ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY CENTER – INTERNATIONAL MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES 2004/2005 JOHN MOMANYI BIRONGO AND NHI QUYEN LE FIRST YEAR PROJECT AN ANALYSIS OF WATER GOVERNANCE IN KIBERA, KENYA SUPERVISORS: CLAUS HEINBERG, JENS STÆRDAHL & OLAF WESTERMANN Whatever is the most awful place you have experienced, Kibera is worse. Bill Bryson African Diary (2002:17) i Acknowledgements Over the past seven months, the people mentioned below have purposely and unintentionally had an influence on the writing of this paper. We hereby would like to convey our deepest thanks to them all. Our gratitude first of all goes to our ambitious supervisors – Claus Heinberg and Jens Stærdahl - for having provided us with critical discussions and feedback during the entire process. Our thanks also go to the third supervisor Olaf Westermann for his positive contribution to the improvement of the paper at the last stage of the writing. High appreciation is paid to our opponents Gareth, Lucia and Patrick. We have had some constructive discussions which have strengthened the line of argument in our paper. Acknowledgements also go to the interviewees in Kibera (Kenya), who shared with us their opinions which have helped us complete the study successfully. Finally, there are some peripheral people who have contributed to the successful completion of this paper, and whom we would like to send our warmest recognition individually. From Nhi: I’m indebted to my family and good friends in Vietnam, and my Spiritual Grandfather, who have strongly motivated and encouraged me to fulfil this first academic work in Denmark. My deep gratitude is devoted to my husband Bo for his generous and tireless back-up by all possible means when things did not run smoothly with the project working process. From John: To Raphael and family for allowing me to share Kibera’s true tribulations. The two days I spent at your single room as your guest (I think I was more of a burden), the search for water at Gatuikira village, the church service at Kibera Catholic Church, the evening visits to Kisumu Ndogo for a kobole’s worth of fish and mangoes worth two shillings for your daughter, and the trip to the ‘water connections specialist’. My life and understanding of Kibera will never be the same again my friend. I am deeply indebted to you. ii Abstract Populations in urban slums continue to rise due to the relatively affordable shelter provision. Most slums are neither planned nor formal and therefore lack basic service delivery. Despite the fact that the majority of inhabitants in these slums are low-wage earners, they are forced to pay more for basic needs such as water than their neighbours in ‘affluent’ and ‘well-to-do’ neighbourhoods. This paper analyses the water governance problems in Africa’s arguably biggest slum Kibera (Kenya), and zeroes in on the Public- Private Partnership between the two biggest water suppliers in the slum, who, due to their troublesome partnership, have considerably contributed to the on-going water governance chaos. It also attempts to make plausible recommendations for remedying the problems. By discussing some theoretical standpoints and relating them to the study, we find that they provide strengths to the analysis despite some weaknesses in their theoretical foundations. Our main conclusions are that the water governance problems in Kibera are multi-faceted in which corruption has been a factor disrupting the governance system and aggravating the water governance problems; and consequently there should be some alternatives to improve the situation. This include convening multi-lateral and bilateral dialogues on effective water governance involving the stakeholders, and establishing an Association of Water Consumers, who will represent and protect all the households using water in Kibera. Key words: slum, water governance, Kibera, Public-Private Partnership, corruption, alternatives, dialogues, stakeholders, Association of Water Consumers iii List of abbreviations MBK Maji Bora Kibera NCC Nairobi City Council NWC Nairobi Water Company PPP(s) Public-Private Partnership(s) PWV(s) Private Water Vendor(s) iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1. Problem Formulation 1 1.1. Subject Area …………………………………………………………… 1 1.1.1. The general water situation in Kenya………………………………… 1 1.1.2. Kibera and the water supply situation ………………………………. 4 1.1.3. Public-Private Partnership in Kibera ……………………………….. 8 1.2. Background and pre-understanding …………………………………… 8 1.3. Research Question ……………………………………………………… 9 1.4. Working questions ………………………………………………………. 10 1.5. Methods ……………………………………………………………........ 10 1.6. Limitations ……………………………………………………………… 13 1.7. Concept definitions …………………………………………………..