OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 2012 1

B U L L E T I N

OPERATION FIRIMBIBlow the Whistle Campaign

for JUST LAND REFORMagainst LAND GRABBING

and CORRUPTION in KenyaFirimbi Bulletin published by Mazingira Institute PO Box 14550 Nairobi 00800Tel: 254 20 4443219/26/29, Fax: 254 20 4444643 E-mail info@mazinst.org, Website: www.mazinst.org

Issue No. 42 June 2015

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Background to Kisumu County Kisumu County is offi cially designated County No: 042 of the 47 devolved county governments created by the 2010 Constitution. Its headquarters is Kisumu City, Kenya’s third largest city. The county has a population of 968,909, according to the 2009 National Census, inhabiting a land area of 2085.9 km².

Kisumu County’s neighbours are Siaya County to the west Vihiga County to the north, Nandi County to the North East and Kericho County to the East. Its neighbour to the south is Nyamira County and Homa Bay County is to the south west.

In terms of administration, the Governor is Jack Ranguma; his deputy is Ms. Ruth Odinga, sister to the former Prime Minister. Kisumu County has 35 wards, each represented by a MCA in the County Assembly. The Women’s Rep is Rose Nyamunga (ODM) while Prof. Anyang’ Nyongo is the serving senator. In the National Assembly, Kisumu East is represented by Shakeel Shabbir (ODM); Kisumu West by Olago Aluoch (FORD-KENYA); Kisumu Central MP is Ken Obura (ODM); Seme has James Nyikal (ODM) while Nyando returnedFred Outa (ODM). In Muhoroni, Onyango Oyoo of PDP dented ODM’s stranglehold of Kisumu politics with Nyakach re-electing Aduma Owuor. Politically Kisumu County is dominated by ODM.

Kisumu County sits on the shores of Lake Victoria, providing it with the potential to be a major centre of fishing. However, the use of old technologies hampers the full development of the industry. Also, the recent water hyacinth menace on the lake has reduced fish catches signifi cantly. The new county government has pledged to fight the hyacinth problem. Rice is grown under irrigation in the Kano Plains. Most of the water for irrigation comes from River

Kisumu County: Land and Underdevelopment

June 2015

Continued on page 2

Kit Mikayi, one of Kisumu County’s tourist attractions

Nyando, whose annual floods displace huge numbers of people but also deposit a lot of fertile silt all across the plain. The northern and eastern fringes of the Kano Plains also play host to some of Kenya’s most productive sugarcane fields. Kibos, Muhoroni and Chemelil are centres of sugarcane production. However , the fourth one-the mill at Miwani- is not operational after its original owners abandoned it in the year 1988. Kisumu city and the surrounding areas have several light industries. These include textiles, molasses, fish processing plants and agricultural produce processors. Also present in the main industrial area of Kisumu is a large scale maize milling company. Several backyard industries Kisumu County also produces maize, beans, new sweet potatoes, poultry and fresh vegetables. Kisumu city is the major commercial centre in Western Kenya. Service industries like wholesale and retail trade, bicycle repair, car repair, entertainment centres and low scale IT services abound within and outside the city. Several banks have their regional offi ces in the city, servicing the entire western Kenya region. Kisumu International Airport has been upgraded and now has the potential to be an entreport for the entire region

Since early 2014, Mazingira Institute has been researching and churning out a series of Firimbi Bulletins revolving around the theme of land-based confl icts in the counties. We published special reports on Kilifi , Kwale, Taita Taveta, Mombasa, Lamu and Tana River. The one which proved eerily prophetic was the one on Lamu which inadvertently foretold the tragic killings in Mpeketoni by urging urgent interventions in the long simmering tensions between indigenous residents and upcountry settlers.

Our decision to cover Kisumu is but a continuation of the same determination to understand the unfolding dynamics around land, historical injustices and popular participation within the current dispensation of devolved governance. We are fortunate to be partnering with the Malaika Foundation who have not only been generous with assisting us with the resources to do the fi eld work and publish this bulletin, but more

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 20122

importantly are actively present on ground doing grass roots work on the issues of citizen participation in Kisumu County with very valuable contacts in the region. They set up our tour of some of the grabbed land belonging to the Kanyakwar community around the Mamboleo junction in Kisumu City where we saw with our own eyes how politically, but unscrupulous private developers are erecting mansions and other luxury real estate structures with impunity. With the assistance of Chris Owalla, the CIAG-K’s Director who works closely with Malaika, it was possible to meet Tom Odera Onyango, the Executive Secretary of a welfare association which is at the frontlines of the protracted decades old campaign to reclaim the stolen lands of the Kanyakwar, Kosele, Kolwa, Kajulu and other clans.

That interview is one of the highlights of this special bulletin.

