









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 3, 2020 
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86 
 

Original Paper 

Containing the High Incidence of COVID-19 in the Urban 

Slums of Nairobi: The Case of Kibera 
Amb. Dr. John O. Kakonge1* 

1 President, The Association of Former International Civil Servants in Kenya (AFICS-Kenya), Kenya 
* Amb. Dr. John O. Kakonge, President, The Association of Former International Civil Servants in 

Kenya (AFICS-Kenya), Kenya 

 

Received: July 12, 2020         Accepted: July 18, 2020          Online Published: July 23, 2020 

doi:10.22158/csm.v3n3p86                      URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v3n3p86 

 

Abstract 

Globally, urban slums (in most cases, informal settlements) have been hit badly by novel coronavirus 

(COVID-19). The reasons for this include the cramped living conditions that make social distancing 

impossible, and high levels of poverty and unemployment that make masks and clean water for hand 

washing unaffordable to many slum residents. This paper makes the case for upgrading Kibera, which 

is long overdue. The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the upgrading of urban slums as a 

priority Sustainable Development Goal in 2015. To win the war against coronavirus in Kibera, the 

Government should adopt a bottom-up approach, using the existing community leadership and youth 

groups, as opposed to a top-down approach. Given the increasing number of positive cases of 

coronavirus in Kibera, the Government must apply a selective lockdown, as it did in Eastleigh, 

Mandera and old town Mombasa. Winning the war in Kibera ultimately depends not only on 

Government efforts, but also on the commitments of local communities and individual residents. 

Keywords 

COVID-19, Kibera slum, bottom-up approach, social distancing, Nairobi County 

 

1. Background 

Most coronavirus cases, globally, are concentrated in major urban areas, and particularly in cities with 

large informal settlements. For example, in Brazil most cases are found in the slums of Saõ Paulo and 

Rio de Janeiro. In New York, the affected areas were in the poor neighborhoods of the boroughs, such 

as the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Ironically, in Italy the epicenter of infection was in the wealthy 

Lombardy region, with a large population of mainly elderly, retired people. In South Africa, the main 

concentrations of infection are in townships, where most poor people live. In Kenya, Nairobi has nine 



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slum areas within the city. The biggest is Kibera followed by Mathare. This paper examines why the 

concentrations of infection are in the major slums of the city, particularly Kibera. The paper also 

addresses what should be done to contain the outbreak in Kibera and what lessons can be drawn for the 

future in the event of similar outbreaks. 

 

2. Methodology 

This paper is based on a desk review, including reviews of daily press statements released by the Kenya 

Ministry of Health as well as interviews of people working with Non-Governmental Organizations 

(NGO), and focuses on Kibera1, the largest slum area in Nairobi, which currently has the most cases of 

COVID-19. 

 

3. Results 

3.1 The Kibera Situation 

Kibera covers an area of 256 hectares. The number of inhabitants is variously estimated to be between 

180,000-500,000. The inhabitants constitute a diverse, fluid society, with a constant ebb and flow of 

people. Planning interventions and the provision of assistance in such areas is a major challenge, 

especially during the current coronavirus pandemic. 

Most of the buildings in Kibera are temporary and dilapidated. Sanitary conditions are bad, and most 

families share public latrines. Most residents lack access to electricity, running water, medical care, and 

other basic amenities. Many residents live in small rooms, 12 by 12 ft shacks, with mud walls, 

corrugated iron roofs and dirt floors (Osman, 2018). 

Unemployment is rife, with half the population without a job. Most employed residents work as 

unskilled labour, earing around a dollar per day. Poverty prevails. Drug and alcohol abuse are common, 

and HIV affects about 20 per cent of the population (Torres, 2019). 

It is clear to most observers that the inhabitants of Kibera live in relentless and degrading poverty, but 

the Government contends that they are illegal squatters on Government land (Kibera UK, 2014). This 

impasse cannot be allowed to continue and must be resolved. 

3.2 Kibera and COVID-19 

Kibera has been hit hard by COVID-19, accounting for 17% (456 of 2,665) of reported cases in Nairobi 

County, as of 30 June 2020, as indicated in the figure below. 

 



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Figure 1. COVID-19 Cases in Nairobi County by Sub-County (as of 30.06.2020) 

 

COVID-19 cases predominate in other informal settlements, notably in Kawangware in Dagoretti 

North, and Kangemi in Westlands. Informal settlements account for 60% of reported cases. 

