring countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia. In general migration in East Africa is smaller than in Africa or developing countries on average. Introduction On our field course I decided to take a look at the migration situation in Kenya. I am interested in the internal as well as international migration that is happening in Kenya and to and from Kenya. It is really difficult to find data on the amounts of migrants from developing countries in general and from African countries especially, and I thought that it would be interesting to look into a subject that is more difficult to study from Finland. Unfortunately during the field course I did not have the time and opportunity to make interviews about the migration situation in the country, so the report will mostly be based on literature. But I think that everything I saw when visiting Kenya has made me understand the migration situation in the country much better and it is easier to write about the issue now when I have seen the life that Kenyans lead in different parts of the country. First I will focus on the reasons why Kenyan people migrate and then tell some facts about internal and international migration in Kenya. I will concentrate on voluntary migration in Kenya but it is good to remember that in Africa there have been a lot of refugees moving within countries and to neighbouring countries, also in Kenya. Why Kenyan people are migrating and who are the migrants? The earliest scientific theory on migration was made by an English geography professor E. Ravenstein in 1889 and already in this theory he emphasized that the major reason why people migrate is economics. He also made notions that volume of migration decreases as distance increases, that migration to destination is rarely accomplished in one move, and that risk for migration is not the same for everyone. Later on Everett S. Lee updated Ravenstein's laws by making notions that migration is a push-pull process where different circumstances in the origin and destination areas affect the decisions to migrate and the intervening obstacles impact on the realization of migration (Weinstein & Pillai 2001: 212). I would say that Ravenstein's laws are still very valid in Kenya, where poverty and population growth are huge push factors in terms of migration. After independence in 1963 Kenya's economy was a typical neo-liberal economy where market forces shaped the structure and pattern of development and at the same time the pattern and magnitude of internal migration (Oucho 2007: 88). Also experiments with different development strategies have made the regional inequalities even bigger and have 18

20 Koskela: Migration in Kenya affected the migration flows at the same time (Oucho 2007: 88). In his article Migration and Regional Development in Kenya, John. O. Oucho examines differences in childhood mortality, HIV prevalence, access to secondary education and Human Development Index (HDI) among others, and he shows that the differences in these indicators are really big within Kenya (2007: 90). For example the HDI differs greatly among the provinces; it is biggest in Nairobi with and smallest in Coast and North Eastern provinces with (when best possible result is 1 and worst is 0) (Oucho 2007: 90). According to UNDP s rankings Nairobi has medium human development but Coast and Eastern provinces have low human development (UNdata 2008). These differences are naturally push and pull factors when people are looking for better living conditions and migrating from one place to another. Economic motives are necessary but not sufficient to explain population movements alone; factors in different levels of society make the decision to migrate more or less inviting. Global economic and political order can affect the decision, as well as government policies and programmes, and in community level things like transportation, community facilities, institutional factors, agriculture and socio-cultural bonds and networks can make it more or less tempting for people to migrate (Foote et al. 1993: ). One thing that affects the distribution of people and migration in Kenya is that only 17% of the land is arable (Oucho 2007: 88). Agriculture is still the biggest sector of employment so the amount of arable land in different areas has a huge impact on the population distribution (Kenya Facts and Figures 2006). In the whole Sub-Saharan Africa patterns of migration are shaped by things like rapid population and labour force growth, unstable politics, escalating ethnic conflicts, persistent economic decline and environmental deterioration (Adepoju 2008: 13). Especially in the past it has been young men who are most likely to migrate (Oucho 2007: 91). It seems quite obvious that it is the young adults who are most willing to move and because of the big family sizes it is often the only option, at least in rural areas where main livelihood of the families is farming and where family sizes often get so big that the crop yields just do not feed everyone. But the number of female migrants is increasing and women are moving more as individuals and not only with the family (Foote et al. 1993: ). The modal age group of migrants in the last few decades has been and as a result of rapidly accelerating numbers of primary and secondary school graduates who are younger than their counterparts two or three decades ago, the peak age is probably falling (Foote et al. 1993: ). Generally migrants are more educated than non-migrants and usually come from wealthier households, when poorer households are not able to sponsor the outmigration of some of their members (Foote et al. 1993: 271). Internal migration flows Kenya is still a very rural country and despite of fast urbanization it is still rural-rural migration that is the biggest type of internal migration. People move after jobs in agriculture or to start cultivating in new areas as well as a part of their nomadic lifestyle. But there is also a lot of rural-urban migration in Kenya and that is the sort of migration that is getting most attention and is easy to notice in Kenyan cities (Oucho 2007: 88 89). The amount of unemployed or underemployed young men in the streets of bigger cities like Nairobi and Mombasa is huge and very easy to notice; the streets are full of young men just hanging out or trying to create some sort of small businesses. Just by observing it seems clear that these big cities attract young people but the amount of opportunities and amount of people coming to look for them just do not match. Nairobi and Central province are the biggest in-migration areas in Kenya because of their better development status and because they have economic opportunities outside agriculture. One clear sign of fast in-migration in Nairobi is that about 60% of the city's people live in slums because construction of new houses does not keep up with the fast growing population. Coast province, as well as parts of Eastern and Rift Valley provinces, are also destination areas for migrants and Nyanza, Western and North Eastern Provinces are all out-migration areas as you can see in Fig. 1. (Oucho 2007: 91). 19

