More than half of Nairobi’s 4 million residents live in informal settlements or slums, crammed into makeshift shacks on just one percent of the city’s usable land. Because the Kenyan government has failed to recognize these settlements and include them in their planning, people live without adequate access to basic services like clean water, sanitation, security, health care and education. Lacking security of tenure, residents face the daily risk of forced eviction from their homes without proper consultation, relocation or compensation for the loss of their property and businesses. In July 2009, more than 3,000 residents of Githogoro Village were made homeless when the government, with only 72 hours’ notice, evicted them and used bulldozers to demolish their homes. A program to clean up the Nairobi River Basin threatens to displace more than 127,000 people who live nearby. On World Habitat Day on October 5, ask President Kibaki to stop forced all forced evictions in Nairobi, consult with local communities about alternatives, and relocate and compensate those displaced.

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