Slums In Kenya

1. Background

It has been estimated that an estimated 828 million people, representing one third of the urban population in the world today are living in slums (UN-Habitat, 2003). Mike Davis characterises slums by “by overcrowding, poor or informal housing, inadequate access too safe water and sanitation, and insecurity of tenure” (Davis, 2006). From a mainstream view, it can be said that slums “spoil” the look of a city. Because slums breed poverty and high unemployment, there is a high crime rate stemming from these neighbourhoods. In a more serious note, slums are home to a wide array of infectious diseases (including tuberculosis, hepatitis, dengue fever, pneumonia, cholera and malaria), which spread easily in highly concentrated populations

From the massive 9 million residents, 40 to 50 percent of them are slum dwellers or informal settlers (Mangahas, 2002). In Indonesia, slums are defined as urban kampongs (villages) which are often characterized as an overcrowded area (Zhu, 2010). Zhu (2010) stated that Jakarta was no other than a conglomeration of villages due to the fact that around 60 percent of Jakarta residents are living in the urban kampongs (as cited by Malo & Nas, 1996: 100; Silver, 2008: 147). This statement suggests that with the presence of massive urban kampongs, there will be an inadequate of infrastructure and facilities, resulting in problems in terms of crime and health such as water sanitary. According to the 2011’s Law of Republic of Indonesia No.1, the Indonesian slums are vulnerable in having high crime and disease rate (Supriyatno, 2014). World Bank (2008) revealed that in 2004, approximately 43 percent of Indonesian households have no access to a safe and private place to urinate and defecate causing at least 120 million cases of disease outbreaks and 50,000 premature deaths every year, especially in the overcrowded shanty areas (WB, 2008). The problem of disease manifestation is simply due to the lack of funding on sanitation facilities from the government, which only accounts for 1 percent of

A rapid widespread of drug usage among slum dwellers had become the most noticeable problem in the urban kampongs. The fact that relevant authorities such as police and local government were unable to come up with solutions as they were reluctant and incapable to interfere with those who are responsible in manufacturing and allocating the drugs, allows small drug traders to sell freely their products to the slum dwellers. Nonetheless, slum dwellers tend to stay silent in the occurrence of any unauthorised activities as they were afraid that the criminals might retaliate with vengeance as a motive. Moreover, there are also trust issues between the Indonesia’s legal system, the police and the residents, further stimulating crimes in the urban kampongs. On the other hand, petty crimes such as alcohol consumption, domestic violence and prostitutions are minority in the area but there is a widespread of gambling and ‘tawuran’ (fighting among rival high schools) elicited by undisciplined students (McCarthy, 2003). Even though gambling is considered “haram” or illegal among Muslims, it was considered as a source of entertainment for them due to the fact that if there is no money at stake, then it will not be considered as going against the law of Islam. However, there is no denial that gambling could be addictive and could be the cause of