Nairobi slum dwellers set to fight govt over land
It’s expected to take at least five years, but Kenya has begun to move residents out of Africa's largest slum in Nairobi, which is home to about one million people. They intend to kick off the UN-backed process by rehousing folk in 300 newly built apartments close by, for which they will pay $10 a month in rent. Even that’s a lot for people who likely live on a few dollars a day, and trouble is already brewing among residents and landlords who claim they own the land where modern, low income residences, schools, markets and playgrounds will be built. Many slum dwellers are elated, saying that previously the only toilets they had access to were plastic bags that were thrown out of windows. But others in Kibera say the land is theirs and government has no right to demolish their shacks. The BBC says a large number of Kibera residents rent their homes from middle-class Kenyans, who built temporary structures on government land over the last 30 years. Looks like the land rights issue will become some fight.
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