Topic: Myth shattered: Kibera numbers fail to add up

It has been billed as Africa’s biggest slum and even by some accounts, the world’s largest. Some say it is home to two million people, others a million.

But the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census results released this week make everything you have heard about the size of Kibera improbable. Numbers do not lie, and figures from the 2009 census indicate that Kibera barely makes it to Nairobi’s largest slum.

According to the census figures, the eight locations that form Kibera slums combined host a paltry 170,070. These include Lindi, the largest, with 35,158 people; Kianda (29,356); Laini Saba (28,182); Makina (25,242); Gatwikira (24.991); Siranga (17,363); and Kibera (9,786).

Located five kilometers from the city centre, Kibera forms less than half of Langa’ta constituency. In the list of most populated constituencies, Lang’ata (185,836) comes third after Embakasi (925,775) and Kasarani (525,624).

Another major city slum, Mukuru Kwa Njenga, in Nairobi West with 130,402 people is slowly edging towards the largest slum in Kenya status. Throw in Mathare slum in Nairobi North with 87,097 people and you begin to understand why Kibera has never been Africa’s largest slum.

For a long time Kibera has been touted as Africa’s largest slum, with various ‘experts’ putting its population at anything between one and two million. But the slum does not hold a candle to India’s Pharavi with one million. Brazil’s Rocinha Farela with a quarter million is probably the closest rival.

Yet, the United Nations states that up 16 million Kenyans live in Slums. In its report titled Percentage Change in Slum Populations in Africa between 1990 and 2010, UN Habitat states that between 40 and 50 per cent of Kenyans live in slums. And Kibera has always been used as an illustration of Kenya’s slum life.

It turns out to one big lie. Not even the combined population living in all of Kenya’s slums comes anywhere close to the largest slum in Africa. According to the census, the total number of Kenyans living in slums is 618,916. “The population of people living in informal settlements has been exaggerated for a long time now,” says Kenya’s top census official, Dr Anthony Kilele.

Soma zaidi hapa

For a long time Kibera has been touted as Africa’s largest slum, with various ‘experts’ putting its population at anything between one and two million. But the slum does not hold a candle to India’s Pharavi with one million. Brazil’s Rocinha Farela with a quarter million is probably the closest rival.



@Namtih58
Kibera is the largest slum in Africa period. Achana na hiyo politiki ya kujiosha hapa!. Numbers don't lie but numbers can be tweaked, u dig it?

I suggest you should rather concentrate your efforts on improving the condition of those slums and the Kenyan PEOPLE living there.

Yoo might find it funny, but actually there are some in the west who think that the capital city of Kenya is Kibera.

We had always doubted this myth...but NGO's wont listen.They exgerrated ili wapate misaada kutoka ng'ambo.NGO's---waongo hao.Ukiwaona weka tyre

By Bantugbro

For a long time Kibera has been touted as Africa’s largest slum, with various ‘experts’ putting its population at anything between one and two million. But the slum does not hold a candle to India’s Pharavi with one million. Brazil’s Rocinha Farela with a quarter million is probably the closest rival.



@Namtih58
Kibera is the largest slum in Africa period. Achana na hiyo politiki ya kujiosha hapa!. Numbers don't lie but numbers can be tweaked, u dig it?

eti unasema

Numbers don't lie but numbers can be tweaked, u dig it?

dude you seriously make slang uncool. if you dont know how to use slang just dont use it cuz right now u sound pathetic trying to use it.

It is now official: Kibera is not the biggest slum in Africa. The 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census shows that one of the world’s most famous slums houses just 170,070 residents, not one million, as previously believed.

While many may dispute these figures, I find it highly unlikely that the margin of error in the census was so huge that the population of a settlement dropped dramatically to one-fifth of its previous estimate in just a few years – unless the drop can be explained by a natural disaster or epidemic.

The more likely scenario is that, in the absence of authoritative statistics, the population figure for Kibera was entirely made up to suit the interests of particular groups. And because no one publicly challenged the figures, a lie became the truth.

Let me confess at the outset that I am among those people who have published inflated population estimates for Kibera without having any solid evidence to back up the figures.

In the 2007 edition of the ‘‘State of the World’’ report published by the Worldwatch Institute, for instance, I stated that population estimates for Kibera ranged from 400,000 to 600,000.

These figures were based on documents published by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), where I had worked for several years.

One such report published jointly with the government in 2001 estimated Kibera’s population to be 377,624. This figure was close to the one cited by the then Permanent Secretary for Planning, Mr David Nalo, who, in a 2002 unpublished technical report, estimated the number of Kibera residents to be around a quarter of a million.

The latter figure is close to that of the Map Kibera Project, which in 2009 used a mapping technique to come up with a fairly accurate population estimate of between 220,000 and 250,000 for the settlement.

