Kenya Human Rights

FORCED EVICTIONS

On World Habitat Day, Amnesty International is calling for the end to forced evictions in Kenya. A forced eviction is the removal of people against their will from the homes or land they occupy without legal protections and other safeguards.

More than half of the capital city Nairobi’s population – two million people – live in informal settlements or slums where they have no security of tenure, putting them at risk of eviction and homelessness.  Residents lack adequate access to basic public services such as clean water, sanitation, security, health care and education.  The Kenyan government has failed to officially recognize the growth and proliferation of informal settlements and to include them in the city’s development plans.  Failure to protect slum-dwellers and generations of neglect by politicians have allowed these settlements to swell, turning their residents into prisoners of poverty.

For decades, the Kenyan government has carried out large-scale forced evictions of informal settlements, contravening international human rights standards.  Mass forced evictions have usually involved government projects or private developers claiming ownership of land on which some of the settlements stand. Government bulldozers are used to evict residents and demolish their homes with little or no notice and no efforts are made to resettle or compensate residents.  Families are made homeless and many are left without livelihoods when their small businesses are destroyed.

Close to one million people live on just 550 acres of land in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, which straddles the city’s main railway line. Rudimentary hand-constructed earthen channels act as open sewers, and the lack of proper access roads hampers mobility during rains.  Most people earn barely enough to rent a mud-floored tin-roofed wooden shack with no toilet or running water. 

See what life is like in Kibera

The Women of Kibera

Michael's Story

The Kenyan government started a slum upgrading project in Kibera in October 2008.  While this project is a positive step, it does not address the immediate and desperate needs of Nairobi’s slum dwellers. The government has not adequately consulted affected communities or given them the opportunity to participate in the program’s implementation.  Residents fear that slum upgrading will result in housing that is unsuitable and unaffordable and lead to displacement from their homes.

Video of Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan's visit to Kenya

Read the blog of Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan’s visit to Kibera in June 2009.

The Kenyan government has pledged to develop guidelines on evictions and formed a task force in 2006; however, the task force has not made any progress in three years and forced evictions in Nairobi continue. 

Up to 127,000 people in the neighborhoods of Mathare, Huruma, Kiambiu, Korogocho, Mukuru and Kibera are at immediate risk of having their homes and businesses demolished under a plan to clean up the Nairobi River Basin, which calls for removing all human settlements from within 100 feet of the river.

In July 2009, Kenyan authorities forcibly evicted more than 3,000 people from Githongoro Village with only 72 hours’ notice, leaving them homeless.  The evictions appear to have been carried out as part of the government of Kenya’s plans to build a new road, the Northern Bypass. Communal toilets were also reportedly destroyed, increasing the risk of the spread of disease among the remaining residents who have inadequate access to clean water and other essential services.

"It's a disgrace that thousands of men, woman and children were evicted without adequate notice or consultation and during the season in which the Kenyan weather is at its worst" said Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “Many families have been living in the settlement for almost fifty years and now have no option but to sleep in the rubble of their homes.”

JOIN the AIUSA East Africa Action Network on Facebook to learn more about how you can protect human rights in Kenya.

JOIN the Demand Dignity Campaign. 

Read Amnesty’s report, The Unseen Majority: Nairobi’s Two Million Slum-Dwellers. 

Learn more about housing as a human right.

Human Rights Live Here: Stop Forced Evictions in Nairobi
In July 2009, more than 3,000 residents of Githogoro Village were made homeless when the government, with only 72 hours’ notice, evicted them and used bulldozers to demolish their homes. A program to clean up the Nairobi River Basin threatens to displace more than 127,000 people who live nearby. On World Habitat Day on October 5, ask President Kibaki to stop all forced evictions in Nairobi, consult with local communities about alternatives, and relocate and compensate those displaced. » More actions

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