Mukuru Kwa Njenga is a

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

in the

Mukuru slums Mukuru is a collection of slums in the city of Nairobi. It is approximately south of the central business district of Nairobi. It is one of the largest slums in Nairobi. It stretches along the Nairobi– Ngong River, situated on waste lands in ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. Mukuru kwa Njenga is among other villages in Mukuru namely; Mukuru kwa Reuben, Mukuru kwa Njenga, Sinai, Paradise, Jamaica, Kingstone, Mariguini, Fuata Nyayo and Kayaba. The population exceeds 100,000.

Living conditions

Mukuru slums as any other slum in the world has been faced by different challenges including crime, drug abuse, prostitution and other challenges that face slums all over the world, but the people of Mukuru have been able to continuously fight this challenges and this has enabled many improvements in the community. In the slums, whole families live, or at least survive, in tiny one-roomed corrugated iron shacks, measuring approximately 3 m x 3 m. Very few homes have access to electricity and up to twenty families might share a communal water tap and toilet

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground (pit latrine), or m ...

Details

There are two government schools in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Kwa Njenga Primary School and Our Lady of Nazareth primary school which is partly sponsored by the, Society of Mary (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Societas Mariae'') is a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (

brothers A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

and

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in p ...

) commonly called the Marianist. The Medical Missionary of Mary and the newly commissioned, Our Lady Of Nazareth Health Center serves the health needs of the community. The Holy Ghost fathers have a big project and a Catholic church. There have been

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

deaths in 2009. Mukuru kwa Njenga has

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

churches. Residents of the slum were in fear of a mass eviction of more than 50,000 persons in 2002.

Settlement profiling

The settlement profiling process include identifying the stakeholders, organizing of stakeholder forums for good representation, community mobilisation and awareness creation, training of data collectors, and focus group discussions and interviews. The field research was conducted in six designated survey areas: Riara (SEPU), Mukuru Kwa Ruben, Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Viwandani, Kiandumu (Thika, Kiambu County), and selected wards in Nairobi County that do not predominantly feature slums. his paragraph needs further clarification, but it appears to be drawn from projects of the College of Environmental Design, University of California-Berkeley, described in a series of blog posts. The Mukuru settlements have been designated as a Special Planning Area (SPA) due to their unique planning challenges and opportunities.

Notable residents

Kenyan international footballer Patrick Oboya was born in Mukuru Kwa Njenga. Other notable figures include Geoffrey Mboya, a young humanitarian advocate and climate activist who passionately advocates for

Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

in the settlements. He has presented the urban climate resilience in the context of urban poverty at the London Climate Action Week and UN Climate Conference. DJ Peter Adams one of the most famous DJ who had a very big career on KTN and Radio Maisha was born and raised in Mukuru kwa Reuben. Shabu Mwangi and Adam Masava are two of Kenya's fine artists who have exhibited internationally. Adam Masava who is also a teacher who has taught local children art and they have participated and won in various fine arts competition including the Toyota arts project. U-Tena arts group has been making a change in Mukuru and have performed in multiple international events and in Kenya. Micato Safaris has been offering scholarships to needy children, supporting education to Mukuru residents through a free library and a free Computer Centre and a Water project. There are also organizations like SHOFCO which also try to improve the livelihoods of Mukuru residents.

References

External links