Returning to Kenya, as I do every six months or so, I am met each time with equal amounts of astonishing progress and frustrating backwardness. I measure progress by urban growth (excluding slums), so the large number of construction cranes that are responsible for erecting mall after mall across the Nairobi landscape indicates to me impressive growth on both an economic and psychological level for Kenyans, boding well for graduates of the Kenya Education Fund.
But the boundary between city and rural areas (aka “bush”) is stark, both economically and mentally. There is no “suburbia” to serve as buffer between concrete jungle and farms from which the majority of Kenyans hail. According to Kenya’s 2010 National Census, 68% of the population still lives in rural areas. So for all too many enterprising young Kenyans seeking the storied opportunities of urban centers, the transition from village to city is an intimidating journey often depositing them in informal settlements known as urban slums.
Kenya’s continued progress hinges on its ability to evolve from its “bush mentality” to one of urban aplomb. The country must forgo, in large measure, its long history of small-plot farming and begin embracing cosmopolitanism if its people are to realize the higher standard of living promised by modernism. In many ways this trend has already begun. But as Kenyan cities begin to swell with the hopes, dreams and bodies of rural folk, the cost of living rises, and with it, the abject conditions of the slums in which the most affordable housing can be found.
I think we can all agree that slums are bad. I would like to see a Kenya where KEF scholars (and the rest of Kenyan society) don’t have to choose between bush and slum, and where low-income housing need not be synonymous with “squalor”.
So I pose the question: Do aid organizations that offer free slum services like health clinics and schools, make matters worse by attracting more people to the slums and encouraging current residents to stay? Or do these free services succeed in alleviating squalid conditions in informal settlements, helping transform them into something resembling more “formal” settlements?
Discuss.