Gender is cross cutting across the entire socio-economic, cultural and political spectrum. The land question in Kisumu County was no exception. We have excerpts from a rigorous study by Rose Otieno Ochieng on the opportunities and challenges for women in the new statutory land tenure systems in Kisumu County.We cite media reports concerning rampant theft of school grounds in Kisumu to underscore the point that such illegal activities tend to be everywhere in the country, not confi ned Lang’ata Primary in Nairobi which fi rst hogged the limelight.

This bulletin is indebted to some of the insightful fi ndings and recommendations from a thorough study entitled, Customary tenure: ‘opportunity’ or ‘obstacle’ to urban land development: The case of Kisumu city, Edwin Wamukaya Okonyo’s 2008 Master of Science in Urban Planning and Management thesis. He did portions of his research under the aegis of Pamoja Trust, one of the institutions key in partnering in this special Firimbi Bulletin on Kisumu.

Often when land or land-based injustices are cited in the Kenyan case, it evokes in many minds a rural

June 2015

context. But in the particular circumstances of Kisumu County and indeed other major urban-based counties like Nairobi and Mombasa, one has to factor in the question of the built environment and the attendant socio-economic issues affecting livelihoods pertaining to the urban and working poor-matters that are incidentally not totally divorced from the familiar phenomena of land grabbing, corruption and abuse of power by politically connected elites in other regions of the country.

That is why we have included vignettes profi ling particular residential neighbourhoods in Kisumu City like Bandani, Nyalenda, Kondele and Manyatta where the majority of ordinary citizens subsist, eking out a precarious existence on the fringes of Kenyan society. We have sourced our data from a path breaking study by UN Habitat titled Situation Analysis of Informal Settlements in Kisumu done as a component of their “Cities Without Slums (CWS) Sub-Regional Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa” The study, completed in 2005, was done in conjunction with the Government of Kenya, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Municipality of Kisumu. Financing of the Cities Without Slums initiative in Kisumu has been made possible with support from the Governments of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

What is taking place in these impoverished areas of Kisumu is a poignant manifestation of the reality of what many political economists refer to as the “development of underdevelopment” a term popularized by writers like Ander Gunder Frank, Paul Sweezy and other thinkers associated with the Dependencia School. Of course these Kisumu neighbours are replicated in other urban locales across the country like Kibera, Korogocho, Kangemi and Kawangware in Nairobi; Shauri Yako and Paul Machanga in Nakuru and Bangla Desh, Chaani and Mshomoroni in Mombasa.

We believe it is important to give these snapshots and vignettes of Kisumu because they provide a crucial pointer to the roots of a long tradition of political protest and militancy in Kisumu and other parts of the former Nyanza Province. Often one is accosted by lay intellectual reasoning by armchair political pundits who ascribe the decades-long strain of “anti-government” stance of the inhabitant of this region of western Kenya to the sway of infl uential “opposition” national fi gures like Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his equally charismatic son Raila. It is almost as if there is an anti-establishment gene; an innate “rebel” predisposition among the Luo community. However, a closer, objective, clinical and scientifi c probe of the concrete material socio-economic conditions of the people of Kisumu County provides a far more reliable explanation of what triggers the political reactions at the super structural levels. In other words, one does not to have a doctorate degree in nanotechnology to fathom the connection between the abject poverty and extreme underdevelopment on the one hand and the cauldron of boiling political tumult that has long been a feature of contemporary Kisumu on the other.

It is our expectation that hopefully, a thorough refl ection on the issues we highlight in this special edition of Firimbi will lead to greater public engagement by the citizens of Kisumu County to engage all stakeholders including the emergent devolved structures, the national government, local politicians, civil society organization, women, youth as well as international development partners in collectively forging pragmatic, viable and sustainable solution to the myriad challenges confronting the county.

Kisumu County Gini co-effi cient by ward

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 2012 3June 2015

Tom Odera Onyango is in the literal sense, a wise old man.

He may not be “old” in the stereotypical Nelson Mandela sense that is pushing 90, but he is not a spring chicken either. But strands of grey sprinkled on his balding pate are punctuated with experiences of a diverse life lived in Kenya and partly in the United Kingdom where he studied and resided many decades ago.

One of the issues he has experienced fi rst hand are the trials and tribulations of the Kanyakwar people; more than that, the struggles of the Kolwa and Kajulu clans to claim back the parcels of ancestral lands grabbed over the last half century by unscrupulous individuals and institutions in Kisumu City.

Firimbi Bulletin had the rare opportunity to have a sit down face to face chat with the Executive Secretary of the KEKAKO Welfare Association over a sumptuous meal in the Lakeside city in mid May 2015.

Mzee Onyango has an elephantine memory, recalling incidents which happened in the late sixties with photographic detail with the ease of someone recounting a funeral or wedding held a mere fortnight ago.

