Transforming the Nairobi River River.pdf

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Transforming the Nairobi
Transforming the Nairobi
River
River
A case study of grassroots placemaking to reclaim socio-spatial
justice
Ami Joshi, Mohammadreza Movahedi, Stine Kronsted | AAR5270 | Group Assignment spring 2023

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INTRODUCTION
Urban rivers have significant roles in the life,
imagination and ecology of the city it runs
through. They are images that contributes
to the formation of the identity of the city.
They are public spaces that are open for
interpretation among its citizens. They are
natural environments whose condition are
integral to the ecological state of the city.
In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, three major
rivers run through the city; the Nairobi River,
the Mathare River and the Ngong River. The
name of the city comes from the Masai phrase
enkare nairobi which translates to the place of
cool waters (Nairobi.go.ke, 2013). Previously,
the rivers were healthy and clean, allowing
the Nairobians to swim in, wash and cook
with the water. However, industrialisation and
uncontrolled urban growth has pressured the
ecological system to a degree where the river
today is heavily polluted with human, medical
and industrial wastes.
It is estimated that more than 60% of
Nairobians live in low-income, informal
settlements (Kamunyori, S.W., 2019) . Many
of these settlements are situated along the
Nairobi River, making them vulnerable to the
health hazards arising from the polluted water.
The situation has been further exacerbated
by the effects of climate change. The
accumulation of ecological vulnerabilities and
the socio-spatial marginalisation leaves the
riverbank communities with lack of social and
environmental justice.
While waiting for the government to take
action in the process of river restoration,
grassroots initiatives are appearing along the
banks. One of such cases is Komb Green,
a youth-led public space initiative in the
community of Korogocho in eastern Nairobi.
Komb Green has transformed a dumpsite
along the river into a recreational park and a
flood-barrier for the community. Alongside
the physical transformation, they facilitate
river clean-ups, training in urban gardening
and counselling for young people involved in
crime. Komb Green exemplifies how public
space transformation can be a catalyst for both
physical and social transformation. At the same
time, the transformation becomes a part of
putting the community on the map, advocating
for the right to the city for everyone in
Nairobi.
This paper is a case study of the space
transformation in Korogocho, along the
Nairobi River, facilitated by Komb Green. It is
undertaken with the aim of interrogating:
How can bottom-up placemaking
processes be a tool for advocacy of
socio-spatial justice in urban river
regeneration?
First, it introduces the case and the process
through which the initiative has come into
being, the Changing Faces Competition. Then
it gives an overview of Korogocho, before it
moves on to a discussion about gamification
and the sustainability of this model. Finally,
it discusses top-down versus bottom-up
processes in urban development.
To get closer to answering the research
question, the paper includes interviews with
three people from organisations that have
been actively involved in the Nairobi River
restoration; Christopher Waithaka, Co-
Founder of Komb Green, Annabel Nyole,
former Programme Manager from Public
Space Network, and Simon Sticker, Head of
Communications from Dreamtown.
Fig.1- Front cover. Komb Green in action.
KENYA
ETHIOPIA
SOMALIA
SUDAN
UGANDA
TANZANIA
NAIROBI
INDIAN OCEAN
Ngong River
Nairobi River
Mathare River Dandora
Sewage Plant
100 KM
1:300.000
Fig.2 - Map of the Nairobi county and its major rivers
Korogocho

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The right to the city
This case study takes a position along the
theories of David Harvey (2008) and the right
to the city. The right to the city, Harvey argues,
is “a common rather than an individual right
since this transformation inevitably depends
on the exercise of a collective power to
reshape the process of urbanisation” (p. 1) He
identifies a lack of participation of marginalised
communities in city making processes, and
that urban development is often favouring
high-income groups. His work explains that
city transformations historically have been
state-driven processes with a capitalist agenda,
which consequently leave out those who do
not have privileges. Grassroots movements,
we argue, can be seen as a means to exercise
the right to be in, imagine, and collectively
reshape the city. The following case is selected
based on this argument. We take the position
of acknowledging the value of bottom-up
approaches to the production of space in cities
as a means of democratising the process of
urbanisation. Urban transition for socio-spatial
justice entails bringing forward the voices
of those who are not usually heard in the
production of the city - not as invitations or
tokenism, but as genuine co-production.
Fig.3 - Nairobi River
Fig.4 - A view over Korogocho

