The KENYA INSTITUTE for PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH and ANALYSIS No. 11/2022-2023 Thinking Policy Together Analyses of the Housing Status and Access to Basic Infrastructure in Nairobi City County: Disparities and Deprivation Index By Charity Mbaka and Humphrey Njogu Introduction intensity defined over a set of indicators. Further Access to basic infrastructure is a key constituent analysis entailed the decomposition of MHDI by and a prerequisite for affordable housing. Article household sub-group characteristics, including 43(1)(b) of the Constitution of Kenya stipulates poverty status, amount of rent paid, and housing that access to adequate housing and reasonable ownership status to give a high-resolution lens on sanitation standards is a right for all citizens. Further, deprivation. the provision of affordable housing is prioritized as one of the National Government’s pillars of growth Multidimensional Housing Deprivation Index (MHDI) under the “Big Four” agenda, which targets to serves as a policy-prescriptive tool in addressing provide 500,000 decent housing in major cities and housing deprivation in all its dimensions. The MHDI towns across various counties in Kenya alongside framework involved defining dimensions, indicators, basic infrastructure to address the housing deficit. deprivation cutoffs, and weights. The analysis involved computation of the housing deprivation Under the Affordable Housing Project (AHP), Nairobi incidence, intensity, and decomposition of MHDI by City County is among the counties prioritized for the sub-groups. Therefore, assessing the current housing initial phase of the AHP as it accounts for the highest status, particularly on housing quality, access to basic housing deficit. About 60 per cent of Nairobi County infrastructure, and defining the housing deprivation residents live in informal settlements characterized by index provides a critical input to the ongoing projects inadequate housing and dilapidated infrastructure. and provides insights into the key areas of policy One of the critical constituents for affordable intervention. housing is access to basic infrastructure and quality housing, often lowly regarded in the planning and Intra-County Disparities in Access to Basic development of affordable housing projects. The Infrastructure and Housing Conditions rate of urbanization in Kenya is projected to remain high, with at least 50 per cent of the population living Access to basic infrastructure in urban areas by 2050. This poses a challenge in Distinctive disparities show in access to basic access to affordable access to basic infrastructure, infrastructure and housing conditions across sub- especially in cities. counties in Nairobi County. The primary energy Therefore, an in-depth analysis of intra-county source for lighting is electricity, with more than 94% of disparities in housing conditions and access to basic households across counties using grid electricity. On infrastructure is key for targeted affordable housing the contrary, the use of clean cooking fuels compared policy interventions to match the growing population. to lighting sources with 67.2% of housing using clean A Multidimensional Housing Deprivation Index cooking fuels. Sub-counties with a higher usage of (MHDI) was developed to capture and evaluate a LPG include Embakasi (70.4%), Langata (70.9%), set of housing deprivations and capture indicators Kasarani (75.1%), Westlands (73.9%), Njiru (68.3%), that highly contribute to multidimensional housing and Dagoretti (66.7%). Kibra (43.7%), Mathare deprivation in Nairobi County. The analysis involved (46.2%) and Makadara (59. 2%) show relatively lower defining MHDI dimensions, indicators, deprivation usage of LPG as clean cooking fuel. The penetration cutoffs and weights, and computation of incidence; of electricity biogas and solar as clean and modern KIPPRA Policy Brief No. 11/2022-2023 1 sources is low across the sub-counties. Nairobi Housing conditions County ranks among the best performing counties in use of clean cooking fuel in Kenya. However, the House renting is the primary form of house tenure in pockets of energy poverty are evident across the sub- Nairobi sub-counties, as homeownership is far from counties, especially in slum areas. Therefore, there is the reach of most households. Inheritance is more need to undertake a location-specific intervention in prevalent in Mathare (42.0%), Kamukunji (34.3%), promoting LPG by targeting the energy-deprived at a Kibra (28.0%), and Dagoretti, which comprises disaggregated level. some of the oldest estates in Nairobi County, with higher level of inheritance. The majority (98.7%) of Safe and improved water sources are accessed by households have durable roofing material and are most of households in Nairobi Sub-counties. However, spread out across the sub-counties. On the contrary, the share of households connected to piped water the wall material presents lower quality standards into dwelling in Kasarani (34.8%), Starehe (27.4%), across the sub-counties, with Kibra (63.4%), Kamukunji (26.9%), and Langata (26.9%) is seemingly Makadara (51.0%), and Dagoretti (57.1%) leading. higher compared to other improved sources. Notably, The deprivation in quality floor material in Kibra and sub-counties with a dominant population in slums Mathare is significantly high compared to other sub- and informal settlements, including Kibra, Mathare, counties. Makadara, and Dagoretti, mainly rely on public water stands and water vendors, showing that the residents Multidimensional Household Deprivation Index are adversely affected by water scarcity from the in Nairobi City County providers. Lack and irregular supply of piped water is instigated by poor planning and dilapidated piping Multidimensional Housing Deprivation Index is a system infrastructure. product of the incidence of deprivation (percentage of deprived) and intensity of deprivation (average Access to basic improved and safely managed deprivation share of the households that are deprived sanitation is also critical to the health and well-being of housing). The MHDI score for Nairobi County stood of individuals and communities. Overall, 72.4% of the at 0.195, which means 19.5% of multidimensionally population are non-deprived. In comparison, 27.6% deprived households are deprived in at least three are deprived of safely managed sanitation, with of the weighted indicators. The incidence (0.407) more than half of the deprived households situated of housing deprivation indicates that 40.7 per in Kibra sub-county. Despite a significant proportion of households are multidimensional deprived, having access to basic sanitation, the majority are still suggesting that 4 out of 10 households were using unsafe and unimproved sanitation. Disparities deprived. Further Intensity (0.48) showed that, on show across the counties such as Kasarani average, multidimensional deprived households were (88.1%), Embakasi (86.0%), Makadara (84.5%), and deprived in 48 per cent of weighted indicators. The Westlands (82.9%), with a high proportion of the indicators that contribute highest to MHDI includes population having access to organized solid waste cooking fuel (26.7%), Internet (18.8%), garbage collection modalities. Kibra records the highest collection (18.7%), and handwashing facility (12.2%). deprivation across all the sub-counties, with more In turn, the indicators that contribute the least to than half (57.5%) of the population having no access MHDI include lighting source (5.4%), drinking water to organized solid waste collection modalities. Most (1.1%), toilet facility (8.9%) and wall material and floor of the households in Kibra dump solid waste in the material contributing 7.0% and 1.3%, respectively. streets and waterways. Decomposition of the Multidimensional Housing Internet access is also considered a basic critical Deprivation Index by poverty indicates that deprivation amenity for households’ welfare. The population (0.434) among the poor is higher than the overall MPI above 3 years using the Internet stood at 52.4%, with reported at (0.195) while the non-poor MPI stands at disparities showing across the sub-counties. Regions 0.167. Regarding the contribution of each indicator with a higher proportion of low-income earners such for the poor and non-poor, differences in composition as Mathare, Kibra, Kamukunji, Dagoretti, and Njiru of housing deprivation were revealed. The largest have less than half of the specified population with contributor for the poor sub-group stems from clean no access to Internet. cooking fuel (26.6%), hand washing facility (11.3%), Further, about 28% of the population above three garbage collection (18.5%), access to Internet years use desktops/ computers /tablets. The highest (18.5%) contributes more to housing deprivation and proportion of the specified population is in Mathare, similar indicators contributing the highest among Kamukunji, Kibra, Dagoretti, and Njiru, showing the non-poor. Further, the results show a significant lower use levels. This implies that penetration of ICT difference in Intensity (A) and MHDI and between devices is still low, even in an urban setup. poor and non-poor households. Notably even non-poor households are deprived in certain components of housing. 