A spellbinding raconteur, he holds us in thrall as he recalls sessions before the Ogutu Commission in 1972. Mzee Onyango speaks of the travails of the Kajulu, Konya, Kolwa and Kasule communities; he walks us through the zigs and zags his Kanykwar people have gone through successive regimes-Jomo Kenyatta; Daniel Moi, Mwai Kibaki; the Grand Coalition culminating with the incumbent Uhuru led Jubilee. Mzee Onyango with justifi ed bitterness, tells the tale of broken promises when the then (and venal) Kisumu Municipal Council reneged on a solemn pledge not to disinherit locals by robbing them of land they had owned communally for eons. He speaks lucidly of what he and KEKAKO said to Dr. Swazuri and his National Land Commission contingent.

(Please read the full Kanyakwar Memorandum that is carried elsewhere in this Firimbi Bulletin).

These days he is the chief custodian of what remains of the ancestral lands within the parameters and perimeters of Kisumu. You simply can not just show up in areas like Mamboleo to begin ogling at potential prime real estate, salivating at the

prospect of millions to be minted in speculative deals. You have to go through him or his “boys” who keep an eagle, vigilant eye.

I witnessed this for myself when I personally toured the section around the Mamboleo Junction which connects the Kisumu-Kakamega route. Guided by CIAG- K’s Chris Owalla, a confi dant of Mzee Onyango, we navigated the slew of maisionettes, bungalows, town houses and other posh residential dwellings being proffered to Kisumu’s parvenu and neauveau petit bourgeois by the rapacious wheeler dealer quickly securing a toehold on the emerging real estate boom in Kisumu although it is far from clear whether this is more than an ephemeral bubble that will come crashing down in the next couple of years with devastating consequences for the local and regional economy.

A Conversation with Tom Odera Onyango

Continued on page 4

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 20124 June 2015

MEMORANDUM TO THE NATIONAL LAND COMMISSION TASK FORCE ON HISTORICAL LAND INJUSTICES.

2nd October 2014SUBMITTED BY

KANYAKWAR, KAJULU KISUMU SOCIAL HALL, KISUMU COUNTY

PETITION ON THE ILLEGAL ACQUISITION AND RE-ALLOCATION OF PARCELS OF LAND IN KISUMU KANYAKWAR AND SOUTH KAJULU (PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS LR NUMBER 15345 AND LR

24414) BY THE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF KISUMUBACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Kisumu town Municipality boundaries comprised of land from the people of Kisumo, Kajulu and Kolwa. These were three great locations of the area that was ini-tially considered peri-urban.

Between 1968 and 1970 there was a proposal from the then East African Community through the support of development partners to have Kisumu town as the headquarters of the three Lake Victoria Region states. The Kenyan Government in 1970 approved this recommendation and appointed a commission to look into possibilities of the pro-posal and expansion of Kisumu Municipality jurisdiction as it were then.

The terms of reference were: a. To talk to the residents of the proposed area targeted for expansion; b. To discuss with the residents concerned and understand their wishes relating to the expansion and possible land acquisition; c. To explain to the residents, reasons and prospects of the intended expansion; d. To recommend areas of boundary expansion. From these discussions, the commission assured the affected residents that: a. Any affected parcel of land shall fi rst be surveyed, demarcated and registered; b. Adjudicated and numbers of land will be issued to the owners; c. The title deeds issued to the landowners and any other needful documents before anything is thought of. These were the conditions given to the residents by the commission that should there be an expansion that will affect their land this will be followed.

In 1978 the government of the day, (through the provincial land department and the Municipal council of Kisumu) without regard to the recommendations of the Ogutu Commission proceeded to evict the residents of Kisumu east (Kanyakwar), West Kajulu (Konya and Kadero sub-locations) and Central Kolwa (Nyalunya and Kasule sub-locations) from their ancestral lands and destroying their houses and structure without giving any notice or reason for the action. This was done in a bid to incorporate the area into Kisumu Municipality as per the recommendation of Ogutu Commission but without following the due process of land acquisition. The sections of the land have since been surveyed and allocated to private developers without regard to the original right holders. The residents considered this action as a violation of their right to property and disre-gard of their human dignity. They have since fi led several complaints to the immediate two former presidents and the parliamentary Anti-corruption Select committee. The 1999 Land Review Commission had investigated the claims of the residents of the affected area and fi led its report which was not implemented. The residents of the affected area through Kikako Welfare Association have fi led a suit against Kisumu Municipal Council and the Commissioner of Lands in a case number KSM HCCC NO. 65 of 2008 in a bid seek justice. This case is still pending in court.

THE RESIDENTS’ PETITION IS ARGUED ON THE FOLLOWING GROUNDS: 1. The residents of the affected land were illegally evicted from their ancestral land without any form of compensation and now most of them are squatters. 2. The process of land acquisition as was set out by the law in place then was not fol-lowed hence the land in question is neither public land nor trust land and thus the govern-ment does not have any authority in facilitating dealings on it instead it should be in the hands of individual community members. 3. The former intention and the promise given to the residents of industrializing the area acquired by the government to create jobs was never achieved. 4. The people promised portions of land for development with assistance funding from the government also remain a dream. 5. The area was demarcated, adjudicated and registered after the said mass eviction without any consideration of the right holders. 6. These lands were since allocated to infl uential individuals irregularly by the Municipal Council of Kisumu, who have either undertaken development of the land or disposed of the allocated land.

