UN-HABITAT twenty first session of the Governing Council, 16-20 April 2007, Nairobi, Kenya: past responses and interventions to slum proliferation in Kenya
The Government of Kenya recognized the political and financial realities, and the inevitability of informal settlements as early as 1970 as is amplified in the 1970/74 National development plan. Since then, the evolution of policies and interventions dealing with informal settlements in Kenya fits in four stages, namely: provision of minimum services, extension of tenure security and physical upgrading, recognition of the legitimate role of low income settlers and other stakeholders in urban development, and formulation of a comprehensive National Slum Upgrading Programme under the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP). These periods and interventions have introduced shifts in the housing policy that have, in turn immensely contributed to the nature and extent of informal settlements today as is explained in this document.