Population pressure on urban housing: The case of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

This study addresses itself to the factors which have led to the present housing problem in Nairobi. Past studies have approached the housing problem from the legal, economic and sociological perspectives. This one has therefore attempted to provide the demographic and socio-economic features of the growing housing problem in the rapidly growing primate cities in Africa and Nairobi in particular. Chapter one charts out the basic features of the thesis and includes the literature review from which the interest in the subject evolved. The basic demographic factors, rural-urban migration and natural rate of increase, which result in the rapid urban population growth are discussed in the third chapter. It is postulated in the study that for Nairobi the phenomenal gr9wth in population is more as a result of migration than the rate of natural increase. The housing problem is however not only due to demographic factors. As shown in chapter four the other factors are: the adherence to inflexible building codes and standards, the inheritance of the colonial mode of urban development and the obdurate lack of commitment to low-income housing. The resultant interrelationships between population growth and the housing problem are discussed in chapter five. Of mention is the fact available evidence shows that there is a negative relationship between the concentration of population in Nairobi and the availability of housing. The degree of housing shortage is aggravated by the primacy of the city as is further shown by the implications of the projections of urban house-holds and the housing market model in chapter five. The major conclusions drawn from the study are: that in spatial dimensions Nairobi will still have rapid population growth due to its primacy; that rural-urban migration is the principal demographic cause of the pressure on housing; that the worst hit section of the population are the low-income earners who are also the most numerous; and that in the long run the solution to the housing problem lies in the decentralization of industrial and other establishments from Nairobi and the reduction of the rate of population growth. The solution of producing more and more houses is discounted for being both financially impracticable and self-defeating.