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Komb Green is a youth movement from
Korogocho, a low-income settlement situated
along the Nairobi River in the eastern part
of Nairobi. Originally, the movement grew
as a reaction to the high rates of crime in
the community. When one of the founders,
Christopher Waithaka, (fig. 6) lost his
brother to a gang-related shooting, he decided
that he wanted things to change. Waithaka
gathered a group of idle, young people from
the community, and started to clean a space
situated along the river. In an interview, he
says: This land was a dump site. We wanted to
transform it and make it a better place where we
could spend time instead of roaming around in
the village where there are no clean spaces.
In Korogocho, the wastes from the Central
Business District end up on the banks of
the river. The flow of the river carries the
environmental disregard from industrial and
commercial activities from the high-income
areas, to the low-income settlements, thus
becoming symptomatic of the socio-spatial
and ecological injustice in the city. At first, the
group spent a year removing waste from the
site. They started a tree nursery and planted
bamboo to mitigate erosion of the banks.
Incrementally, they built spaces for community
meetings, toilets, a vegetable garden and a
playground. About the process, Waithaka
describes: We get up early in the morning. Most
of us don’t have jobs. Our main focus is to sustain
the Komb Green solutions park. We have to work
with the soil, change the flowers, and remove
garbage.
As the public space changed, so did the
community. Waithaka describes that the
young people involved in Komb Green found
meaning in creating a positive impact in their
neighbourhood. Many of the men were
involved in gang-related crime, and many of the
women were working in the sex industry. The
young people had a reputation of spreading
fear in the area. Now, they are inspiring other
young people to take responsibility in their
community. Since the actualisation of the
project, Waithaka explains that the drug abuse
in the community has decreased. Now, the
young people who were previously related
to gang violence have taken an active stance
against these activities. Instead, they host
training in urban gardening, landscaping for
flood protection, and teach organisational
capacity building for youth mobilisation.
Waithaka says: Now that we have planted trees
and grasses, we see this become a better place.
People come to study our space saying they want
to do the same. So we know we have created a
change. We are going to show the community
that what they thought would never change is
actually possible to change.
The space is now a park that is open for the
community to use. There are shaded areas
where women meet with their small children.
There is a pathway where people can take a
stroll. There are open areas for young people
to meet. In a community where there is limited
open space, the park is a green oasis with
shade and cooling from the plants. Additionally,
there is a space to host community meetings,
which is now facilitated every month. Waithaka
describes that These dialogues are a part
of creating a good relationship with the
community. We talk about safety, gender-
based violence, garbage management, and
capacity building of the youth who would want
to be involved in Komb Green.
The challenge with the space is sustainability. It
grew as a grassroots initiative with no support
from the government, so the youth depend
on their motivation as a group to maintain
the space. However, Waithaka describes that
we are driven by sustaining our river. Even when
we don’t have support from the government it is
our passion to give back to the planet. We see
climate change, we see the seasons are changing,
so we want to join hands and ensure a future
for the coming generation. And I’m happy if the
future generation will not live the life I used to live.
See Waithaka presenting the transformation
of the space and of his community, in the
video here: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=rgyxrXYoWhY
THE CASE
Fig.5 - Sign at the entrance of the park
Fig.7 - Community space in the park
Fig.9 - Members of Komb Green standing by their home-
made ‘trash-cran’
Fig.6 - Christopher Waithaka, co-founder of Komb Green
Fig.8 - Green, recreational path along the river
Fig.10 - Young women working in the garden

