Elections Related Evictions in Urban Slums: the Case of Mukuru Kwa Njenga Nairobi, 1991-2013
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Date
2017Author
Mwangangi, Peter K
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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This study examined the settlement and origin ofMukuru Kwa Njenga slums in Nairobi
and the causes and long-term impact of election related evictions in the slum.The
statement of the research problem was identified from the gaps which scholars in the
field of election violence and urbanization have failed to address.In this regard,the topic
of the study came into the fore.The core objectives of the study were to examine the
settlement of Mukuru kwa Njenga slums, the root cause of election related evictions in
the settlement and the correlation between elections related violence and resultant
evictions.This was achieved by examining variations across ethinicities and villages
within Mukuru Kwa Njenga.The study provides evidence that politics have strong
effects on forced evictions particularly during election periods which formed the basis
of the research problem statement concerning the perennial evictions from the slums
every election cycle.
The research incorporated the use of both primary and secondary data in examining the
key goals of the study.Purposive snowballing technique was also employed in the study
so as to capture more data to address the objectives of the study.The research borrowed
from Johan Galtung’s ‘structural conflict theory’ which postulates that structural
violence is characterized politically as repression and economically by exploitation
both of which are administered from the top downwards thus those below have their
needs deprived disproportionately.
The study found out that slum dwellers in Mukuru Kwa Njenga live in harzadous and
unhealthy conditions and in portions of land which they can’t claim ownership yet they
have occupied them for over 30 decades.Yet a few political elite and some influencial
businessmen who used unscrupulous means to claim ownership of the same land which
is home to thousands of slum dwellers threaten them with threats to evictions
everytime.The slum inhibitants thus live in constant fear of evictions by the presumed
owners of the land and the political elite who exploit the ethnic alignments which are
deeply entrenched in the slums to cause tensions resulting to election violence and
evictions in the slums.The study also estamblished that the political elite always play
this ethnic card every election year for their own political selfish ends.The key main
research objectives of the study were met.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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