THE REMEDIES REQUESTED BY THE RESIDENTS OF KANYAKWAR AND SOUTH KAJULU ARE: 1. An investigation into the irregular allocation of the said parcels of land be under-taken by the National land Commission; 2. That the land in question is given back to the rightful former owners uncondition-ally; 3. That the affected people are compensated for the loss of their earnings as a result of the act of eviction; 4. State offi cers found to have benefi ted knowingly or spear headed the process of dis-possessing the people of Kanyakwar be investigated further and charged in the court of law;

BY THE RESIDENTS OF KANYAKWAR AND SOUTH KAJULU

In 2014, Rose Otieno Ochieng earned a Master of Arts in Development Anthropology from the University of Nairobi for her thesis, Opportunities and Challenges for Women in the New Statutory Land Tenure Systems in Kisumu County, Western Kenya. Her study set out to identify opportunities and challenges for women in the new statutory land tenure systems and was conducted among rural women farmers in Katieno West Sub-location, Kisumu County. The main objective was to explore the opportunities for women’s access, use, control and ownership of land in the new dispensation and fi nd out why rural women are not exploiting these opportunities.

Because of the relevance and value of her research to the overarching theme of this special edition of the Firimbi Bulletin, we are reproducing an abridged excerpt from her conclusions:

(1) The statutory land tenure systems in the new dispensation offer women various opportu-nities with regard to land including ownership and inheritance that they did not have in the past. The fi ndings further indicate that a large percentage of rural women in Kisumu County are aware of these opportunities. However, there are many adverse challenges af-fecting their ability to exploit and demand them including culture, negative perceptions, lack of an enabling environment and lack of adequate structures to facilitate the process;

(2) Luo customs greatly undermine women. Subordination of women is a social and historical phenomenon that needs to be addressed for women to exploit the opportunities availed to them in the new legislations. Social actors, in this case men and women, interact within the constraints and opportunities of existing structures at the same time as they act upon and restructure the system. They continuously make their own history carrying along past experiences, knowledge and cultural traits. It is, therefore, imperative that subordination of women is addressed by addressing cultural injustices that undermine women so that women are treated with equal respect and dignity like their male counterparts. This will create an enabling environment in which women can demand and exploit their rights. The negative perceptions are not exclusively held by men but women too, especially elderly women, do not encourage these opportunities. Nevertheless, men tend to dwell on the negative perceptions more as they derive more benefi ts from it. However, younger women are set to ensure that their plight is taken into consideration and not undermined as has been in the past. They believe that the new legislations, including the constitution, create an enabling environment for them. They now have neutral structures other than the village elders such as the courts to determine their case with regards to land. It will take time be-fore rural women are able to enjoy these opportunities but eventually they will. The inap-propriate structures of the past will be dismantled in devolution as the government moves closer to the people. Exposed and educated community members living in towns and cities are bound to return and settle within the communities in devolution. This process will strengthen the structures of devolution and ensure that community members enjoy its ben-efi ts, including opportunities for women in the new statutory land tenure systems;

(3) The opportunities for women in the new statutory land tenure systems may not necessarily be imperative to the livelihoods of rural women, since they already enjoy unlimited access to and use of land. However, these opportunities will motivate them in cultivating land and keeping livestock as they will have a share in the benefi ts that accrue from the m. Women will also have a sense of belonging both in their places of birth and marriage. This will greatly improve their self-esteem and confi dence and allow them to compete not only with their male counterparts but with other women nationally in building the nation’s primary source of production, that is, agriculture;

(4) It is important to note that the new legislations defi ne ownership of land as tantamount to securing the rights of land users. This may be the case in urban areas where land is pur-chased for commercial purposes but not in rural areas. Ownership of land in rural areas will inevitably translate to men having title deeds to land further alienating women from it. This will encourage patriarchy which is already a hindering factor in the enforcement of women’s land rights. In order to secure women’s land rights it is therefore necessary to address patriarchy by empowering women with both information and resources to be able to acquire title deeds and demand their rights;

(5) The new statutory land tenure systems and cultural land tenure systems exist parallel from each other creating gaps in the enforcement of women land rights. The constitution is trying to bridge this gap by offering a platform in which the two can be used in tandem. Notwithstanding, public opinion will take time to address and a lot more will need to be done for women to actualize their land rights including dissemination workshops, training workshops, campaigns, media briefi ngs, efforts in bridging the gaps between statutory and customary land tenure systems and efforts to expose rural communities to alternative recourse structures such as the courts.