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CHANGING THE FACE OF NAIROBI
While the Komb Green Solutions was a
grassroots initiative, driven by the motivation
of a group of young people, the movement
gained momentum as they became a part of,
and won, the Changing Faces Competition
in 2018. The competition was facilitated
by the Public Space Network (PSN), a
non-profit association working on linking
community groups with key stakeholders
to facilitate inclusive, people-driven public
space transformation across Nairobi. The
competition was a platform to mobilise
community groups to change the face of their
environment through public space initiatives.
Any group registered by the government
could participate. The groups had to identify
a neglected public space in their community
that they wanted to transform, and they
crowdsourced the funds for the process.
Between 2014 and 2017, the project was
piloted in Dandora, the neighbouring area to
Korogocho and also a low-income community.
See a video about the project here. The
competition mobilised more than 3000 young
people, and transformed 120 public spaces in
the community. In 2018, the competition was
scaled to city-level (Tehlova 2019). This was
when Komb Green won the competition. Read
more here.
According to Cain & Midi (2017), “urban social
movements are emerging” (p. 2) in African
cities, and the competition grew out of an
acknowledgement of the many grassroots
initiatives appearing across the city. Tehlova
(2019) identifies the emergence of public
space transformation at grassroots level, as a
response to the lack of governmental capacity
to ensure quality public spaces. Community
groups are coming together to transform
neglected spaces, and reclaim the right to
the city. The grassroots driven public space
transformations can be seen as a means for
people to collectively exercise their right to the
production of space (Carson, 2018).
Interventions ranged from graffiti and wall
art providing messages about social issues, to
sports fields, green spaces and playgrounds.
However impactful at the local level, PSN
identified a lack of coherence and collaboration
across the diverse initiatives. The competition
sought to raise awareness about the diversity
of the grassroots initiatives, as well as the value
of public space for the wellbeing of people
in the city. It was a means of engaging public
authorities while at the same time building a
bottom-up pressure towards the government’s
management of the public spaces of the city
(Tehlova, 2019).
Annabel Nyole, former Programme Manager
from PSN says: The competition was successful
in engaging so many young people from the
communities across Nairobi, also the ones with
a more challenged background. The youth
showed agency and took responsibility for the
transformation of spaces in their community that
were neglected. We saw many innovative ideas
and it was very powerful to be able to showcase
to the authorities that the young people had this
energy and capacity.
Capacity building
Traning of teams
Actualization
Identifying stakeholders
1-1 meetings with stakeholders
Consensus building with
community
Co-design workshops with
representatives
youth+stakeholders+community
1. 2. 3. 4.
Fig.11 - The process flow of the Changing Faces Competition.
Fig.12 - Team Believers from Dandora
Fig.14 - Prize award for the best public space transformation
Fig.13 - Team Mustard Seed - one of the first winners

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Korogocho
Green area
Industrial area
Military area
Major roads
Minor roads
Water
Dreamtown project communities
1:50.000 N
Nairobi National Park
Central Business District
Flow direction
Mathare River
Ngong River
Nairobi River
Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport
Fig.15 - Nairobi