2 KIPPRA Policy Brief No. 11/2022-2023 Distinctive differences show in the composition of With the contribution of owner-occupier and rental MHDI among the higher and lower rent brackets. tenure category to MHDI reportedly high, there The MHDI is larger (0.221) for ≤ Ksh 10,000 rent is need to improve access to basic infrastructure category compared to 0.7 for the >Ksh 10,000 in both areas, with both high and low renters in rent category. This indicates that multidimensional reducing the multidimensional housing deprivation in housing deprivation is higher among households in Nairobi County. Also, rental housing should follow the the lower rental bracket. The contribution of each planning requirements provided in the Physical and indicator across the rent categories indicates that the Land Use Planning Act 2019 to ensure compliance in largest contributor for Ksh ≤ 10,000 rent category the provision of basic infrastructure. was cooking fuel (26.7%), hand washing facility (12.2%), garbage collection (18.2%), Internet access MHDI indicates cooking fuel, access to the Internet, (19.2%). Further MHDI for >Ksh 10,000 rent category garbage collection, handwashing facility, toilet facility, is primarily influenced by cooking fuel (30.0%), and wall material are key priority areas that require handwashing facility (15.0%), garbage collection policy intervention to reduce the housing deprivation (30.0%), and toilet facility (15.0%). Notably, MHDI is levels in Nairobi County. Therefore, there is need not significantly different across the rent categories. for a multisectoral approach to provide seamless, Therefore, households paying higher and lower rent integrated planning in providing basic infrastructure, experience multidimensional housing deprivation. with a key focus on basic infrastructure. The County In addition, the incidence of deprivation is higher Development Plan should incorporate the specific among the higher renters and statistically significant. areas of intervention based on the level of deprivation. The MHDI is higher for households not paying rent References with consent from the owner at (0.243) than the owner- occupier (0.202) and renters at 0.192. Further, the Bah, E. H., Faye, I. and Geh, Z.F. (2018), Housing Incidence (I) of deprivation is high among households market dynamics in Africa. London: Palgrave not paying rent at 51.9% compared to renters Macmillan. (40.3%) and owner-occupier at 36.7%. The MHDI for the category not renting category is influenced Gaal, H.O. and Afrah, M.N.A. (2017), “Lack of mainly by cooking fuel (28.3%), toilet facility (10.9%) infrastructure: The impact on economic development (12.2%), handwashing facility (13.0%), garbage as a case of Benadir region and Hir-shabelle, collection (19.6%), and Internet access at 15.2%. Somalia”. Transport, 7(1). The differences in the contribution of indicators and Granath Hansson, A. (2017), Institutional prerequisites dimensions to MDHI reflect the inequalities and for affordable housing development: A comparative disparities in access to basic amenities and housing study of Germany and Sweden (Doctoral dissertation, conditions in relation to ownership of dwelling units. KTH Royal Institute of Technology). Policy Implications Papakonstantinou, D., Benardos, A., Kallianiotis, A. and Menegaki, M. (2016), “Analysis of the crowd With a significant proportion of households across the evacuation modelling approaches for the case of sub-counties still relying on non-clean cooking fuels, urban underground spaces”. Procedia Engineering, adopting a location-specific intervention approach 165: 602-609. in promoting the use of LPG among other cleaner sources is vital in deriving targeted clean cooking Republic of Kenya (2018), Kenya Affordable Housing solutions at a disaggregated level. There is also Development Framework. Nairobi. need to intensify campaigns on promoting LPG and introducing a direct subsidy on LPG appliances such UN-Habitat (2016), ‘New Urban Agenda adopted at as cylinders and cookstoves, targeting the energy- Habitat III’, UN-Habitat, https://unhabitat.org/new- poor households to switch from traditional biomass urban-agenda-adopted-at-habitat-iii/ (accessed 15 fuels. May 2019). Google Scholar. A significant proportion of households across the World Bank (2016), Kenya Urbanization Review. sub-counties have lower access to piped water, http://documents.albankaldawli.org/curated/ especially those with a dominant population in slums ar/639231468043512906/Kenya-urbanization-review and informal settlements. Therefore, there is need for the housing sector regulatory agencies to ensure World Economic Forum (2019), Making affordable the enforcement of the existing legal provision on housing a reality in cities. Cities, Urban Development physical planning, land use, and zoning regulations and Urban Services Platform in Collaboration with to ensure that designated areas for installation of Pw. piped water network are not encroached. KIPPRA Policy Brief No. 11/2022-2023 3 About KIPPRA Policy Briefs For More Information Contact: KIPPRA Policy Briefs are aimed at a wide dissemination of the Institute’s policy research findings. The findings are Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis expected to stimulate discussion and also build capacity Bishops Road, Bishops Garden Towers in the public policy making process in Kenya. P.O. Box 56445-00200, NairobiTel: 2719933/4, Cell: 0736712724, 0724256078 KIPPRA acknowledges generous support from the Email:admin@kippra.or.ke Government of Kenya and and other partners who have Website: http://www.kippra.org continued to support the Institute’s activities over the Twitter: @kippra.kenya years. 4 KIPPRA Policy Brief No. 11/2022-2023