Observations of a Slum Tourist 4: Olympic Opportunities

‘Human Traffic’ is the phrase often used to describe the thorough-fare that runs from Olympic bus stage past Olympic Primary School down into Kibera slum. The growing potholes that are making their stamp on this road are more the result of over ten thousand daily foot passengers than abuse from car tires. Any cars that venture this way must accept that going faster than walking pace is impossible and as a result few do. Another reason is that not many people have cars. This may sound obvious, but Kibera manages to fit a disputed 800,000 residents within 2.5 square miles, and there still seems to be space for all our cars.

 

When Olympic Estate was completed in 1975, each compound was designed with space for parking. The government scheme, which was designed to off-set the expansion of Kibera with organized housing, gave middle class Kenyans the opportunity to buy property that was linked up to the national amenities of water, sewerage and electricity. Cheap loans were made available for certain people to buy the houses at affordable prices and many of them immediately let them out, making a 100% return on investment within two years. Others divided up the compounds into smaller plots and in recent years landlords have demolished the original structures and built multi-story buildings consisting of several one-bedroom apartments. All this has had an impact on the amount of parking space available. However, the dividing up of plots has also meant that the relevant average income of Olympic residents has declined in the last two decades. A family living in a single bedroom apartment is less likely to be able to afford a car now, than the original tenants of the estate who were renting large compounds for themselves in the 1980’s.

 

The prevalence of human traffic over four-wheeled traffic has also had an impact on the pavements. Since the roads are used by amblers, the pavements now make ideal sites for makeshift shops for these amblers to peruse. Demand for such an obvious economic benefit has been matched by a dwindling of resistance; as the tarmac on the roads has slowly decayed, so has the determination of any party insistent on preventing these iron sheet shop fronts from popping up. They go up overnight and by morning they had always been there.  This trend has been escalating since the post-election violence in 2008, Kibera’s darkest hour in living memory, when it became clear that the inhabitants here run their own laws subject to no outside influences. The original landlords, who may have held more pride in their middle class estate and resisted these temporary structures, were largely chased out of town at this time for being from the wrong tribe and many have never returned.

All this would lead you to the conclusion that Kibera is swallowing Olympic, and on initial exposure that is often the reaction. However, that would be to deny the opportunities that present themselves in Olympic when you look a little closer. The main thing to remember is location. Kibera is prime real estate because if you have the resolve you can walk to work in the central business district and thereby saving yourself 2000 KSH (£15) per month. For those who do travel by bus, it should take less than half the time to get to town than it might if you live in other affordable areas of town. Ngong road is set to be widened within the next two years which will further cut down commuting times and on Ngong Road you get everything you need. If a linking road is made to the new by-pass south of Kibera it will give fantastic access to the west of Kenya. This means that Olympic is a very convenient place to live

The growing population should also be seen as an opportunity.  All basic day to day goods can be found in Olympic, but from the small temporary shops described above. Since these shops continue to grow in number it must mean that demand is there, and growing. However, multiple shops selling the same goods is not a formula for efficiency and actually limits the economic growth in the area. If larger, more permanent establishment could be commissioned and financed it could create even more jobs for the area in the long run. My reasoning is this: one-man-band shops do not rely on an economic ecosystem to survive- they just buy their products from travelling salesmen or buy them wholesale themselves, and then sell them direct to customers. A larger enterprise such as a supermarket would need other services such as store designers and engineers, security guards, and till managers. Such an ecosystem could create business for other industries such as local advertising agencies, carpenters and metal workers. The larger establishments could bring down the price of day to day consumables through economy of scale, which is of benefit to the whole community. If the temporary shops lose business, then at least many jobs would have already been created. However, their proprietors needn’t go out of work as long as they are innovative: a growing population brings a wide array of different business opportunities and demand for specialized goods. Therefore, Olympic provides countless opportunities for business minded people.

Let’s take as another example the ten tiny pubs lined up in the north side of the ring road need their own fridges, sound systems, bar staff and in some cases night security guards. If they could join forces and open a large club like Garage or Big Five in Fort Jesus resources could be pooled new attractions could be invested in that bring in more customers from outside, such as kitchens, pool tables, bigger TV screens and live bands. For this to happen though business men in Olympic need to be prepared to team up and trust each other.

Considering the exciting opportunities in Olympic it is surprising that housing prices are not escalating. Just a kilometre away in Jamuhuri, property is up to three times as expensive both to buy and to rent. But a few hundred metres away in the slum housing is almost ten times cheaper than in Olympic Estate. A year in to the new government’s tenure there are no obvious signs that the explode pressure of the slum is relenting, and it is not clear whether new policies will have the desired effects. Olympic is seen as a buffer zone between developed Nairobi and the unruly slum, ready to swing one way or another and until there is evidence of a clear swing in the right direction people are unwilling to invest in its property or infrastructure. As inhabitants it is up to us to make that decision, nobody is going to do it for us, and for that we need to be prepared to work together.