Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA)


Prepared by: Smith Ouma, The University of Manchester (link )

Published: 05 March 2024

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Key information

Main city: Nairobi, Kenya.

Scope: Sub-city level

Lead organisations: Muungano Alliance (Muungano wa Wanavijiji, SDI Kenya and Akiba Mashinani Trust) ; Slum Dwellers International (SDI)

Timeframe: 2017 – 2019

Themes: Informal settlements; Economy and finance; Education and skills; Energy; Environment; Health; Transport and mobility; Water and sanitation

Target population: Households: 100,561. Individuals: 500,000.

Financing:

Funding sources: Each of the participating organisations (listed in the table) financed the SPA activities that they conducted. The Nairobi City County government (NCCG) is statutorily mandated with financing public participation activities like the SPA. NCCG facilitated the convening of a workshop in Mombasa to discuss the emerging work from the SPA.

Approaches used in initiative design and implementation:

  • Context specific planning.
  • In situ informal settlement upgrading.
  • Multi-sectoral consortia.
  • Scaling community mobilising.
  • Scaling participation.

Local Area: Mukuru Special Planning Area

Level 1 administrative unit: Nairobi County

Level 2 administrative unit: Embakasi South and Makadara (electoral constituencies)

Initiative description

Background and context

The Mukuru informal settlements are located in the eastern parts of Nairobi County and are situated within Embakasi South Constituency. The settlements are densely populated and span 689 acres, with an estimated population of approximately 0.5 million, in a city of 4.3 million people.

Mukuruʼs inhabitants face several risks linked to tenure insecurity, which is widespread in the settlements. A situational analysis conducted by a number of stakeholders in 2017 indicated that:

  • Only 1% of Mukuru residents had access to a private or individual water source.
  • Only 1% of residents had access to a private, in-home toilet.
  • Over 85% of electricity connections are informal and illegal.
  • The settlements have almost no solid waste collection systems.

Identifying these challenges in Mukuru triggered the declaration of the settlements as a Special Planning Area (SPA), in realisation of the insufficiency of conventional planning tools to address the realities within Mukuru. The declaration was made pursuant to Section 23 (1) (2) and (3) of the Physical Planning Act. This gave the director of physical planning the power to declare an area with unique development potential or problems as an SPA, for the purpose of preparing a physical development plan. The declaration also meant that for the first time, the provisions in the Kenyan constitution on participation by marginalised groups would be tested. Under the constitution, marginalised groups are guaranteed the right to participate in governance and other spheres of life.

The planning process in the SPA has foregrounded community input, which is considered to be critical in creating responsive development plans. The SPA was organised into eight consortia, through which community participation in Mukuru took place. Each of the SPA consortia was mandated with collecting and analysing situational data, consulting the community, seeking feedback on draft proposals and developing interventions that integrated community knowledge and realities.

Summary of initiative

Mukuru SPA is a precedent-setting partnership for the participatory upgrading of informal settlements at scale. It ran from 2017 to 2019. Mukuru SPA aims to transform a 689-acre informal settlement, facing some of Nairobiʼs severest challenges, into a healthy and functioning neighbourhood. Its ultimate goal is to improve the lives of the 100,000 households in the SPA. The process has brought together over 40 organisations from civil society, academia, private sector and social movements, which have been tasked with developing an integrated development plan for the Mukuru SPA, together with the Mukuru community. Specific sector plans have been finalised with Nairobi County government and the implementation began in March 2020.

The Mukuru SPA deviates from conventional approaches to informal settlements upgrading. It covers the three informal settlements of Mukuru kwa Njenga, Mukuru kwa Reuben and Viwandani. The SPA processes draw on knowledge from the Mukuru community to identify local challenges and co-develop interventions to these challenges, together with external experts.

The project offers an example of how to incorporate citizen participation within city-level planning processes. Ultimately, the interventions formulated from the SPA process are aimed at addressing the challenges identified by the community.

The SPA planning processes were aimed at empowering marginalised communities in the informal settlements of Mukuru kwa Njenga, Mukuru kwa Reuben and Viwandani, by placing them at the centre of planning processes. The approaches adopted by the SPA elevated the voices of the community and in effect acknowledged that the communities are useful knowledge repositories. These marginalised communities were also the principal beneficiaries of the SPA planning process, comprising, in total, 100,561 households and 500,000 individuals. It was anticipated that on completion and implementation of the integrated development plan, the living conditions of the inhabitants would improve.