With houses barely a meter apart and housing up to 8 persons per room, social/physical distancing has 

been impossible. Most residents depend on the informal sector for their livelihoods, which means that 

they have to leave the sub-county to seek work in other areas. The effect of this is that if the contacts of 

known cases are not entirely traced and quarantined, they are likely to infect others, both within and 

outside Kibera. 

3.3 Challenges Facing the Residents of Kibera 

Kibera residents cannot practice social distancing because of their crowded living conditions and as a 

result, the number of cases of COVID-19 is likely to increase and spread further (MSF, 2020). 

Two main water supplies have been installed by the Municipal Council and residents are charged for 

their use. Water is controlled by youth groups to ensure that the pipes are not damaged. However, water 

does not reach every household because some families cannot afford piped water. 

During the COVID-19 outbreak, most water storage tanks and sanitizers have been provided by NGOs 

and charities at no charge. Otherwise, regular hand washing, as recommended by the Ministry of 

Health and the World Health Organization, would not be realistic or sustainable. 

Complicating the situation, a large proportion of Kibera residents have underlying health conditions 

such as HIV and tuberculosis, and non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes, that 



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increase the risks associated with COVID-19 infections (MSF, 2020). 

 

4. The Way Forward 

Moving forward to contain the situation in Kibera, several things need to be done, including: 

4.1 Selective Lockdown 

The Government should apply a targeted lockdown for Kibera, as was done in Eastleigh, and carry out 

comprehensive testing of the residents of its 12 constituent villages. During lockdown, the Government, 

NGOs and other concerned groups should assist residents with food, cooking and water for hand 

washing. This should be well-coordinated among the Ministry of Health (MOH), police and the village 

chiefs and elders to ensure the exercise is done effectively. 

4.2 Changing the Attitudes of the Residents 

Most people in Kibera live from hand-to-mouth. Hence, they are more concerned with getting food to 

feed their family than combating coronavirus. They do not see COVID-19 as a dangerous and deadly 

disease. One Kibera resident noted that “the conditions in the slum are very dangerous, particularly 

where 30–50 people have to share one public toilet and some mess up the toilet and they don’t care that 

others have (to) use it after them”. 

Despite these challenges, the Kibera community is taking matters into its own hands (Odede, 2020), so 

there is some hope of implementing effective disease control measures. Shofco (Shining Hope for 

Communities, a local NGO established by Kennedy Odede) in partnership with local community 

leaders, has set up hand washing stations across Kibera, running a door-to-door campaign creating 

awareness of COVID-19 and distributing various materials, including bleach, homemade soap and 

hand sanitizers (Odede, 2020). 

According to a recent survey of Nairobi slums including Kibera, carried out by Austrian and Abuya 

(2020), many young people think that they are not at high risk of becoming infected compared with 

older people. Whilst this may be true, young people are still at risk of becoming infected. Some young 

people are even saying that the coronavirus does not kill or is not dangerous. Much more needs to be 

done to target organized youth groups to assist them in countering widespread misinformation and 

disinformation about COVID-19. Dissemination of reliable information and appropriate messaging 

about how to control the disease is essential to encourage people to take personal responsibility for 

protecting themselves, especially where education and literacy levels are low. 

4.3 Self-isolation and Social Distancing 

Most residents of Kibera live in very small, sub-standard accommodation no more than 12 ft by 12 ft, 

with an average occupancy of 3 to 7 people. Self-isolating is impossible under such circumstances, if 

one person becomes infected, it is highly likely that they will infect other cohabitants. People rub 

shoulders as they walk along narrow passageways. Given the physical space, achieving social 



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distancing is next to impossible. Without individuals taking personal responsibility to protect 

themselves by using masks, the number of cases in Kibera will continue to increase. Where practical, 

the use of face masks should be compulsory. 

4.4 Reducing Uncoordinated Responses 

Many activities are currently being conducted by various inter-governmental organizations, donors, 

NGOs, charities, and individual organizations in support of communities affected by COVID-19. Most 

are providing food, water tanks and sanitizers. However, these efforts are not well coordinated and 

some are politicized. Given the current situation, Manke (2020) recommends that Government should 

partner with the existing community leadership and partners to form an emergency planning committee 

to come up with an appropriate, locally coordinated response, rather than relying on top-down 

directives. Participation should include the county Government as well as the national Government. If 

not, Kibera will continue to be neglected and stigmatized by the political and economic elite. 

It should not be forgotten that Kibera has been a hotspot of violence in the past, especially during the 

previous general elections. One of the lessons from the Ebola outbreak in the slums of Monrovia, 

Liberia, is instructive: mistrust between the poor and the medical and public health professionals 

contributed to misinformation and treatment delays. Well-coordinated support through community-led 

committees and groups should, therefore, be encouraged. 

