Two million people live in this sprawling spread of squalor where sub-human standards of living, alone are a definite equivalent of human rights violation. Amnesty International’s report entitled The Unseen Majority: Nairobi’s Two Million Slum Dwellers also outlines the gross human rights abuses, along with the sordid poverty, that exist in these slums.

50 percent of Nairobi’s population lives in these informal settlements. But this squatter colony is ‘only 5 percent of the city’s residential area and just 1 percent of all land in the city.’

According to Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, “Millions live in squalid conditions, suffering not only from the deprivation of basic services but discrimination, insecurity and marginalization. Their voices are not being heard and they are not consulted or even informed about decisions that affect their lives. This is nothing short of a human rights scandal.”

The AI report is scathing to say the least. It points the accusing finger to successive Kenyan governments that have only failed to protect slum dwellers. The report also asserts that these informal settlements grew exponentially basically because of the neglect of Kenyan politicians.

Slum dwellers in Nairobi have been facing a life of ‘deprivation, rising food prices, lack of health and education facilities, harassment by the authorities, and the constant threat of being forcibly evicted.’ These squatter families are prisoners of poverty, trapped in an almost inescapable hell, devoid of human dignity.

Image

Via Amnesty International