… 14 1.8. Chapter overview …………………………………………………….… 15 Chapter 2. Methodology 17 2.1. Governance …………………………………………………………..… 18 2.1.1. Characteristics of good governance ………………………………..… 23 2.2. Water governance ……………………………………………………… 26 2.3. Institutions ……………………………………………………………… 28 2.4. Public-Private Partnership…………………………………………….… 30 2.4.1. Types of Public-Private Partnership ………………………………..… 31 2.4.2. Characteristics of Public-Private Partnership ………………………… 32 2.5. Relations among the theories…………………………………………..… 33 v 2.6. Summary………………………………………………………………..… 34 Chapter 3. A Brief Introduction to Global and National Water Governance 35 3.1. Global water governance ………………………………………………. 35 3.1.1. The Dublin Principles for water ……………………….……………. 35 3.1.2. The dialogue on effective water governance …………………………. 36 3.2. Water governance in Kenya ……………………………………………. 38 3.2.1. Regulative institutions………… ……………………….……………. 39 3.2.2. Organisations ……………….…………………………..……………. 40 3.2.3. Political Perspectives …………………………………………………. 43 3.2.4. Water Pricing …………………………………………….……………. 45 3.3. Summary …………………………………………………………………. 46 Chapter 4. Analysis of the Water Governance in Kibera 48 4.1. Institutions …………………………………………………………………. 48 4.1.1. Regulative institutions – formal rules of the games ……………………. 48 4.1.1.1. Non-implementation of the water law ……………………………….. 48 4.1.1.2. A compromised legal and justice system ………………….………… 49 4.1.2. Organisations …………………………………………………………. 50 4.1.2.1. Formal organisations ………………………………………..……… 50 4.1.2.2. Informal organisations ……………………………………………… 52 4.1.2.3. Interactions between formal and informal organisations – informal rules of the games ………………………….……………. 55 4.2. Economic instruments and financial flows …………………………….. 60 4.2.1. Water charges ………………………………………………….…….. 60 4.2.2. Fines, Subsidies and Taxes ………………………………………….. 61 vi 4.2.3. Billing and metering system ………………………………………… 62 4.3. Participation …………………………………………………………… 63 4.4. Political intervention ………………………………………………….. 64 4.5. Information exchange and communication ……………………............ 65 4.6. Summary ………………………………………………………………. 65 Chapter 5. Analysis of the Partnership between Nairobi Water Company and Maji Bora Kibera 67 5.1. A brief introduction to Nairobi Water Company……………………….. 67 5.1.1. Establishment and organisation ……………………………………… 67 5.1.2. Mission and meter-bill related issues ………………………………… 69 5.2. A brief introduction to Maji Bora Kibera ……………………………… 70 5.2.1. Establishment and organisation ……………………………………… 71 5.2.2. Vision and mission …………………………………………………… 73 5.3. Partnership between Nairobi Water Company and Maji Bora Kibera … 73 5.3.1. History ……………………………………………………………….. 74 5.3.2. Existing partnership problems and their effects on water supply for Kibera’s poor ………………………………………. 76 5.3.2.1. Lack of mutual understanding, respect and trust …………………… 76 5.3.2.2 Decision Making and Sharing of Management Responsibilities …… 77 5.3.2.3. Principles of transparency, accountability, legitimacy and legality, equity, inclusiveness, and competition ………………… 77 5.4. Summary ……………………………………………………………… … 78 Chapter 6. Possibilities for improving the current water governance crisis in Kibera 79 vii 6.1. The pre-condition for introducing the possibilities …………………… …. 79 6.2. Establishing a local water governance dialogue involving a broad participation ……………………………………… 79 6.2.1. Why local water governance dialogues? …………………………… 79 6.2.2. Who should participate? …………………………………………… 81 6.2.3. Issues to be discussed ……………………………………………… 82 6.3. Establishing bilateral dialogues between NWC and MBK …………. 84 6.4. Forming an Association of Water Consumers ………………………. 85 6.5. Some reflections on the recommendations …………………………… 87 6.6. Summary ……………………………………………………………… 88 Chapter 7. Conclusions 89 References 94 Appendices Interview Transcripts ………………………………………………… 103 Kibera Pictures ………………………………………………………. 124 viii CHAPTER 1. PROBLEM FORMULATION 1.1. Subject Area 1.1.1. The general water situation in Kenya Map of Kenya 1 Located in East Africa, Kenya is an agriculture-based country with a land mass of approximately 592,000 sq. km. The country’s reliance on agriculture for its economic expansion implies that water is the basic element for development. The annual quantity of renewable fresh water resources is estimated at 20.2 billion m³. This comprises of 19.59 m³ of surface water and 0.62 billion m³ of ground water. 2 The actual amount of water available for utilization in any one year is dependent on a variety of factors, such as the rate of run-off, the aridity of the catchment area and the methods of interception at 1 Available at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ke.html 2 Joseph Oginga Onjala: Managing Water Scarcity in Kenya, Ph. D. Thesis, Roskilde University 1 various points in the hydrological cycle.