Kenya’s urban poor grow food and incomes with innovative gardens

Jamleck Awiti has never known hunger despite living in Mathare, one of the largest city slums in Africa home to over half a million residents.

This, even as prices of basic commodities in Kenya’s capital Nairobi hit unprecedented highs which has seen up to a third of the over four million Nairobi residents remain ultra-hungry.

Together with a group of four youth whose main source of income remain menial jobs, they have found food, income and hope in miniature and innovative gardens, at a time when runaway unemployment, cyclic food price spikes and spiraling crime have conspired to rob Nairobi off its once glamorous title , ‘the green city under the sun.’

The price of a kilo of kales, a common produce in most families, for example has risen from $1 in 2016 to $4 in just six months as failed rains force farmers in the rural areas who supply the bulk of the produce to the city scale back to meet their immediate needs.

It has been a similar story with other staple commodities like onions, tomatoes, maize and beans. World posits that on average, East African urban families spend on average 65 per cent of their income on food.  

On the other hand, basic infrastructure like housing and infrastructure has become a luxury to many, as the city chokes under a burgeoning population moving from rural areas for hope of better days.

With arable land in the city dwindling due to competition from the real estate sector, the urban population has been at the mercy of the market forces. But a group of vanguard city dwellers like Jamleck, tired of the sorry state of affairs, have decided to do something about it. And in sacks and tyres, they have found innovative ways of producing food for own consumption while selling the surplus.

“What we are staring at is a catastrophe of monumental proportions not just in Kenya but the rest of East Africa and African cities. With Africa projected to have the largest population by the year 2030, expect this population to move to cities, putting more pressure on food despite agricultural land shrinking,” said Dr. Jude Muheria a food economist from the University of Nairobi College of Agriculture.

It is a phenomenon that has even caught researchers by surprise who argue that urban farming has now become a meaningful source of livelihood for a large pool of city dwellers.

 According to a report by the African Capacity Building Foundation, urban agriculture has been a source of food security and safety for up to 50 per cent urban population world over, with approximately one third of Nairobi households eking a living from it.

.” I remember at one time even kales and tomatoes that were traditionally readily available in the markets suddenly became a luxury. They form a key component in our meals because they are cheap. When we couldn’t afford them because prices had more than tripled my friends and I decided to do something about it,” said Jamleck.

Eunice Kinya from the Ministry of Agriculture argues that going by the soaring demand for food that cannot match what farmers produce, the law of the jungle is forced to apply in cities. “As a government we are working with especially people in slum areas to adopt these smart ways of feeding and sustaining themselves because this is one constituency that if not taken care of could trigger violence and social upheaval in our city,” she added.

Because of the close proximity of the shanties to each other, no meaningful farming can take place in the slums. But Jamleck, teaming up with his four friends after getting tired of looking for elusive jobs, knew they had to somehow produce food.

A friend sold them the idea of stuffing sacks with soil and planting crops in them. And they did. The sacks are filled with soil mixed with manure to the brim. Holes are then perforated on the sides where crops are planted. Most of the structures in the slum are as small as 10 by 10 metres, the size of a typical African toilet.

Timothy’s is a three times bigger, and he has now managed to meticulously arrange 10 sacks where he plants coriander, kale, tomatoes and onions. “I have been doing this for the last four years and since I started I have saved up to 60 per cent of the budget I used to spend on food. I even manage to sell to my neighbours because I produce more than my family can consume,” added Zachary Mutiso a friend of Jamleck who is now able to grow enough for his young family, his wife Purity and a two year old son.

Kilometers away in the neighbouring Korogocho slums, a group of women led by their patron Mrs. Dorothy Ahinga have been on a food production spree courting the most unlikely medium; discarded tyres.

They are in partnership with mechanics who sell them the old tyres for $0.40 each. They then surgically cut the sidewall of the upperside completely to increase the planting area. The tyres are then filled with compost manure before planting happens. In majority of the women households, tyres are neatly arranged to occupy every empty space like balconies with others being placed on the rooftops of the shanties.

“Already we have 40 women who have taken up this practice. It means they are able to take care of their families and we have also started a scheme where each woman then brings their surplus, we combine them and source for markets. Right now we are able to supply to local schools and hotels. On average, each woman is able to take home US $40 each month from the sale, money which traditionally would be hard to come by,” Dorothy said.

Prof. Milton Wafula a policy scientist working with BridgeNet an agricultural think tank argues that the newfound way of the urban poor feeding themselves could provide vital lessons on how to manage other biting problems facing African cities.

“For millions coming to cities in search of jobs, their first stop is at these slums where life is bearable and cheap. If we can harness affordable and innovative ways of making life dignified for the dwellers of informal settlements, for example through improved sanitation and housing, then African cities will have sorted out their messes and it is possible to co-exist,” he added.

But beyond being city dwellers’ silver bullet against food insecurity, the innovative gardens have contributed a big deal to the nutrition of children coming at a time when reports by the World Food Programme indicate that slum dwellers in Kenya’s capital Nairobi suffer some of the poorest nutrition of all Kenyans.

“I don’t see myself buying food in a long time, and I am happy about it, thanks to my small gardens, because with the growing population in the cities and the unpredictable food prices, it is bound to get worse in coming years,” said Jamleck.