Gendering the Land Question in Kisumu County

Horticulture in Lower Nyando, Kisumu County

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 2012 5June 2015

[We have sourced our data from a path breaking study by UN Habitat titled Situation Analysis of Informal Settlements in Kisumu done as a component of their “Cities Without Slums (CWS) Sub-Regional Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa”.The study, completed in 2005, was done in conjunction with the Government of Kenya, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Municipality of Kisumu. Financing of the Cities Without Slums initiative in Kisumu has been made possible with sup-port from the Governments of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.]

Nyalenda “A” and “B”Nyalenda “A” and “B” (including Nyamasaria) are areas in rapid transition. Original inhabitants are selling land to newcomers who have been putting up quality residential houses. Original owners tend to stay in typical rural housing surrounded by new developments.

Most of Nyalenda is characterised by a relatively lower density of housing development. Typical housing is of the rooming type, including a courtyard with shared facilities. The main access roads are generally wide, with a few narrow feeder roads.

Land in Nyalenda “A” is on freehold tenure. Families hand land down to successive generations, as is typical in a rural setup. To this extent, the area can be characterised as a rural settlement caught up in urban expansion. The result was a massive concentration of people in a rural-like environment with Luo-

Snapshots of Some Residential Areas of Kisumu

style rural housing in the urban fringes. Cultural land-use practices persist in Nyalenda “A” despite its location and proximity to the upmarket Milimani residential area, resulting in periodic confl icts with Municipal authorities as grazers invade parks and other amenities in pursuit of pasture.

The traditional culture of burying the dead within the compound persists; this makes it very diffi cult to bring such parcels into the urban land market, because of the personal attachment of family mem-bers to the burial place of the departed and the un-willingness of people to buy land with gravestones on them.

Nyalenda “B” (Pandpieri) is similar to Nyalenda “A” in many ways, but the major difference is its ability to attract new developers. Although Pandpieri grew as an extension to Nyalenda, internal accessibility there is slightly better. Probably because of proxim-ity to swamps and the distance from the major areas of economic activity, the Pandipieri settlement has had a density for a long time. It has fewer graves and therefore is more amenable to the land market.

Surveying in most of the area and title deeds avail-able except for the Kisumu prisons farm, which is un-surveyed. The process of getting documentation after land subdivision is very lengthy and some in-formal subdivisions for inheritance purposes are not registered. On the eastern side of this area lies a large tract of agricultural land that is seasonally fl ooded. This land is an important component of the community’s livelihood and is still owned commu-nally by the native inhabitants of the area. However, because it is virtually a wetland there has been no clear strategy for its proper development, although the community’s ownership is recognised, if only informally.

The majority of the houses in Nyalenda “A” and “B” are made of mud and wattle with iron sheet roofs. This is a carry-over from rural housing and its so-called “semi-permanent” houses (tin roofs, plas-tered/un-plastered fl oors with the occasional plas-tered mud wall). Landowners put up rental houses on land on which they also have their homes. Due to high construction costs, many of these rental houses lack basic amenities such as toilets, power, water and security. Outdoor space is also inadequate. Most of the buildings have had no council approval. There are quite a number of very modern housing structures in the periphery of Nyalenda “A” and “B”, near the Milimani area. The establishment of a small factory on its outer reaches near Dunga and the development of recreational places by the lake

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 20126

saw the setting up of electric power lines and water reticulation to serve these activities. This had a mul-tiplier effect, as a larger proportion of developers were able to tap into this infrastructure. Encouraged by lower land costs compared with the inner city, better housing is emerging in this sub-zone for the middle class who do not want to live far away from the town centre.

Pandpieri benefi ts from the location of a recreation centre at Dunga near the lake. This has caused a rise in property values and an invasion by high-income earners who are buying properties there and putting up large residential housing adjacent to the existing rooming housing. This process is a knock-on effect from the limited availability of land in Milimani (at the Situation Analysis of Informal Settlements in Kisumu centre of the town), which houses the urban rich, and is bound to accelerate. Improved accessi-bility in the area will push out economically weaker residents to other areas in order to create space for expansion of the Milimani area.Housing rents in Nyalenda “A” and “B” vary be-tween KShs 500 and 700 per month for a house close to water supply and a toilet facility. With pow-er connection, the rent goes up to KShs 1000, which is quite unaffordable to most would-be tenants.

Particularly worthy of note is the fact that for a long time, the planning standards in force in Nyalenda “A” and “B” were those for a rural area, which means that access roads were only six metres wide. Under urban conditions, such roads are for access to single plots only. In a rural context even this six-metre feature was not fully adhered to and many ac-cess roads have been squeezed to widths of as little as four metres.

