Single Mothers Association of Kenya (SMAK) and the Fight to Stay Put on the Ziwani Estate in Nairobi

Daniel Manyasi, Loretta Lees and Ashley West

Published in Issue 6.2 // Conversations

Keywords: council/public housing, gentrification, displacement, resistance, Kenya

Abstract:

This Reflection discusses the fight to stay put on the Ziwani Estate in Nairobi, in the face of the redevelopment (gentrification) of one of the first East African public housing projects developed in Kenya under colonial rule. The Single Mothers Association of Kenya (SMAK), a community-based organization founded on the Ziwani Estate, is leading the fight for/with Ziwani residents. SMAK is focused on land and housing rights, capacity building for the community on these rights, advocating against illegal eviction, and fighting against gentrification, densification, and homelessness. Under immediate threat SMAK found local and global allies in academia, civil society, and in UN bodies. They have had some important wins on the preservation and conservation of Ziwani historic places and people based on unexpected academic collaborations and on their own activism which they believe requires civic education, domestic and international lobbying, and possibly legal struggle.

doi.org/10.54825/QGNC7206

Daniel Manyasi is a paralegal working within and outside of the Single Mothers Association of Kenya (SMAK). He was born and bred on a ‘deprived’ social housing estate and has been heavily involved in fighting for affordable, adequate, and decent housing in Nairobi’s Eastlands.

Loretta Lees is Director of the Initiative on Cities at Boston University, USA. She lived in and out of social housing as a child in the UK and has long been involved in the fight to retain council estates and council housing in London and elsewhere in the face of gentrification.

Ashley West was brought up in Nairobi, Kenya. She undertook a Geography degree at the University of Leicester, UK. Since then she has been working for Arup as a graduate consultant within the asset management team.

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