HOUSING

Our object is to help people in the poorest communities to have decent homes.  We try to improve the lives of people living in slums and our aim is to support community-led housing initiatives.   After extensive sponsored research in the Nairobi area, we encouraged the establishment of a self-help group of 26 families living in the Korogocho slums.  The group is known as Mwamko.   Lower down the page we include brief stories about three of the families;  this provides an insight into the slum conditions.

A suitable site on the outskirts of Nairobi has been identified and we hope to agree terms soon.

We are being assisted on a voluntary basis by the Kenya Association of Architecture, providing house designs and setting standards, and students at the School of Architecture Nairobi University will gain practical experience by helping with construction work.  The Mwamko members are indebted to the Altaawon Trust (AT) in Kenya for hosting their office space and meetings and helping with administration costs;  AT was founded by some of the youth in Korogocho and their priority is intervention in education, healthcare and livelihood within the slum.

To donate please refer to the donations page.

Short stories of three women Mwamko members.

Mrs A, aged 48, was brought up and married in Korogocho for the last 32 years.  She has four children who were born and brought up in this slum.  She was educated in Baba Ndogo primary school where she attained basic primary education.  She lost her husband, the sole bread winner, 15 years ago and the burden of raising the kids was left solely in her hands. All her children have attended primary education but lacked opportunities to proceed to the next level of their education.  She struggles to pay the high rent of Kshs 1,500 for one small room where she stays with her two daughters and she had lost hope of ever owning a house.

Ms B was born and brought up in Korogocho.  She has four children who depend on her for their livelihood –  and she lost her husband 3 years ago.  She has two small rooms made of old iron sheets.  She hawks old clothes in order to feed her family. She struggles to pay the monthly rent of Kshs 1000.  

Mrs C settled in Korogocho in 1983.  She was forcibly married to a man twice her age, she has seven children. She is, in effect, a single parent since her old husband is very sick and unable to feed the family.  She is sheltered by a well wisher who happens to be a close relative and who owns a house of two rooms in this slum. She is the most active member of the Mwamko self-help group and contributes regularly.

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Some members of the self-help group at a meeting on 18th November 2011 with CHT Chairman Clifford Dann and CHT’s local chairperson Valerie Davies

Our immediate need is to raise a further £15,000 to complete the purchase of a 2-acre site (which will remain in the control of CHT/Mwamko).  We will also need funds to assist the families with the cost of building, although in the short term micro finance, provided by Family Bank, will be available to the families.

Korogocho is situated 7 km Northeast of the city centre of Nairobi, within the city boundaries and is the fourth largest slum area in Nairobi after Kibera, Mathare and Mukuru. An estimate of total population in the settlement ranges from 200,000 to 250,000 inhabitants:  densities of over 2500 people per hectare make it one of the most densely populated informal settlements in the city and in Kenya as a whole.  Korogocho is located in Kasarani Division on land that is partly government and partly privately owned in the proximity of a dumping site at Dandora.

These photos are typical of the conditions in which the Mwamko families live – lack of basic urban services (water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, power and roads), high population densities, high unemployment levels and illiteracy has resulted in a large percentage of the city of Nairobi’s population living in deplorable conditions.