4.5 Water and Sanitation 

Washing hands with soap and the use of sanitizers are two important ways of combating the 

coronavirus, but access to water and sanitation is a major constraint in Kibera. Various projects have 

been implemented in the past to provide water and sanitation points but are insufficient to meet demand. 

Additional supplies are currently being brought by vehicle to serve local water stations, but this is 

unsatisfactory and unsustainable. Urgent consideration should be given to improving and extending 

water supply and sanitation facilities in Kibera. 

 

5. Recommendations 

The Government of Kenya should make a concerted effort to address the challenges of urban slums, 

particularly Kibera, through the provision of affordable housing with water and sanitation. This would 

be a major national contribution towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (make 

cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), under target 11.1, whereby 

member states should, by 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic 

services and upgrade slums. 

Currently, all the land occupied by Kibera belongs to the Government. The Government should conduct 

a census of Kibera to establish who is living there and when they arrived. Long-term residents should 

be given priority in buying property in an affordable housing scheme. If individuals are unable to buy, 



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they should be provided with low-interest loans to enable them to purchase. All new houses should 

have in situ toilets and clean running water, including new infrastructure with basic amenities. 

Improved housing and living conditions are in line with the Kenya Government’s endorsement of the 

SDGs in 2015. It will also enhance human health and reduce the spread of infectious diseases. The 

Director General of Nairobi Metropolitan Services has prioritized the upgrading and development of 

infrastructure in Nairobi’s long neglected informal settlements (Kinyanjui, 2020), which should include 

Kibera. 

Experience from other countries would suggest that the actual number of COVID-19 cases in Kibera is 

likely to be far higher than reported. Given that bed capacity for isolation within Nairobi is limited and 

that isolation and home care in Kibera is unrealistic, the MOH and Nairobi County Government should 

consider the temporary use of the exhibition buildings at Jamhuri Park to isolate COVID-19 cases. 

Similar actions have been taken in other countries to avoid overwhelming existing hospital facilities, 

including the United Kingdom (BBC News, 2020), Nigeria (Akinola, 2020), Australia (Davey et al, 

2020), and South Africa (Winning, 2020). 

 

6. Conclusions 

COVID-19 is a wakeup call for all Kenyans to join forces to build the resilience of informal settlements 

such as Kibera to protect residents against the coronavirus pandemic. At the United Nations General 

Assembly in 2015, member states committed themselves to ensuring access for all to adequate, safe, 

and affordable housing and basic services, and upgrading slums before 2030, as one of the Sustainable 

Development Goals. Kenya played a key role in the discussion and approval of these Goals and it is 

now up to the Government to demonstrate its commitment. 

The provision of affordable housing is one of President Kenyatta’s Four Pillars of future development. 

Priority should be given to the construction of low-cost housing and basic amenities in areas such as 

Kibera. By so doing, we should be better prepared for the next pandemic, as noted in the Standard 

newspaper editorial on 20 June 2020 (Standard News, 2020). 

Better coordination of external support to Kibera requires the active participation and collaboration of 

community leaders with personal knowledge of local conditions and needs, otherwise, haphazard 

donations and initiatives will have minimal impact. 

With COVID-19 cases increasing daily in Kibera, the Government must act urgently to implement a 

targeted lockdown, as it did in Eastleigh, Mandera and old town Mombasa, and provide adequate water 

supplies for hand washing and cooking, weekly food rations, and sanitizers. 

Government, NGOs, and other partners should continue to work closely with local community leaders 

and empower them to disseminate reliable information and messages from the Ministry of Health and 

the World Health Organization. 



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Winning the war against COVID-19 ultimately depends not only on Government efforts, but also on 

the commitments of local communities and individual residents, including the washing of hands and 

the wearing of face masks, when and where required. 

 

Disclaimer 

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author and not 

necessarily to AFICS-Kenya. 

 

References 

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over-coronavirus-spread/ar-BB11L4ef?li=BB10Jn1k 

Austrian, K., & Abuya, T. (2020). We wanted to know how coronavirus affects Nairobi’s slum residents: 

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Note 

Note 1. All data used in this document were obtained from the daily press briefings on the Ministry of 

Health website. It is important to note that on some days, cases were not disaggregated into the various 

sub-counties of origin. The total of 2,665 cases referred to in this study includes only disaggregated 

records from sub-counties. The aggregated total for the whole of Nairobi was 3,130 cases on 30 June 

2020. 


