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Article 43 of the Constitution states: “Every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation.”/FILE

Kenya

The story of Kenya’s homeless and hopeless

“It’s about public policy, it’s about priorities, it’s about not giving MPs more money and passing it on to something else. It’s about MPs realising that their quality of life is tied to the quality of life of the entire population.”

“But there has been a good start. Recently the commission for revenue allocation revised their formula for allocating the 15 percent of revenue that is supposed to go to the counties by prioritising inequalities and historical inequities by ensuring the poorer areas and the poorest have a bit more allocation.”

Ouma is not as optimistic about the ground covered.

“In 2002, when NARC was campaigning, they promised 500,000 houses every year. Where did that promise go?”

“It took five years to build the decanting site for the upgrading of Kibera. The decanting site is the holding area before you go ahead and upgrade. So how many years will it take to build houses to house the urban poor in Nairobi?

The men however agree, in Ouma’s words, that, “The central government and local government have an obligation to facilitate and sometimes provide housing stock to make sure the urban poor live in dignity.” And that the poor are perhaps not in the best position to lobby for change.

“When you’re poor you have a hierarchy of concerns. You ask yourself, ‘do I go to a city hall meeting to make a point or do I go scavenge at the dump to get something to go and sell?’”

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