Published in Review Of African Political Economy

Before the mass revolt in Kenya spread countrywide in June, it had started in the informal settlement area of Mathare, in Nairobi, following forced evictions after flooding in the area. Wairimu Gathimba writes about how this wave of brutal action in the city was simply the latest in a long history of brutal evictions. Gathimba looks at the long struggle by residents to remain in the city in the face of such evictions, and what we can learn from their battle to keep their homes.