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KOROGOCHO
Korogocho is a low-income settlement in the
Eastern part of Nairobi. It covers 1,5 square
kilometres, nestled in between the Nairobi
River and the Mathare River. It borders the
communities of Lucky Summer, Kariobangi and
Dandora, including the Dandora dumpsite, the
largest dumping ground in Nairobi.
The area was inhabited in the 1960’s by quarry
workers. Through the 1980s, the population
increased drastically, as informal dwellers from
the central city were evicted and moved to
the outskirts of the city. Thus, the area can
be characterised as an informal settlement,
and the majority of the land is officially owned
by the government. However, there is an
ongoing dispute between the community and
the government, as residents claim that the
land was assigned to them during a political
campaign in 2001 (Juma & Chiti, 2010).
In Swahili, Korogocho means crowded
shoulder to shoulder (AfricaNews, 2022). In
2008, the population was estimated to be
between 30,000 and 40,000. Today, however,
the number can be assumed to be higher
(Juma & Chiti, 2010). The area consists
mainly of substandard housing where five
or more people share a single-room unit.
There is limited access to basic services
such as electricity, water, sanitation and
healthcare. There are low levels of education
and livelihood opportunities, especially
among young people. Crime levels are high,
particularly related to gang activities and
substance abuse (Burugu, 2015).
There have been efforts to improve living
conditions in the community. In 2008, the
Korogocho Slum Upgrading Programme was
initiated as a collaboration between the Italian
and Kenyan governments respectively, with
technical assistance from the UN-Habitat.
Efforts were made to improve the physical
infrastructure, housing conditions and access
to services. However, the programme
encountered resistance from the residents,
as there was a widespread mistrust in the
authorities. The contested land-ownership in
the community complicated the process of
upgrading. The tenants feared that their ‘right’
to reside would be altered during the process.
Additionally, there was a fear among residents
that improvements of the housing and
infrastructure would lead to increase in rents,
and eventually, cause eviction of low-income
groups (Buguru, 2015).
The 2008 Slum Upgrading Programme is
analysed by Buguru (2015) as an example of
top-down urban development. This can be a
part of explaining the reluctance among the
inhabitants to collaborate during the process.
To compare, the Komb Green process has
grown out of a lack of government initiative.
Instead of waiting for the authorities to take
responsibility for the deterioration of the
urban environment, the residents have taken
action themselves. This may explain the success
of the project, as the grassroots process can
foster a sense of ownership, increasing the
willingness to sustain the space, and reclaim
the right to define how the city should be
reshaped.
RECLAIMING THE RIGHT TO THE CITY
The Changing Faces Competition can be seen
as a part of a process of people reclaiming
public spaces as a common experience in the
city. Urbanisation processes have led to an
increase in the inequalities in investment in
public spaces in all parts of the city. Particularly,
low-income communities experience reduced
access to open and developed public spaces.
In African cities, including Nairobi, these
differences are clearly highlighted with
disparities in the scale, quality and investment
in public spaces in different parts of the city.
Development of selected parts of the city has
neglected other parts, leading to a condition
of unplanned settlements with high population
density. This is also related to a high rate of
deterioration of green spaces. Corruption,
bureaucracy, financial constraints and
insufficient or outdated regulations, leaves little
room for preservation of green spaces and in
the city where the rate of urbanisation is high.
(Mensah, 2014).
Looking at the map of Nairobi, there is a
clear disparity in green coverage between the
eastern and western part of the city. While the
city used to be known as ‘the green city in the
sun’, with access to forests and national parks,
this is today largely limited to the wealthier,
western part of the city. This also goes for
access to public space. With the majority of
large, public spaces being in the western city,
the small, open spaces in eastern Nairobi
tend to be neglected and used as dumpsites
(Tehlova, 2019).
In 2015, United Cities and Local Governments
defined public space access for all as a potential
to become a key generator of socio-economic
growth, advocating for the presence of small
and large-scale public spaces for daily use of
all urban dwellers. Who gets to define these
spaces, however, is critical. In Nairobi, for
example, some spaces, such as the National
Park, have an entrance fee. Other spaces,
such as the John Michuki Park, have opening
hours and require registration upon entry.
Such spaces can be said to be shaped by, and
for, a limited segment of the citizens, and for
a particular use and lifestyle that is associated
with middle- and high income groups.
In his work, The Right to the City, Harvey
(2008) writes, “The right to the city is
far more than the individual liberty
to access urban resources: it is a right
to change ourselves by changing the
city” (p. 1). According to this, reclaiming
space is more than reclaiming access. It is
also reclaiming the right to shape urban space
according to the individual and collective
needs and desires. In this sense, the Changing
Faces Competition can be seen as an attempt
to mobilise citizens through a bottom-up
approach, to change, physically, their city. In
doing this, they become a part of a larger
process of people, who are not usually a part
of the urban development process, reclaiming
their right to challenge the status quo by raising
a voice in how the city should be formed.
Fig.16 - right. Aerial map of Nairobi from Google

