Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
New Kenya, New Counties without Slums!
Mukuru Kwa Njenga School, Nairobi, where residents from the vicinity use the school's toilets during the day, February 2010, ©Amnesty International
Poverty and upgrading of informal settlements will not be possible unless cities are productive and efficient
-Nelson Mandela
In the wake of a new constitution in Kenya, Kenyans, especially the majority poor-46% of the population are living in less than one dollar a day- have very high expectations for a new, better Kenya. Thus the new slogan seems to be: New wine, new wineskin!
Moreover, the new Constitution of Kenya’s Bill of Rights is seen as the great white hope for most Kenyans, especially those that have for a long time been disfranchised. Even those living in uninhabitable housing have not been left out (Article 43 1 (b)), thus: Every person has the right-to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation
Even Kenya’s Head of state, Mr. Mwai Kibaki, could not hide his excitement and the hope he has for the country’s future while addressing the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly, New York, on September 23, 2010:
The New Constitution greatly improves the structures of governance and lays a firm foundation for political stability and economic prosperity. It has injected new vitality and a sense of renewal. We believe that this step will go a long way in contributing towards the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. It is also our hope that this historic development will contribute to continued consolidation of democratic governance in our region.
With a devolved government or county governments, Kenya has ushered in a renewed opportunity to make up for its misguided plan of the Millennium Development Goals. Kenya’s current framework for implementing the MDGs-Vision 2030-connotes pessimism, because it depicts a competitor riding on two horses at the same time to win one race. But with County governments (47), each headed by a governor, Kenya has the greatest opportunity ever to paint her country anew, with symbolic colors that ensure “plenty be found within our borders”. For example, a county government will be responsible for developing policy for the county, implementing county laws, and managing the public service of the country. As such I expect that one of the crucial policies, which is under the county government’s jurisdiction, will be to ensure that we have COUNTIES WITHOUT SLUMS!
Friday, October 1, 2010
UN World Habitat Day: Better Cities, Better life-Yes, Cities without Slums!
As we celebrate the UN World Habitat Day on October 4, 2010, we need to reflect on where we have come from and where we are going. Especially on where we are going, we most importantly must choose the right road for “We the Peoples”. Understandably, these “better cities” are meant for us “Peoples,” including slum dwellers. This therefore means that “better life” will not be forthcoming if we still have slums within these “better cities.”
Among the crucial issues we need to reflect on is our own perception of slum dwellers in this context, because this will potentially determine the kind of plan we are bound to put in place toward ensuring that we don’t have slums in those “better cities.” Or, are we not outraged when we see these dehumanizing conditions in which slum dwellers live? If yes, what are we, both collectively and individually, doing about it?
The UN Habitat reports that “a total of 227 million people in the world have moved out of slums since 2000. This means that governments have collectively surpassed the Millennium Development Goal on slums more than two times over.” While this might sound extremely encouraging, we need to remind ourselves that the number is increasing: “…if no collective action is taken, UN-HABITAT projections show that this figure will increase to 1.5 billion” from the current figure of 1 billion. Does this tell us something about MDGs’ Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020? We made a mistake by failing to properly include slum dwellers into the MDGs. If we are supposed “to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day,” then it means that slum dwellers have been excluded from this important framework as neither the 2020 target date nor the numerical target of 100 million are consistent with this overall goal of the Millennium Development Goal. Clearly, this shows some of the problems resulting from strident voices that, conservatively, tend to equate rural development and poverty reduction. And this explains why the slum dwellers’ goal was moved from ‘poverty eradication’ and placed under ‘environmental sustainability,’ which, by the way, is the last one under this category.
If we are serious about having “better cities” and consequently “better life,” we must accept the fact that slum dwellers constitute poverty. Again, we need to agree that both rural development and rural poverty reduction tend to benefit from urbanization. Within this understanding, we are empowered to aim at the right target, thereby invoking the right tools toward eradicating poverty. At this point we are able to:
· Plan for future urban growth as one of the means of preventing slums from increasing
· Undertake nationwide slum upgrading programs
· Develop policy and institutional capability for sustainability
· Locally involve slum communities in the design and implementation of measures aimed at improving their lives
Human rights’ Principle of Indivisibility and the Millennium Development Goals
The rights of every men are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened
-J.F. Kennedy
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of the greatest challenges toward implementation of human rights today is the tendency to divide them. This division, for the most part, plays out as a blame game between rich and poor countries. The latter complains of the economic rights’ neglect on the part of rich countries while the former allegedly perceives political rights as the only broom able to clean the house of poor countries.
Clearly, this is not in the spirit of human rights principles-universal and inalienable; indivisible; interdependent and interrelated. And an attempt to move in this direction means we will eventually find ourselves in a mark time mode. Failing to embrace all of the principles toward implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) reflects a lack of commitment to the dignity of humanity. Moreover, Human rights’ principle of indivisibility is critical toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
True commitment to the dignity of humanity means that all parties-rich and poor countries alike-will have to work toward embracing the UDHR in its entirety as they endeavor to implement the MDGs. Posing a question of legality in this context is yet another demonstration of a lack of this commitment. The political will bestowed on all sovereign nations must be invoked now more than ever toward ending poverty in our time. We are all in favor of a world free from want and fear. We are all against hunger and disease. We are all against global terrorism. If we are all in agreement with this, then let’s embrace human rights in its wholesomeness.
It’s true that disagreement is not an uncommon thing in a family setting. And yes, we are now family by virtue of sharing a single humanity and living in one world, one global village--we are global citizens. This gives us the reason to discard our differences and instead consolidate our efforts to fight our common enemy: poverty. And since we have a global framework called the Millennium Development Goals, let’s use it to end poverty in our time. But this will not be forthcoming if we don’t crucify any prevailing cynicism in respect to winning the battle against poverty. Let poor countries not just pretend to reform, but indeed deliver required reform. And let rich countries not just pretend to help poor countries, but in the spirit of true generosity and commitment help them. We are all engaged in the battle against poverty together as family. As such, we must undertake our roles with utter commitment and determination to defend one another as brothers and sisters--we must all be winners in this noble fight against poverty in order to survive the global threats of our time.
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