Joint Efforts Bring Hope to Thousands of Slum Dwellers

from All Africa

The Nation (Nairobi)

By Walter Menya
Nairobi

The new sparkling and spacious blocks of new classrooms and toilets at Kudho Primary school in Kisumu East district, justifies the 26 years that pupils and teachers have had to wait for better learning facilities.

Since the school was established in 1982, pupils have been learning in dilapidated and crammed classrooms, coupled with a problem of few or no desks at all.

"It was a tattered school with more pupils than the classrooms could carry," says Mrs Benter Nyapuoth, the headteacher.

But recently, the school that serves a pupil population of over 1,000 mainly from the sprawling Obunga slums, has emerged from the jammed classrooms to more spacious ones, thanks to the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP).

In addition, a modern early childhood development unit with a capacity of 60 pupils, has also been completed under the programme.

She adds that the school has also recorded an upsurge in enrolment of pupils, who previously walked to far off schools in other estates in the town.

Fast track the achievement

When the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Housing that runs Kensup, Mr Tirop Kosgey, visited the school last month, the joy was there for all to see, as the pupils composed songs in his honour and the team that accompanied him.

Kensup began in early 2004 through a partnership between the government and the UN-Habitat, to improve the social and physical infrastructure in the informal settlements within Kisumu, Nairobi, Mavoko and Mombasa, in its first phase, but was expected to cover other towns in the latter stages.

The purpose for starting Kensup, says Mr Kosgey, was to fasttrack the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), of poverty alleviation and improved access to basic services by the year 2020.

During the inauguration of Kensup, President Kibaki said the programme was meant to improve access to shelter, water and sanitation, education, health, security and employment to an estimated population of over six million who live in the informal settlements.

It is this programme that the Kisumu Town Clerk, Rashid Mwakiwiwi, says has placed the town on the firm path to development and provision of thousands of job opportunities to the over 5000 unemployed youths.

At the Airport Community Dispensary, in Kogony ward of Kisumu Town Constituency, a short distance off Kisumu-Busia highway, Mr Kosgey was taken around a modern health facility built by funds from Kensup, through the Kisumu municipal council.

The facility is now in its second phase, that has seen a perimeter fence put up round it. Before Kensup came in, the facility had a single building and patients were forced to sit outside in the open, as they waited for their turns.

This is now set to change, following the construction of a new building with separate paediatrics and maternity wings. In addition, the dispensary has also benefited from new toilets from the programme.

Additional medical staff

At the moment, the facility serves only sections of Kisumu Town West constituency, but will be able to serve a larger part of the town upon the completion of the new building and additional medical staff.

In the Manyatta slums, Magadi Primary School has also received a boost of more classrooms. The school is now able to accommodate the surging pupil population since the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) programme.

In the same estate, a new market is under construction. According to Mr Kosgey, the completion of Manyatta market was slowed down by the political unrest that hit the lakeside town recently.

Documents from Kisumu municipal council, the implementing agency of Kensup projects, indicate that the market is 80 per cent complete and traders, who were relocated from the site to pave way for the construction, will be back soon.

"When completed, the facility will boost the livelihoods of people living and working in the informal settlements," said the PS during the tour.

In the expansive Nyalenda slums, an access road is under construction. Sections of the slum, that become impassable when it rains, have been targeted by the upgrade.

The national coordinator of Kensup, Ms Leah Muraguri, said that 12 projects have been earmarked in the informal settlements of Kisumu Town.

"The Government has allocated Sh49 million during the 2007/08 financial year to improve social and physical amenities in Kisumu Town," said Ms Muraguri.

Three projects have so far been completed, while five are at various stages, said Mr Kosgey. The remaining four projects have been delayed by "tendering technicalities".

At the moment, 60 per cent of Kisumu's population lives in the informal settlements, with a prevalence of absolute poverty standing at 48 per cent.

Mr Mwakiwiwi and Ms Muraguri, however, said that this is set to change before the year 2020, when Kensup winds up its operations.

Adequate social amenities

"We have a duty as a partner of Kensup to rid the town of slums through the provision of adequate social amenities and infrastructure," Mr Mwakiwiwi said.

"The 12 projects in the first phase will be completed by the end of the current financial year," said Ms Muraguri.

She, at the same time, assured the residents of the town that they will not be moved to new areas, to pave way for construction of new houses in the coming phases.

"Construction of critical infrastructure is vital in Kisumu, but we have no plans for a decanting site because there is enough land to develop better housing for Kisumu residents," she said.

Ms Muraguri says she is so far satisfied with the work "except that the projects were delayed by the post-election violence."

In addition, Mr Mwakiwiwi says that the hawkers' menace within the town centre, will soon be a thing of the past, after the completion of Manyatta market among others, that are in the offing with support from Kensup.