Dr Margaret Ng’ayu during the presentation of the survey report. [Photo/ Maxwell Ngala]
At least 42 per cent of residents living in informal settlements within Mombasa County want such areas to be regularized in a bid to improve the living conditions.This is according to a report released by IPE/Silverwind Consultants titled Analysis: Consultancy Services for Review of Guidelines for Land Tenure Regularization in Informal Settlements.According to the report, 58.9 per cent of residents feel that regularization will create better socio- economic opportunities, improve social and basic services (27.6 per cent), enhance a clean and healthy living environment (9.8 per cent) and enhance tenure security (3.7 per cent).The findings were shared during a validation workshop at Castle Hotel in Mombasa on Wednesday which was attended by officers from the County Department of Land, Planning and Housing, Sub county Administration and Community Based Organizations.However, 58 per cent of residents are not in favour of regularization and fear that it may change the current conditions.33.6 per cent felt it could lead to displacement or eviction, 16.4 per cent thought it may lead to increase in rent while 2.3 per cent felt it may lead to loss of the available economic opportunities.According to Dr Margaret Ng’ayu a Planner Consultant for IPE/Silverwind on Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project (KISIP), the informal settlements assessed during the survey are located in Majaoni, Tudor Moroto,Likoni, Bangladesh, Chelang’a, Chaani,Junda ,Jomvu and Likoni.“Some of the environmental and social issues affecting these areas include poor water and sanitation, insecurity, alcohol and drug abuse, conflicts and violence, prostitution among many others,” she said.“The residents attribute these issues to mainly unemployment and impact of alcohol and drug consumption,” she added.Land Planning and Housing Chief Officer Jabu Salim thanked the Consultants for the report noting that it will assist the county in solving a variety of land problems affecting residents, as well as assist them in coming up with land policies also instrumental in solving land issues.“We requested the government through the KISIP program to develop these guidelines because we needed them to assist us on how we can be planning for our informal settlements,” said Salim.“Together with our land policies we can also convert these guidelines into an Act and they can serve us in solving land problems that exist here in Mombasa,” he added.Salim further noted that issues of absentee landlords, land ownership and tenant at will are some of the problems affecting residents in the county.The consultants began their survey in March this year with a variety of meetings with community stakeholders and researches in all sub counties in Mombasa.Some of the recommendations were regularization processes developed which should respect the rights of the visible legal title holder and should always be preceded by physical planning to enable effective public participation of the target population.