Living in Nairobi’s slums is tough – residents are 35% more likely to suffer from high blood pressure than those in rural areas: Slum-dwellers with high blood pressure struggle to get proper treatment AlexanderXXI/Shutterstock Hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a non-communicable disease that occurs when there is a sustained elevation in …
Time and trauma: what fetching water costs women and girls in Nairobi’s informal settlements: Women carry water buckets filled with water after fetching it from one of the illegal freshwater points in Mathare slum. EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu Fetching water is usually a “women’s affair”, as has been documented all over the world. The consequences of spending …
Nairobi’s new expressway may ease traffic woes – but mostly for the wealthy: A section of the construction site of the Nairobi Expressway Project along the Uhuru highway in Nairobi, Kenya. EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu An expressway, currently being constructed through Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is nearing completion. The Chinese-financed toll road starts near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport …
Pasha 124: How Nairobi’s informal settlements got their names: Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, started as a railway depot in 1899 and developed into a colonial administration centre, then into a commercial and regional hub. Informal settlements in the city grew in parallel, arising from colonial policies that excluded local people from permanent residence, and driven …
Nairobi’s airports — windows on Kenya’s colonial past and top-down planning: The plane carrying UK's Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrives at Eastleigh Airport in Nairobi in February 1952. Photo by: Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Airport histories can be surprising. Changes to airport names may conceal stretches of their past. …
How COVID-19 restrictions prevent Nairobi’s sex workers from accessing vital healthcare: A person living with HIV shows her clinic appointment and anti-retroviral drugs regimen card. TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GettyImages Sex workers are one of the most vulnerable social groups in the world. They experience widespread stigma, discrimination, state and non-state violence and harassment. This results in decreased …
Nairobi’s air has been polluted for decades: new review suggests a path forward: Black exhaust fumes from lorry envelope a motorcyclist and his passenger on a busy road in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu According to the State of the Global Air 2020 report, ambient air pollution was responsible for around 5,000 premature deaths …
Kenya: how stark inequality frustrates the dreams of Nairobi’s jobless young men: “Today I woke up late, because there was nothing I was doing,” Wilfred* wrote in his diary. Like many of his peers, the 21-year-old lacks permanent employment, seeking small amounts of cash from odd jobs carried out in the town where he lives …
Adolescents in Nairobi’s slums are being hit hard by COVID-19 measures: Artwork of men wearing facemasks seen on the street walls in Mathare slums to create awareness of stopping the spread of COVID-19. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads in Kenya, measures to control it – such as school closures and partial lockdowns – continue. These …
Nairobi’s street names reveal what those in power want to remember, or forget: City traffic on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya. Vlad Karavaev/Shutterstock The recent global events of civil and political unrest that started in the US have brought to the fore the complex dynamics of urban memorialisation. The protests have, in some places, led …
Some softer solutions to Nairobi’s traffic pollution problem: Nairobi is one of the most congested cities in the world Billy Miaron/Shutterstock Rapid urbanisation in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, has meant there’s been huge growth in the number of vehicles on roads. Today, Nairobi is one of the world’s most congested cities. Between 2013 and 2017, …
Nairobi’s slum residents pay a high price for low quality services: About 56% of Kenya’s urban population currently lives in a slum Shutterstock/John Wollwerth About 56% of Kenya’s urban population currently lives in slums. Nairobi even hosts one of the largest slums in Africa, Kibera. In Kenya, settlements are classified into two types: informal (or, …
It will take more than good intentions to clear Nairobi’s garbage mountains: Nairobi's Dandora waste dumpsite — still in use after being declared a health hazard in 2001. Reuters/Thomas Mukoya Nairobi’s new governor, Mike Sonko, has promised to rid Nairobi of its mountains of trash. The city, which is home to an estimated 3.9 million …