Planning in the SPA was done in seven thematic consortia, which were aligned to the seven sectors in which the SPA sought to intervene. Each consortium organised intensive consultative meetings, which produced preliminary plan designs. Once the sector plans had been developed, the various consortia consolidated these into an integrated development plan for Mukuru.

Participation in the Mukuru SPA processes was primarily undertaken at the household level. Ten households were grouped together to constitute a cell. In total, there were 10,000 cells in Mukuru. Ten cells were further grouped to form a subcluster and 80 subclusters were grouped to form a segment. In total, 13 segments were constituted in the SPA. Participation was then carried out in all the four platforms mentioned here.

Upon the development of the sector plans by the SPA consortia, validation meetings were carried out, to ensure that the plans developed corresponded with what the community had proposed.

ACRC themes

The following ACRC domains are relevant (links to ACRC domain pages):

The Mukuru SPA has close overlaps with the ACRC informal settlements domain. The SPA process can itself be considered to be an informal settlement upgrading initiative. It aims at improving access to basic services in Mukuru, while ensuring that the inhabitants remain in situ. The significance of in situ upgrading has therefore been highlighted in both the SPA and in the ACRC informal settlements domain.

There are also close interlinkages between the SPA process and the housing domain, as the SPA seeks to explore models of housing that would be most suitable for Mukuru. Under the SPA, housing models were developed by the housing consortium, which drew into other city systems like water, electricity and sanitation to develop the best suited housing models for Mukuru.

The consortia that formed to implement the SPA is a good example of a reform coalition, as agencies came together to realise a joint objective, the upgrading of Mukuru. Support from the Nairobi City County government was essential. They co-chaired each of the eight working groups.

What has been learnt?

Effectiveness/success

The ultimate goal of the SPA was to develop an integrated development plan for Mukuru that responds to the unique development challenges in the settlements and that appreciates how existing systems function with regard to gender, age and the needs of the most marginalised. Success in this project was understood to mean the complete implementation of the SPA proposals, together with the beneficiary community in Mukuru.

The effectiveness of the SPA as an intervention is aligned with the five preconditions that ACRC identified as a catalyst for urban reform in its theory of change. These are: organised citizens; reform coalition; politically informed and co-produced project design; enhanced state capacity; and elite commitment. We explore below how these preconditions catalysed the success of the SPA.

Organised citizens

This was an important precondition for the success of the SPA. In Mukuru, the community has organised itself into different platforms, where they have been able to articulate their demands and address the relevant government authorities. Savings groups are a key platform that has been used by the community to bring its members together and tackle common challenges. Through its affiliate, Akiba Mashinani Trust, Muungano wa Wanavijiji has mobilised the Mukuru community to participate in savings groups. Members of these groups pool their resources to cushion themselves against disasters or to assist members whenever they want to upgrade their settlements. The SPA placed reliance on the existing networks that have been established through the savings groups to mobilise the community to participate.

Building reform coalitions

The success of the SPA derives from its ability to bring together individuals and institutions that have been working on tackling various urban challenges. Through Muungano, partnerships were established between these entities, which then collaborated in developing the sector plans and ultimately an integrated development plan for Mukuru. These collaborations also brought on board the Nairobi County government, which enabled the institutionalisation of the SPA planning process.

Politically informed evidence and co-produced project design

Part of the planning process that the SPA employed entailed convening ten households into a cell. The idea of grouping ten households was to ensure that the SPA built on existing government structures, such as the nyumba kumi (ten household) initiative, to encourage buy-ins of the project from existing government structures.

Enhanced state capacity

Bringing on board the Nairobi County government was aimed at enhancing its capacity, through its interaction with the experts who were drawn in from the various organisations.

Political commitment by the elite

Involving the Nairobi County government in the SPA processes was aimed at promoting buy-in of the project by the political elite at the county level. Participation by the Nairobi County government also signalled its commitment to the SPA process and to the inclusion of previously excluded urban groups in spatial governance processes. Findings from a situational analysis previously carried out by IDRC-funded research also revealed the existence of a poverty penalty incurred by residents of Mukuru, who had to pay more for services compared to residents in other parts of the city. Representatives from NCCG were then convinced, during meetings with SPA researchers, of residents’ potential to pay for services, and the opportunity for NCCG to roll out interventions.