With their rural transport network, Nyalenda and Pandpieri have the basis for upgrading to an ur-banized transport system. However, the Urban II upgradingprogramme is uncompleted for lack of funds, among other reasons. The Ring Road is the only access network that has been completed. However, completion has led to increased values for properties adjacent to the Ring Road and the whole strip is slowly changing to commercial uses.The Ring Road runs on the outer edges of Nyalenda and Pandpieri and is the only public transport vehi-cle (“matatu”) route in the area. Beyond this point, access into the slums is only possible by foot or bicycle. Those wishing to use a matatu must walk to the Ring Road. This is quite inconvenient for those staying on the outer edges of the slum belt, especially when they have heavy loads to carry and would welcome public transport. All the roads in Nyalenda are narrow tracks eroded by runoff water, with homes constructed close to the road or road reserves. These roads lack drainage which com-pounds the erosion problem. Runoff water from the Ring Road has also increased erosion of the area’s narrow roads.

The main type of sanitation in the area is the pit latrine. A few houses have water closets with sep-tic tanks, which has been a major factor in ground water contamination. Many plots are of small sizes on black cotton soils, this makes it diffi cult to con-struct pit latrines, and residents in these areas resort to alternative waste disposal methods including use of open spaces.

Use of polythene bags to be disposed of at night (“fl ying toilets”) is increasing. Sources of domestic water include pipe water and wells, with Municipal piped water selling from stand-pipes. Nyalenda is positioned next to a main water delivery pipe of

200mm diameter which provides water whenever KIWASCO makes it available. However, the temporary nature of a majority of the housing structures makes the option of individual household connections unat-tractive. The cost of water supplied by vendors is three times higher than that accessed in houses connected to the water system; a 20-litre container sells for KShs 20. Ground water is highly contaminated, resulting in high morbidity levels, and water from streams is for washing and livestock use.

There are no government health facilities in Nyalenda “A” and “B”, and the private sector provides ser-vices tothose who can afford them. The basic cost in the private hospital/clinics is about KShs 300 per visit, which often includes the cost of medicines along with good service. In addition, residents walk long distances to the GoK district hospital, the MCK Lumumba health centre and the Joel Omino dispensary. Alternative medicine is the most commonplace response to various healthcare needs.

HIV/AIDS is rampant in Nyalenda, due to traditional beliefs, poverty, early school drop-out, idleness and drug abuse. A number of civil society organisations provide home-based care but resource availability con-strains activities. In many instances, patients have lost opportunities for care and support through denial.Solid waste disposal is a major problem in Nyalenda. Municipal services do not cover this area of town for several reasons, including poor access, lack of refuse transport and dustbins, and residents’ casual attitude to waste disposal. A minority of residents have taken to composting or burning, but a majority resort to dumping on any empty spaces.

Social facilities such as schools, social halls and markets are quite inadequate in Nyalenda. Where avail-able, they lack basic amenities. Area residents and a Councillor have pointed out that those markets funded by the World Bank (in Nyamasaria and K’Owino) were not working because of poor planning at odds with the needs of the community. These markets have no electricity or water and access is poor. As a result, they are used for other purposes (e.g., K’Owino market as a lodge and cattle shed). The council collects revenue from the market but does not plough it back, since most of this money ends up in recurrent expenditure, mostly salaries and allowances.Most residents work as petty traders in Nyalenda or beyond. Many work in the “Jua Kali sector in the town centre. Domestic work in the nearby Milimani area is a widespread means of sustenance, a carry-over from the days of the colonial social structures.

A small number of Nyalenda residents are in formal employment. Petty trading is the predominant source of income, followed by Jua Kali artisanship, salaried employment, and farming. Farming takes place in “Nam Thowe”, a prime area for developing productive urban agriculture. However, in almost all sectors, income levels are low and availability of serviced plots continues to be a major challenge in establishing small-scale enterprises in the area.

Fishing in Lake Victoria provides a signifi cant source of income, with jobs either as fi sherman or fi shmon-ger. Housing represents another major source, with further potential both in terms of construction labour and rents.

Obunga and BandaniThe Kisumu industrial area is the main source of livelihood for Bandani and Obunga. The name “bandani” actually refers to its location in the industrial area. These two working-class residential areas are rather dense in comparison to other slum areas in the Kisumu belt. The type of housing responds more to the needs of the poorer segment of the working class in the industrial area, with a predominance of rooming housing. Casual industrial employment provides suffi cient numbers of tenants for investment in housing.

The inadequacy of physical infrastructure and basic social services in this area is comparatively worse than in other slum areas. Although residents have proof of ownership, demand for land in this area remains scarce and there is a distinct lack of new owners to build quality housing.

Land ownership in Bandani and Obunga is quite commercialised as a majority of residents have bought the parcels as opposed to inheriting. Those who have bought land endeavour to acquire title deeds to their prop-erty on a leasehold tenure. There has been a gradual fragmentation of land in Bandani and Obunga as use changes from agriculture to housing and commercial purposes, a trend that has accelerated since the mid-

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Continued on page 7

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 2012 7June 2015

1990s. During these 10 years,farming has come to a virtual halt but a few families still keep some livestock.