But some time after 2004, when the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (a project implemented jointly by the government and UN-Habitat) was launched, population estimates for Kibera started to rise dramatically, and before we knew it, the slum was being touted as one of the largest in Africa, a claim both UN-Habitat and the government appeared to endorse.

A UN-Habitat brochure entitled “UN-Habitat and the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme” published in 2007 states that “Kibera…is the second largest informal settlement in Africa” and “the estimated total population in the settlement ranges from 600,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants”.

NGOs added fuel to these figures, and by 2009, Amnesty International was reporting that one million people lived in what had by then probably become the most filmed, researched, photographed and visited slum in the world.

Before we knew it, the figure spread like a virus, giving Kibera the unenviable reputation of being the biggest slum in Africa, if not the world.

However, even within UN-Habitat, there was no consensus on what the actual figure might be, nor was there any attempt to conduct a survey to determine the population. Quite often, the figure varied depending on which section of UN-Habitat was publishing it, and for what aim.

This problem was compounded by the fact that there was no official publicly-available database within the organisation that could provide numbers for the settlement, which meant that different sections within the same organisation used different figures.

The inflated figures were not challenged, perhaps because they were useful to various actors. They were useful to the government and to UN-Habitat, who probably used them to solicit more donor funds for slum upgrading.

They were particularly useful to NGOs, which used them to “shock” charities and other do-gooders into donating more money to their projects in Kibera.

(In a brilliant expose of the numbers game, Nation writer Muchiri Karanja found that there are between 6,000 and 15,000 NGOs working in Kibera alone. In other words, there is at least one NGO for every 30 residents.)

Journalists too, used the figures to write up stories on the horrors of urban Africa.

But these “stakeholders” need not lose heart. As a Nation reader satirically stated, if they try hard enough, they can still “uplift Kibera to be the biggest slum in Africa”.

mtajiju wenyewe!! nchi yenye uchumi bora na watu wenye elimu na uwezo kuliko zote afrika ya mashariki yet ina biggest slam afrika nzima

ha ha haaa, sina mbavu

why are some of you this petty??????

By matambo

mtajiju wenyewe!! nchi yenye uchumi bora na watu wenye elimu na uwezo kuliko zote afrika ya mashariki yet ina biggest slam afrika nzima

ha ha haaa, sina mbavu

Nadhani haukusoma makala niliyoyapachika hapo juu, juu kama ungechukua mda kuyasoma ungejua ya kuwa makala yaho yanatilia shaka madai kuwa Kibera ndio kijiji kikubwa kilio na makao duni barani Afrika, na hungeona haja kufanya utani.

I went to visit the Kibera the other day (i was trying to be curious), Dude, life is like hell in Kibera but you wonder, residents are just happy as comfortable as those living in Nairobi's expensive apartments. But i think the government has to do something more than what she has been doing to improve those people's lives. I met one youngster and tried to inquire from him on why are they not interested in moving to those flats built under the assistance from UN Habitat, he told me "we are happy here why do you people so much bother about our lives, its your problem not ours" men we need to to keep on praying for them!

By matambo

mtajiju wenyewe!! nchi yenye uchumi bora na watu wenye elimu na uwezo kuliko zote afrika ya mashariki yet ina biggest slam afrika nzima

ha ha haaa, sina mbavu

Does this douche nozzle know how to read?

By Smatta

Does this douche nozzle know how to read?

Probably not.

By matambo

mtajiju wenyewe!! nchi yenye uchumi bora na watu wenye elimu na uwezo kuliko zote afrika ya mashariki yet ina biggest slam afrika nzima

ha ha haaa, sina mbavu

mkuu... i feel really sorry for you and other fellows who think by just saying mtajiju ndio tanzania itaendela... Kenya has made steps kubwa kuliko any other EA country siku za karibuni, reason kubwa ni kwamba wakati sisi tunajiju na kuendeleza lazyness, wenzetu wanakesha wakitafuta namna ya kutoka, they started sonstructing a road that seemed alline to EA, they have attracted mega investiment na si akina rostam...

they have moved past mauaji, they are fighting ufisadi kwa vitendo and most important they are utilizing our naivety kwenye uchumi

Kwa jinsi matambo ulivyoandika hapa, kuna haja ya kuangalia umri wa members wa JF

tuamke tujenge nchi badala ya kujiju

By Acid

mkuu... i feel really sorry for you and other fellows who think by just saying mtajiju ndio tanzania itaendela... Kenya has made steps kubwa kuliko any other EA country siku za karibuni, reason kubwa ni kwamba wakati sisi tunajiju na kuendeleza lazyness, wenzetu wanakesha wakitafuta namna ya kutoka, they started sonstructing a road that seemed alline to EA, they have attracted mega investiment na si akina rostam...

they have moved past mauaji, they are fighting ufisadi kwa vitendo and most important they are utilizing our naivety kwenye uchumi

Kwa jinsi matambo ulivyoandika hapa, kuna haja ya kuangalia umri wa members wa JF

tuamke tujenge nchi badala ya kujiju

Mkuu hapa naungana kabisa na wewe. We have much more potential than hawa manyang'au, lakini ukweli ni kwamba they are step ahead of us, Sababu kubwa kuna gene ya uvivu na uswahili inaendelea kutambaa Tanzania. Hata mikoa ambayo haikuwa na uswahili na uvivu sasa wameanza kuiga uswahili na uvivu. Wenzetu wakiona kiongozi ni mvivu na mzembe wanamtimua, sisi tumejaa udini na uswahili. Kama hatutabadilika tutaendelea kukwama.

