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Muungano News Volume 001 August/September, 2001. Ripe to manage itself Decent housing: The dream for over 61,000 Muungano members countrywide. ungano Support Team (MUST) in June/ development is significant to us as we plan By Aggrey Willis Otieno July 2010. “MUST, the technical wing of to host the largest ever convention of slum Muungano ya Wanavijiji is composed of a dwellers in Kenya towards the end of the group of diverse professionals who have month. Over 3 000 local and international UUNGANO ya Wanavijiji dedicated their expertise to serve Muun- delegates shall participate.” metamorphose in to an inde- gano ya Wanavijiji,” says Irene Karanja, the There are different stages social move- pendent organization. After Executive Director of MUST. ments often pass through. Movements ten years of being mentored According to Mr. Benson Osumba, the emerge for a variety of reasons, coalesce, Mby Pamoja Trust, Muungano ya Wanavijiji national chairman of Muungano, “This comes up with its technical wing, the Mu- Continued on Pg 3 Muungano News 2 Local News August/September 2010. Need for participatory plans and guidelines in evicting people along the railway lines By Onesmus Kilonzo VISION 2030 initiative has facilitated the need for growth and expansion of infra- structure and social economic activities in Kenya. This is a progress that pressed Kenya railway to commence a plan for High Speed Electricity railway line. However, there were people living along the Railway line predominantly in Mukuru and Kbera slums. This necessitated urgency for enu- meration process in 2005 to allow for the relocation of the citizens living along the railway line though the preparations got delayed in 2006. At some point in this period residents from Mukuru and Kibera slums in conjunc- tion with Pamoja Trust carried out suc- cessful enumeration and later mobilized and organized groups that were primarily comprised of the people living within the settlements. Some of the groups created during this era from Mukuru included; Mwanzo mpya self help group, Kakiwaki self help group, Kwarasa self help group, Ruarato self help A segment of the railway line with affected slum dwellers. group, Flyover self help group, Ngazi ya Chini self help group, Railway hawkers self served for Kenya Railway expansion, and help group, Sinai Railway hawkers self help 10m space for the Kenya Power and light- group, Mulofi self help group and Rata ing company high voltage electricity line. self help group. All these groups made up Consequently Sinai residences were an umbrella body called NJERUSI (Njenga, evicted to give way for pipeline expansion Reuben, and Sinai). although proper arrangement for compen- The guiding principle was that the sation was already agreed upon. structures were to be constructed 5 meters Habitants in Mukuru held meetings away from the railway line. However, one with the Pamoja trust, Kenya railways and side of the railway line was occupied by the World Bank mainly to discuss the reloca- Kenya Pipeline and the other side by the tion process. It was affirmed that there was Kenya Power and Lighting Company. need to get another piece of a land for Equally in 2010 Kenya pipeline came relocation in which the residents were to in to assert their space which Kenya railway be given 100 acres piece of land in Kamulu has had an agreement with the residents. (Komarocks). This was never to be. This primarily led to another enumeration It has been a call from the slum dwell- being carried out. When the enumeration ers to the Government in defense of their was conducted, 327 structures with at least properties. 2300 persons were required to be relo- The Kenyan Government goal being cated. one of the most urbanized countries might Njerusi network which got shape in not be met if the citizens living in slums 2005 had been saving as a group and later and squatters will not have an decent resi- included the members within the groups dential areas. In 2006 a group of affected to form another larger network named slum dwellers visited an international slums Rusinje (Ruben Sinai and Njenga) dwellers scheme in India where they at- which has 36 committee members in which tended a colloquium and visited one of the thirty peole represented structure owners slums in India affected by railway evictions. and six were tenants’ representatives with Throughout the process they were able equivalent representation from each seg- to come up with a plan on the best way to ment. undertake eviction of the people from the This is a slice of the area affected by Kenya Pipeline claimed a 30m land settlement areas. Moreover, railway reloca- from the railway line on one side and tion exercises should have appropriate repositioning process in another 30m land from the railway was pre- plans. Mukuru and Kibera Slums. Muungano News August/September 2010. Local News 3 The new constitution to transform