Negotiating Power Dynamics for Sustainable Services Delivery in Informal Settlements in Nairobi Kenya

Governments have a mandate to ensure that all residents have access to adequate water and sanitation. However, provision of basic services is more often than not elaborate in the middle- and high-income zones of the city than in informal settlements. This scenario offers a need for discussion on urban governance for basic services including water, electricity and sanitation systems to cushion the urban poor. Such conversations include the full range of arrangements through which governments and other actors work together to install and manage these basic services. These arrangements often fail the urban poor, who are at a disadvantage in both the market and in the public policy arena and often end up using water and sanitation delivery systems that are unhealthy and even illegal. Under such circumstances there arises a plethora of basic service providers ranging from formal to informal with varying dynamics. Based on this premise, this paper presents the nature of power dynamics in service delivery in Mukuru Slums in Nairobi. The paper aims to unpack existing power structures, the overlaps, interrelationships and the formal and informal pecking order within the slums as relates to ownership and control of land and basic services. The paper makes the point that there is a multiplicity of service providers in informal settlements, both formal and informal that depict a complicated web of relationships. Hence, there is need for sustained and carefully negotiated partnerships in service provision that should entail representation of the varied actors and their interests and influence.