As the pressure for plots to build houses grows, land is increasingly sub-divided into smaller parcels with a commensurate rise in rents, the typical plot size being less than 0.2 hectare. Grabbing and use of public land along the railway line is also common practise in Bandani. Moreover, ownership of land has changed from a communal system in the 1970s to individual ownership of title deeds for specifi c parcels of land, leading to displacement of some community members.

In the 1990s a number of employees who had been laid off with redundancy fees bought land as an invest-ment, causing land values and rents to rise. As a result, the so-called immigrants outnumber the locals.

The rural social fabric has broken down and the area has become more insecure. Commercialisation of land has been so rapid that in the absence of planning controls there is virtually no land left for public facilities.

Being located on the edge of the industrial zone, Bandani and Obunga provide housing for a signifi cant number of lowly paid blue-collar workers. Many of these are on short-term contracts that give them little job security, and therefore they can afford only very low-quality housing. Over 80 per cent of households live in semi-permanent housing structures.

Although it has the same population as Obunga, Bandani has expanded to include a reasonable propor-tion of improved housing structures. The sub-zone faces a larger problem than the others do, though, as the Kisumu-Butere railway line hinders access by road. For the majority of people in the area who walk to work to the nearby industrial area, this is not a problem. However, the railway line is a hindrance; it creates a physical barrier that deters potential investors and makes it diffi cult to develop the area.Rents in Bandani and Obunga are comparatively lower than in Kisumu’s other slum settlements because of the access problem. Rents are a function of house sizes. In most cases, houses are poorly built with little ventilation, broken walls, and drainage right upfront. Most houses have neither electricity nor piped water connections, due to poor planning and the low incomes accruing to landlords. A 3m x 3m rooming house will typically rent for KShs. 300 a month, excluding water and electricity.

The desire to maximise on rental income has seen landlords put up many small, congested houses with no vehicular access at all and no consideration for sanitation facilities.

Obunga and Bandani are the areas with the worst road network. Roads are generally impassable due to poor drainage and inadequate spacing of houses and other buildings. Blocked storm drainage and sewers are widespread.

With unclear beacons demarcating roads, people build on road reserves. Residents use handcarts or push vehicles through the bad segments. At times, they fi ll up potholes as a last resort. They use handcarts to access main roads.

The use of motorised transport in this sub-zone is generally limited to the shops at the peripheral fringes.Due to poor access, ribbon development has taken place on the fringe of Bandani, parallel to the main tarmac road.

As mentioned above, Bandani has a special problem in that the railway line to Butere cuts it off from the main road. There is only one level crossing, which does not link well with the internal paths within the area. Transportation costs have increased because of the circuitous route taken to deliver building materials to sites in the slum.

Public transport picks and off-loads passengers along the Busia road, for those in the lower parts of Obunga and those in Bandani. Upper Obunga residents have to walk to Kondele for public transport.Water is the major problem in Bandani and Obunga, especially in the inner core areas. Frequent shortages force members of the community to fetch water from nearby streams, springs, wells or the lake, which are all contaminated. In Bandani, an attempt by civil society organisations to drill a borehole was halted after hitting a rock formation. The same rock outcrop has also hampered construction of pit latrines in the area. Water sells at KShs 20 for a 20-litre container. The water is of questionable quality and decontamination adds to costs.

As the survey found, latrines are scarce in the area; they are inadequately distributed and of poor qual-ity. The geological profi le of the area makes it ex-pensive to put up toilets. As an alternative, some people wait until night to help themselves while others walk long distances to bushy areas.

The neighbouring estate (Nyawita) has sewer lines that burst frequently, spewing waste on the roads running into Obunga, while the Kisat sewer treat-ment plant pours waste into the River Kisat, creat-ing a health hazard for Bandani residents.There are no health facilities in Obunga and Bandani which, like all the other slum areas, rely on the Provincial General Hospital and two Municipal health centres: one in Lumumba and another off Obote Road in the industrial area. These facili-ties are rather far away, especially for residents of Bandani. At the same time, the poor living environ-ment causes frequent disease outbreaks in the area. Lack of proper nutrition and sanitation results in high infant morbidity.

The coping mechanisms are highly risky, with shar-ing medicines leading to drug resistance. Popular alternatives to formal healthcare include the use of panadolfor many ailments as well as traditional and herbal medicine.

Regarding waste, poor community awareness of and attitudes to environmental health has resulted in careless waste disposal by many residents. Some plots are too small to allow for digging of compost pits there are isolated cases of rubbish composting and burning. The council does not provide waste removal services, opening up an opportunity for private collectors; these are early days yet but the potential ism great.

HIV/AIDS in Bandani and Obunga is a major social challenge, as in the rest of the Kisumu slum belt.

However, inadequate funding for care and support for the sick in the community results in high mor-tality rates among the victims. The remaining or-phans and widows end up being marginalised in the community, and all the more so in this social setup where there are no kinship-networks to act as sup-port structures.

