Nairobi is facing rapid urbanisation and the struggles that come with that, including poverty, pollution and climate mitigation. Nairobi city has increased from 350,000 people to 5 million in 60 years, with an estimated increase to 10 million in the next generation. The city is highlighted for its efforts to build inclusive public spaces, foster a sense of belonging among its residents, and maintain cultural identity amidst globalisation.
In this episode, CNN hears from key figures, such as Vera Bukachi, Joy Mboya, and Angela Wachuka & Wanjiru Koinange on their insights into Nairobi’s resilience and adaptability in the face of rapid urbanisation.
Vera Bukachi is a third generation Nairobian and works for Arup, a global design and engineering firm. She takes CNN through Kibera, seen by some people as the largest settlement in Nairobi. She explains that is it a
“very dense, a very complex place. A very beautiful place full of life and culture and vibrancy in a way that I think some people under appreciated if you just drive through and you don’t get to experience it. Kibera has a lot of complexities like a lot of other informal settlements in Nairobi. And in many ways, I think Kibera is essentially the core face of our cities. So everyone’s nannies, everyone’s cleaners, everyone’s builders come from settlements like Kibera. And they essentially help keep the formal part of the city alive, the formal part of the city moving.”
Bukachi focuses much of her efforts within these communities, collaborating with local partners like ‘KDI’, a non-profit revitalising under-utilised spaces.
She says, “some of the work I have been involved in has been supporting building of the public spaces in Kibera, safeguarding some of these spaces which would otherwise be dangerous, essentially, through engineering and design, put in features that enable that area for example to flood without risking other lives. At the same time, making sure that it’s a space that is publicly inclusive, has got space for children to play, has got space for mamas and papas to wash their clothes. By then adding value to that space you’re actually improving the resilience of those who live in and around that area.”
Joy Mboya, the founder of a multidisciplinary arts & culture centre in Nairobi, believes, “the idea of culture is not just about the creative expression or the artistic expression, it’s really around holistic life, what does it mean to be, to feel, to feel whole, to feel complete, to feel safe, to feel that you have a liveable environment in your neighbourhood.” A key area of focus for Mboya is fostering spaces that spark creativity, identity, and cultural expression, particularly amongst the city’s youth.
Book Bunk, an initiative aimed at transforming Nairobi through restoring public libraries, was founded in 2017 by Wanjiru Koinange and Angela Wachuka.
Koinange explains that “public spaces can make people feel connected, can make them feel united to their community and allows them to converse and to exchange dialogue in a way that doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
Koinange and Wachuka see libraries as vital public centres for art, heritage, and knowledge. nurturing a sense of belonging and celebrating the richness of cultural exchange. Wachuka hopes that “in a few years, in a few decades, especially some of the younger faces that I see at the library, I hope that this becomes something that they can refer to as a time in their lives that helped them to see the world differently.”
This article is extracted from the newest episode of Inside Africa, by CNN.