21 Koskela: Migration in Kenya International migration In regional level Kenya is more of a destination than origin area of migrants and most of the migrants come from the neighbouring countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia (Foote et al. 1993: ). There is a lot of migration between Sub-Saharan African countries but there is no data of the numbers of people migrating. Increased economic differentiation as well as disparities in educational outputs and demand for skilled workers has created reasons for migration between the African countries (Foote et al. 1993: ). People migrating between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have taken advantage of a common language, cultural affinity and shared colonial experience, and especially Kenya's sugar and tea estates have employed foreign labourers (Adepoju 2008: 18). But the number of international migrants in Eastern Africa has decreased; in 1960, 3.2% of population were migrants but in 2005 only 1.8% were migrants (Adepoju 2008: 20). The share of migrants in East Africa is smaller than in Africa in general or in developing countries in general (Adepoju 2008: 20). From Western Africa it might be easier to migrate to Southern Europe and also the sizes of countries in Western Africa are smaller so that might be one cause for bigger amounts of people crossing borders. In global level the fact that Sub-Saharan Africa is the least developed area has to have some affect on migration situation as well because people always need some economic resources to migrate. There is no unanimous opinion on how Figure 1. Kenya's provinces and their migration status. Nairobi and Central province are the most important in-migration areas, and Central province with country's second biggest city Mombasa is also a net inmigration area (Oucho 2007). 20

22 Koskela: Migration in Kenya international migration from Kenya is affecting the country. In 2001 there were 197,445 Kenyans living in OECD member countries and of them over 37% were highly skilled (meaning usually people who have had tertiary education) (Adepoju 2008: 30). When the well educated people move out from the country it is usually called brain drain, and in Kenya that is clearly a big phenomenon, one reason for that being heavy investments made in human resources development in the country (Adepoju 2008: 36). According to a study made about African doctor and nurse migrants almost 4,000 Kenyan doctors live abroad, most of them in the UK, and only about 3,900 doctors live in Kenya (Clemens & Petterson 2006). So Kenya has lost about half of its doctors while at the same time the country has a huge need for medical personnel because of HIV and many other serious epidemics. There is also a shortage of teachers in Kenya but at the same time many of Kenyan teachers are moving to work in South Africa because the salary there is many times bigger than the one they can get in Kenya (Daily Nation 2009). Migration does have positive effects through remittances that the migrants send back to their families, relatives or home villages, but it is difficult to estimate if the amount of remittances covers the losses made by the loosing skilled workers from the country. There are a lot of signs of big money flows within and to the country all over Kenya; even in Wundanyi location in the Taita Hills with only a little over 16,000 inhabitants (Wundanyi constituency 2009) there is a Western union office for money transfers. In big cities like Nairobi and Mombasa there are different types of money transfer services all around the cities; in Fig. 2. there are some of the advertisements found in the streets of Mombasa. Kenya is the first country in the world to have services of transferring money through mobile phone via Safaricom's M-Pesa service and even people who do not have bank accounts can use the service (Safaricom products & services 2009). Post offices all over the country advertise their PostaPay money transfer service, which works also to and from the country. Figure 2. Different ways to transfer money are easy to find in the streets of Mombasa; the city is full of these advertisements. Conclusions The reasons for migrating and some of the effects of migration are very easily seen in the everyday landscape of Kenyan cities and villages. Kenyan population more than tripled between 1979 and 1999 from 7.6 million to 28.7 million and the population seems to be growing in the next decades as well (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2009). To find jobs for all this "extra" labour is a really difficult thing; and because the population is growing in all parts of the country internal migration cannot really make big difference to the unemployment situation. International migration on the other hand can ease the overpopulation and unemployment situation, but often in practice it does not affect those who really need the jobs. People who have education and job opportunities in Kenya are the ones that usually migrate out of the country to seek better economic opportunities and better living conditions in other countries. For poorer and less educated people migration out from the country is usually a very distant opportunity; and probably the global economic situation will not be making it any easier. 21