What actually sparked the 2024 Gen Z protests was the demolition of houses by the government along the Mathare River.
The affected residents were promised Sh10,000, but never got the money.
The Mathare Social Justice Centre organised protests. We wanted to go and occupy government houses in Pangani. Police crushed the protests and arrested a lot of our people. That was in May 2024.
You see, the whole thing about affordable housing is a farce. A similar project was done before when the government with the support of the World Bank and IMF built houses in Huruma.
Go to Huruma corner, the houses are still there. The idea was to move people from Mathare slums to those houses. But the government never dealt with the question of the economy. So, the people went there. But they had no food, nothing. They started renting the houses to get an income.
The strategy is upside down. You are dealing with housing but haven’t dealt with poverty, income, infrastructure, the land question.
You are not sorting out the fundamental structure of the economy. That is social justice. You have to create livelihoods for the people.
Then from there, even if you built those houses, it is possible for the people to sustain themselves.
It also happened in Kibera under the slum upgrading programme. Those houses ended up with government bureaucrats, who also sold them to cartels. The problem is, the model of our transition is not anchored on social justice.
The government should first of all address the question of poverty. Help the people have livelihoods. If they are moved into a new house, they will be able to support themselves.
You can't remove people from where they have some income in those shanty neighbourhoods and take them to somewhere else after you have disrupted their livelihood structure.
It is like keeping a beggar in a good house. Or you are taken to live in Karen but you have nothing. I think the model is a farce.
The veteran activist is the coordinator of Mathare Social Justice Centre
