A Methodology For The Enhancement Of Tenure Security In The Informal Settlements In Kenya

Abstract

A major challenge facing African today is the growth of urban informal settlements. From a government perspective, management of the proliferation of informal settlements implies planning and control of the location in which these settlements spring up, improving the social and economic conditions in the informal settlements and ensuring that the residents and neighboring communities enjoy social justice. Of primary importance is the improvement of land tenure security for residents of the informal settlements. Addressing these objectives requires current, accurate, social and spatial information. The greatest challenge however that is the informal settlements are complex, dynamic social systems which experience continuous change. Mapping and documentation of rights in the informal settlement therefore requires accurate and up-to date spatial information which incorporates the dynamic nature of the settlements. For a long time, a system for documenting and processing the database for informal settlements has been lacking. Several methods have been proposed by various authors [Barry and Ruther, 2001; Nordin, 2004; Nordin and Osterberg, 2000] among others. One major missing denominator has been the lack of a pro-poor system for documenting the spatial and non-spatial attributes for comprehensive planning and tenure regularization. Recently, the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) has proved useful in fulfilling these mandates. A study was therefore set up in a selected informal settlement in Nairobi to test the suitability of the STDM in procuring the spatial information attributes and database development for the enhancement of tenure security in the informal settlements. Preliminary results show that (i) to carry out socio-economic survey with questionnaires in the informal settlements, all the stakeholders with interest in the informal settlements should be involved right from the beginning. These include; elected political leaders, County technical and administrative officials, social workers who are familiar with the ground situation in the informal settlements, and the resident community members; (ii) inclusion of the local youth in the enumeration exercise assists to track the movements of the beneficiaries; (iii) parents of the youth gain confidence in the project when their children are employed to administer the questionnaires; and (iv) that when computers are kept within the informal settlements and all the data collected are keyed in by the local youth, the communities gain more confidence in the project and support its implementation more enthusiastically. In carrying out mapping of the structures, the following observations were made; (i) high spatial resolution aerial photographs (at scales of 1:10,000 or higher) are adequate for mapping of structures in the informal settlements, (ii) satellite imagery with a spatial resolution of 40cm or lower are not suitable for mapping of the structures in the informal settlements due to lack of adequate resolution to pick the tiny structures, (iii) Social Data Domain Model (STDM) developed by Lemmen [2012] is a suitable database for presentation of the spatial and attribute data in the informal settlements.