Kenya's housing crisis forces thousands of families onto the streets of Nairobi

Families sleeping on the streets or in informal shelters: this is the reality of Kenya’s acute homelessness crisis.

In Nairobi, poverty, forced displacement and limited access to affordable housing have left thousands with nowhere to go but the streets. This crisis affects everyone from adults to children.

"I have been living on the streets for 10 years and there are many challenges," said Joyce Muthoni. The mother of three ended up homeless after she lost her job.

"It gets very cold at night, most of the time we are hungry, the kids [are] crying. As if that is not enough the police usually beat us at night." 

The 2018 National Census of Street Families found that 46,639 people are living on the streets in Kenya. 

Poverty remains the main root cause of homelessness, with 39.8% of Kenyans living below the national poverty line, according to the World Bank. 

Many are forced to live in informal settlement areas. Jane Caren Knight lives in Kibera, in the south of Nairobi, with her one-year-old child. Kibera is known as the largest urban slum in Africa.

"I pay around Ksh 2,000 [$17] per month in this mud house which is not even in good condition and even the roof leaks," the 22-year old mother said.

She does not have a stable job, which often puts her in a precarious position with her landlord. "The landlord does not care and is very harsh with rent. If he says rent is due on 5th and you fail to pay on time, he locks the door or even throws out your stuff."

Some, like Muthoni, call on the government to improve the situation. "We are living like refugees in our own country. If we can be helped to get jobs we will be able to raise our children and even get off the streets," she said.

A solution to the crisis is to build more affordable housing. The Kenyan government is constructing over 100,000 homes through its Affordable Housing Programme. 

Dealing with homelessness requires "a concerted effort of the government authorities to provide housing for the masses and this could be done through social housing programmes whereby the costs are highly subsidised to enable these people to buy into the houses," said George Omondi, the director of Housing and Infrastructure at the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kenya has a housing deficit of 2 million homes, according to the World Bank. 

President William Ruto last month proposed the creation of a multilateral coalition to fight the global housing crisis.

"The global housing crisis is too vast for any single country to resolve. We must therefore harness the power of multilateralism to confront it," he said.