Kudho Primary is the main primary school serving Bandani and Obunga. The school is plagued with a myriad of problems including class congestion, staff and classroom shortages, and lack of land to build extensions. Poor performance in school is the norm, leaving the children in a poverty trap where education fails to open up opportunities. A number of residents have resorted to taking children to far-away schools, but running to and from school ex-poses them to many hazards along the way.

Lack of land for public facilities in Bandani and Obunga has led to a dearth of markets, community halls and recreation centres. Traders use roadsides to set up business, and tree shades serve as venues for seminars and meetings for various groups.

Obunga has a reputation as a “robbers’ den” There is a saying that “it is only the exterior f Obunga that is ugly but the inside is quite good.” Stolen goods, illegal liquor and people of mixed and dubious pro-fessions are the hallmark of the sub-zone. Insecurity is high in Obunga and Bandani and is only com-pounded by lack of streetlights.

OPERATION FIRIMBI Bulletin March 20128

Editor: Davinder LambaSenior Writer: Onyango Oloo

Design: George Mutuku

Published by Mazingira Institute, supported byMalaika Foundation

Operation Firimbi Campaign is supported byRooftops Canada/Abri International

with assistance fromForeign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada

Affaires etrangeres, Commerce et Developpement Canada

B u l l e t i n

June 2015

AcknowledgementsThis special bulletin of Firimbi springs from the direct initiative of Dr. Steve Ouma, Director of the Pamoja Trust. Kudos to him plus his institution. Malaika Foundation was kind and generous enough to provide the fi nancial resources to enable our researcher to go to Kisumu and see fi rst hand, the concrete conditions on the ground. Our heart felt thanks and gratitude. Chris Owalla of CIAG Kenya literally held our hand, taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to lead us on a guided tour of some of the grabbed plots belonging to the Kanyakwar community around the Mamboleo Junction of Kisumu City- enabling us to give authentic documentation to theft of land in Kisumu. Kevin Ogema, the CEO of Malaika went beyond the call of duty, setting up interviews and literally running logistical errands on our behalf. That is the spirit of true partnership. Mzee Tom Odera Onyango, as we would quip in your mother tongue: Erokamano Ahinya!

Rampant Public Schools Land Grabbing in Kisumu

Pupils of Lang’ata Road Primary school, Nairobi made headlines with their widely publicised protest during which they were teargassed by ruthless cops.They were not the fi rst or only group to do so.

In a January 25th 2015 Standard media story Milimani Market Ward County Assembly member in Kisumu, Edwin Anayo charged that Victoria Primary School that lost six parcels, yet another victim of land fraud adding to the troubling phenomenon where land belonging to public schools in Kisumu town continues to get smaller by the day, thanks to culprits who have a fi eld day minting millions of shillings at the expense of young learners’ public space . Anayo said the school had suffered immensely after it lost more than 20 acres to unscrupulous land dealers who he suspects might have conspired with some offi cials from the school. “Victoria School sits on two parcels of land; there are two other parcels com-prising 20 acres found on top of Riat Hills. Ten acres were sold in 2012 and another 10 in 2014,” he said. Mr Anayo revealed the land parcels were sold by powerful grabbers despite the fact that they have bore caveats. “We do not have the six titles; they are in the hands of individuals.

The parcels were not registered under the school’s name. Instead they were registered under Victoria Parents Association that made it easier to change,” he says. Anayo added: “The fi rst board did this with-out other parents knowing they were transacting.” He said the 10-acre piece of land sold in June2014 was cancelled after they gathered that the transactions had allegedly been done by the previous chairman. He therefore instructed schools to write to the lands registry to confi rm status of their property, and to those who have misplaced titles to cancel previous ones and request for new ones because they might be in the hands of brokers looking for buyers. “The Victoria Primary School parcels are block 11/50, 11/27, 11/39, 11/40, Kisumu Dago/644 and Kisumu Dago 647.

Kisumu Union and Kibuye Mixed Primary Schools had similar problems in that the land they were to use for expansion was grabbed and sold. Joel Omino Primary School titles are also in tatters,” he added.. Victoria Primary School head teacher Edward Omala interviewed stated they were going to conduct a search to confi rm if the land parcel Kisumu 644 has indeed been returned. “Several of our pieces of land have been grabbed. They even tried selling parcel number Kisumu 644 be-hind my back. The person involved was the chair-man of the board. Parents removed him recently,” he said. In 2014, pupils from Kisumu Union and Kibuye Mixed Primary Schools protested over al-legations that their playground had been grabbed. They went ahead to demolish a fence that had been erected in the land parcels and carried poles, twigs and iron sheets while chanting. This was after their school heads received a letter from some advocate instructing them not to trespass in the said parcel, contrary to which proceedings against them would be sought and payment of damages for their cli-ent, who they claimed was the lawful owner of the parcels made.

Courtesy KTN

Part of the land belonging to Victoria Primary School that was grabbed