Nairobi is Kenya’s capital city. Its name comes form the Maasai term for the valley it is located in called Ewaso Nairobi, ‘stream of cold water’.

The settlement was started by the European colonists in 1899 at ‘mile 327’ of the East African railway. The city started as a staging post along the railway and a campsite for the 36 000 Indian workers employed by the British to build the railway. From this small beginning the settlement grew and in 1907 Nairobi was declared the capital of what was ‘British East Africa’. Present day Nairobi illustrates these beginning with a European and Asian architectural style to many building. Recent developments have lead to a large expansion of office blocks and hotel alongside the growth of slum dwellings.

With a population of over two million, Nairobi is one of the major cities in Sub Saharan Africa. It is one of the four United Nations ‘World Centres’ and holds international conferences in the Kenyatta Conference Centre.
Nairobi has all the attractions of a major city including cinemas, museums, theatres, shopping centres and parks. It also has additional features such as the 113 Km2 game park which contains animals including rhinos, zebra and lions.
Nairobi has good communication links via the Jomo Kenyatta international airport, road routes and rail links to Mombasa on the coast and Uganda in the west.

Nairobi’s population is mainly made up form African people although there are important minority groups of European and Asian descent.

All ActionAid’s staff are drawn from the local population.

Kariobangi

The area of Kariobangi lies to the north east of Nairobi about 8 Km from the city centre. It is one of the many slum areas on the outskirts and covers about 10 Km2. Settlement started in the 1920’s although it was only until the 1970’s that its population started to grow significantly. Kariobangi is made up of seven ‘villages’. These areas are not like rural villages but rather administrative areas that have their own character. Over 60 000 people live in this area which has no sewage system, health centre, paved roads or pavements, electricity, running water, street lights and only three primary schools. The average family lives on an income of Ks 50 (£1) a day.

Even though Kariobangi has high levels of poverty there is a great amount of activity, which takes place. The goods and services provided in this area make a contribution to the economy of the city and the streets are full of people working. It would be wrong to imagine that while Kariobangi is a slum, its inhabitants do not strive to earn a living and provide for their families.

Compared to poverty in rural areas, the environment of Kariobangi is very poor. Rubbish and human waste litter the streets. Houses are cheaply built from mud with wood or corrugated iron roofs. The large numbers of people living in single story buildings produces a high population density of 6000 people per Km2. It is common for a family of six people to share one room, which would cost Ks 150 to rent a month.

People in Kariobangi have no legal rights to the land they have built their houses on. The only reason that they can use this space is because this area is undesirable being next to the cities rubbish dump and sewage works.

However, although Kariobangi is located next to these services it has no rubbish collection or sewage system of its own. There are a small number of open sewers but they are wholly inadequate, usually filled with rubbish and overflow when it rains. The government has built some toilet blocks but they were poorly planned with no consideration of who would look after them. As a result the blocks were not maintained and fell into disrepair.

Access to drinking water is very limited as there are only 200 water taps to serve a population of 60 000 people. People in Kariobangi not only have to walk for distances, often over 2 Km, but also have to pay high prices for their water. It costs Ks 20 to fill a ten-litre container from a communal water tap in Kariobangi. For a middle class inhabitant, living in Nairobi’s suburbs, the same amount of water would cost only Ks 7 from their own private supply.

Unlike poverty in rural areas, where farmers usually have the means to provide basic food for their families, urban families have to live in a cash economy. Low incomes, an average wage being Ks 50 (£1.00) severely restricts the options available to people.

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