our politics By Benson Osumba KENYANS made a decision on August 4 that has profound implications. The quest for a new constitution was driven by the realization that we need to change our rotten politics which has three pillars: tribalism, corruption, and unfair distribu- tion of public resources. The latter has been commonly referred to as “eating” the national cake. The eating machine has always revolved around presidency. To become a President of Kenya, one was required to coalesce a cabal of tribal chiefs who earned them- selves ministerial posts after delivering votes from their tribes. The ministerial posts were licenses to “eat” and dispense patronage, plum jobs and government contracts to cronies, hand outs to the masses, and hopefully a devel- opment project or two in one’s home area to appease the voters a few months towards electioneering periods. This is now a thing President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga after the esY side of the past. of the referendum won. Ministers shall not be elected politi- cians but appointed after a stringent vet- corruption and unfair distribution of pub- political dispensation are the tribal political ting process by the parliament. A presi- lic resources. barons – the politicians who owe their cur- dential candidate shall no longer promise The separation is further buttressed by rent national positions to the tribal vote. ministerial posts to tribal barons, for even the devolution system (Chapter 11) and The new constitution will not transform if he or she did, this will still be subject to the public finance system (Chapter 12). greedy, parochial tribal chiefs and war confirmation by the Parliament. Both deal with sharing the national cake. lords into benevolent leaders. What it will As a result, if the presidential can- In short, the two chapters put the cake out do is to give us an opportunity to begin to didates cannot guarantee tribal barons in the open and calls for everyone to the build a cohesive, just society. Ministerial posts, it does not therefore pay table to share it in an agreeable manner The writer is the national chairman of Mu- for tribal barons to invest in tribal mobiliza- to all. ungano & A board member of Slum Dwellers tion. By undermining tribal mobilization This is in effect another blow against International. He can be reached through of votes, the new constitution undermines corruption. The first losers in this new [email protected] Ripe to manage itself Continued on Pg 1 within the country is the land within the that the land in question is occupied by City. So, what these politicians would do is people. So what they started doing was to and eventually either institutionalize or to go to the Ministry of Land, and identify go to the police, get policemen with their fragment. a big piece of land in the maps and they guns and forcefully evict people.” “Social movements have a lifecycle would be given Titles,” explains Ms. Jane One of the first cases that Muungano of their own, and move through various Weru, the Executive Director of Akiba did was the case of Kingston when that stages that include: incipiency which is the Mashinani Trust. community was threatened with eviction. birth of the movement, coalescence where However, according to Jane Weru, who Muungano worked closely with NGO the movement becomes a co-operative is one of the founders of Muungano and Council where a committee was set up to force, institutionalize through which the the founding director of Pamoja Trust, look at the issues of eviction and within movement develops into an institution - or “when these politicians go down they find that committee ANPPCAN was very active. – fragments where it falls apart. Muunga- As a result, the NGO council working with no, after being mentored by Pamoja Trust Kituo cha Sheria started pursuing cases of for the last 10 years has chosen not to When these forced evictions. fragment but to institutionalize,” explains The need for awareness creation on Mr. Benson Osumba. politicians go down what to be done by affected communities Muungano started in1995 when there they find that the land during evictions arose. “There were Com- were lots of evictions. “During the Moi munity Organizers that were seconded by government land was used to buy political in question is ANPPCAN to work on these issues. They patronage with the coming of multi party occupied by people started going round building awareness politics. If they wanted to buy a politician, within the communities,” explains Jane they would give them land. Prime land Continued on Pg 7 Muungano News Muungano News 4 Editorial August/September 2010. August/September 2010. Local News 5 Muungano Secure tenure: A prerequisite here we come! for housing the poor LIKE that drizzle in the sun shine, which we loved when we were young, today my heart is a pleasant mixture of joy…and yes, pride as I welcome you to enjoy read- ing this edition of Muungano News.