The SPA planning process is a successful illustration of how participation can be scaled in informal settlement upgrading. The process shows how the inhabitants of an informal settlement can be involved in different planning stages and on different levels, with the ultimate goal of effecting changes in their wider settlements. The process also offers important lessons on how inhabitants can be equipped with the appropriate tools and language to engage with governmental actors and external experts.

The success of the Mukuru SPA has seen the declaration of Mathare and Kibera informal settlements as SPAs. It is anticipated that both the Kibera and the Mathare planning processes will borrow from the lessons learnt during the Mukuru SPA planning process.

Understanding limitations

The Covid-19 pandemic brought numerous challenges, particularly in relation to how the participatory sessions were organised. With the restrictions occasioned by the pandemic, it became difficult to organise consultation meetings in the informal settlements, which were also most affected by the pandemic.

Additionally, not all the proposals that were outlined in the SPA have been implemented. The land proposals, which are critical to all the interventions that the SPA proposes, have not been implemented. Without addressing the challenge of land tenure insecurity in the settlements, it becomes difficult to implement the other proposals that the SPA makes, such as the establishment of utility lines to provide basic services to the inhabitants.

The manner in which some of the SPA proposals have been implemented has also resulted in grievances among the Mukuru community, with some members complaining about being excluded from the implementation processes. As a result of the government of Kenya’s frustration with respect to slow delivery by the NCCG, County government functions were passed to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), an entity under the central government in 2020. When the mandate for realising the SPA was passed to the NMS, the high level of community engagement fell away. However, upgrading commitments have continued and services are being installed.

Potential for scaling and replicating

The Mukuru SPA unlocked the use of SPA declarations for areas with unique development challenges. Prior to the declaration of Mukuru as an SPA, these provisions of the Physical Planning Act had not been employed. Mukuru provided an innovative space where the limits of these provisions could be tested. With the SPA declaration, it was anticipated that useful lessons could be learnt from the planning processes that the declaration would trigger.

The success of the Mukuru SPA has since seen similar declarations being made for Kibera and Mathare informal settlements. It is anticipated that the lessons learnt from Mukuru will be extended to both Kibera and Mathare.

Participating agencies

Name
Type
Role in Initiative
Urban grassroots social movement comprising a federation of informal settlement residents, a technical support NGO and an urban poor fund
Lead organisation; Community mobilisation; Education Consortium; Environment Consortium; Finance Consortium; Health Services Consortium; Housing, Infrastructure and Commerce Consortium; Land and Institutional Arrangements Consortium; Water, Sanitation and Energy Consortium
Network of community-based organisations of the urban poor
Lead organisation; Health Services Consortium
Research institute
Education Consortium
Social enterprise network
Health Services Consortium
Academic institute
Environment Consortium; Health Services Consortium
Legal NGO
Finance Consortium; Land and Institutional Arrangements Consortium
Research and engagement network
Environment Consortium
National association
Health Services Consortium
Municipal government
Finance Consortium
Municipal government
Education Consortium
Municipal government
Environment Consortium; Water, Sanitation and Energy Consortium
Municipal government
Water, Sanitation and Energy Consortium
Municipal government
Environment Consortium; Health Services Consortium
Municipal government
Housing, Infrastructure and Commerce Consortium
International non-profit development, humanitarian, and campaigning organisation
Water, Sanitation and Energy Consortium
Urban development NGO (India)
Housing, Infrastructure and Commerce Consortium
International non-profit research and policy organisation
Environment Consortium
Academic institute
Finance Consortium; Land and Institutional Arrangements Consortium
National member of an international humanitarian development network (Switzerland)
Water, Sanitation and Energy Consortium

Further information

Further resources

Cite this case study as:

Smith, O (2024). “Mukuru Special Planning Area”. ACRC Urban Reform Database Case Study. Manchester: African Cities Research Consortium, The University of Manchester. Available online.

Gallery

Mukuru SPA consultation in Viwandani informal settlement
Photo credit: Muungano / KYC.TV

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