Achaneni na CCM mtaendelea........bakini nayo mtazidi kudidimia siku hadi siku.

Niliangalia Documentary moja iliyotayarishwa na BBC Wao wanasema biggest slums na za ajabu zaidi in the wold ziko nigeria. Kuna sehemu inaitwa makoko Slums. karibu na lagos .slums zimejengwa kwa mbao na ndani ya mkondo wa delta. Yaani vi slums vimezungukwa na maji. Hata madarasa ya watoto kusomea, viduka , nyumba n.k yako kati katti ya maji.

Kuna watu wanatumia mwanya wa kutokuwepo takwimu sahihi kutoa taarifa za uwongo ili kupata msaada. Mfano mwingine naona tanzania pia upo ni Ukimwi. Walisema kagera inaongoza then wakaja mbeya sasa hivi sijui ni mkoa gani.

By Bongolander

Mkuu hapa naungana kabisa na wewe. We have much more potential than hawa manyang'au, lakini ukweli ni kwamba they are step ahead of us, Sababu kubwa kuna gene ya uvivu na uswahili inaendelea kutambaa Tanzania. Hata mikoa ambayo haikuwa na uswahili na uvivu sasa wameanza kuiga uswahili na uvivu. Wenzetu wakiona kiongozi ni mvivu na mzembe wanamtimua, sisi tumejaa udini na uswahili. Kama hatutabadilika tutaendelea kukwama.

It's very true that we'll be mark timing, and the reason behind is comparing ourselves with a 'sick person' Kenya. It's very pity, many Jukwaa members make kny as a bench mark. something cha kushangaza. Tunaacha kujilinganisha na nchi kama Botswana ambao tunafanana vitu vingi, watu wanang'ang'ana na kny.
Ngoja niwaambie ukweli, Kenya kama jina ndiyo iliyopiga hatua, ndiyo iliyoendelea, lkn watu wake, wananchi wa kawaida wanaishi katika hali ngumu mno. idadi kubwa tu ya watu wanashindwa kumudu milo yote ya siku.
Ni kweli jina la Kenya linafahamika sana na hususan hivi karibuni rais wa marekani ana asili ya kny. LAKINI WATU WAKE WENGI WANASUMBUKA SANA, NA HILO UNAWEZA KULIONA JINSI WALIVYOSAMBAA KOTE KOTE DUNIANI. KATIKA AFRIKA MASHARIKI KENYA NDIYO YENYE WAKIMBIZI WENGI SANA WA HALI NGUMU TOFAUTI TOFAUTI ZA HUKO WALIKOTOKA YAANI KENYA, MFANO NJAA, VITA, UHALIFU N.K.
KWA HIYO, TUKIENDELEA KUIWEKA KENYA KAMA KIGEZO CHETU CHA MAENDELEO, WALAAH HATUTA SOGEA KIMAENDELEO.

Ni kweli Tanzania ina matatizo, lakini si mkenya wala mnyarwanda atakekuja kuyamaliza, ni ajabu sana mtu asiyekuwa na maendeleo kusema anakuja kukuletea maendeleo ambayo hajayafanya kwake mwenyewe! Kukaribisha hawa jamaa kama wanavyolilia, ni kuruka mkojo ukadondokea kwenye mavi!

By matambo

mtajiju wenyewe!! nchi yenye uchumi bora na watu wenye elimu na uwezo kuliko zote afrika ya mashariki yet ina biggest slam afrika nzima

ha ha haaa, sina mbavu

hivi upo serious kweli na maisha? hapana, u cnt be serious.

By The Quonquerer

Ni kweli Tanzania ina matatizo, lakini si mkenya wala mnyarwanda atakekuja kuyamaliza, ni ajabu sana mtu asiyekuwa na maendeleo kusema anakuja kukuletea maendeleo ambayo hajayafanya kwake mwenyewe! Kukaribisha hawa jamaa kama wanavyolilia, ni kuruka mkojo ukadondokea kwenye mavi!

Hakuna aliyesema mkenya atakuja kumaliza matatizo ya Tanzania, ila kinachosemwa ni kwamba ushirikiano waweza kusaidia sana.
Tena, kwa sentensi yako ya mwisho, hiyo ni chuki tu.