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GAMIFICATION: CHANGING FACES COMPETITION
The Changing Faces Competition can be seen
as a part of a movement of people claiming
public space access, as well as access to shape
space, in informal and low-income settlements
across African cities (Cain and Midi, 2017).
As mentioned previously, there were nascent
attempts to transform public spaces in several
informal and low-income communities across
Nairobi, such as Korogocho, Kamakunji,
Kayole and Dandora. The Changing Faces
Competition was an important step in building
momentum to the budding but isolated
grassroots movements. The method used in
the competition is described by Tehlova (2019)
as gamification. Gamification can be defined as
‘’the process of adding games or game-
like elements to something (such as a
task) so as to encourage participation’’
(Merriam-webster.com, 2023). The approach
was intended to engage citizens, and
particularly young people, through a fun,
innovative and experimental process. The
right to space in cities can be a highly political
question, particularly in informal and low-
income communities. Through the gamification
approach, the placemaking process becomes
more accessible for citizens to participate
(Tehlova, 2019).
The approach was successful in bringing
different communities together to learn
from one another, but was also an advocacy
tool to increase awareness among the local
governments about the infringements of
the rights of the people of the low-income
settlements. The competitions encouraged
citizens who are usually excluded from urban
decision-making processes, to learn, share
ideas, collaborate and most importantly,
become aware of their rights to the city.
Through a fun and playful process, young
people were empowered to change the face
of their neighbourhoods and transform their
mindset to one of responsible, accountable
community members who take ownership
for the spaces in which they live , making it
possible for them to demand accountability
from the local and state governments in
return. The act of building a public space with
members of the community was instrumental
in allowing the people to see the potential they
held, the work they were capable of doing and
the influence it had on the lives of the people
around them (Ibid).
Through the competitions, several initiatives
have been successful in changing the social
and physical fabric of public spaces, as
well as building an economy around the
transformation through crowdsourcing and
investments from land- and business owners.
The engagement of multiple stakeholders,
including architects, planners, corporate
offices and local government representatives,
has raised the awareness about the benefits
and potentials of bottom-up processes in
providing city-wide socio-spatial justice.
The competitions have acted as a catalyst
for creating a framework of cooperation
of diverse stakeholders to challenge the
fragmented urban pattern of the city by
creating a network of multifunctional vibrant
public spaces (Ibid.).
The competition was an important step in
the formation of youth groups, as well as
strengthening the existing ones. As mentioned,
the Komb Green was already in the process
of transforming the riverbank in Korogocho,
when they participated in the competition in
2018. Winning the competition strengthened
their organisational capacity, and increased
their advocacy outreach in Korogocho as well
as beyond the community, by making city-wide
stakeholders aware of the process that they
were undertaking. In the following section,
we zoom in on what happens in the process
of creating space in the city from a grassroots
perspective. Fig.17 - Street beaufitication for the Changing Faces Competition
Changing Faces Competition
| The Journal of Public Space, 4(3), 2019 | ISSN 2206-9658
City Space Architecture / UN-Habitat
84

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THE PROCESS OF PUBLIC SPACE DESIGN
The Komb Green space transformation in
Korogocho is an example of how public space
design opens up the opportunity to gain
knowledge and experience from the process
of placemaking. This means looking beyond
the ‘placeness’ of public space and seeing the
production of space as a part of a larger social
transformation.
Copenhagen-based NGO, Dreamtown, is
particularly interested in public space as a
catalyst for transformation at multiple scales.
As a collaborating partner in the Changing
Faces Competition, the organisation worked
with Komb Green in consolidating their process
of the space transformation. They collaborated
around activities like community mapping,
design conceptualisation, budget management,
communicating with stakeholders, contractors,
and the larger community. While the public
space has value in itself, providing a green,
recreational meeting space for the community,
as well as environmental protection, the
process of creating the space has enabled
the young members of Komb Green to build
their capacity as a group and as individuals.
These are competencies that remain with
them regardless of the character of their
intervention. They will take these capabilities
with them after the project is finished.
About the process, Simon Sticker, Head of
Communications for Dreamtown, says: The
process has created a positive change at multiple
scales. From the individual scale, where a young
person experience meaning and empowerment by
being involved in the transformation of the space,
to the community scale, where they experience
a change of narrative from being a deprived
neighbourhood to being a place where people
visit, photograph, write about, and look up to, to
the city scale, where young people across multiple
low-income communities advocate for their
right to be regarded as important actors in the
collective creation of the city.
As winners of the Changing Faces
Competition, Komb Green gained a
lot of public attention as a ‘best case’
example of youth-led community
transformation (see this: or this:). The other
participating groups as well as groups from
the surrounding community visited the space
to learn from their model. Komb Green hosts
workshops for groups that are less established,
training them in both organisational capacities
and practical landscaping skills. As a result
of this, there has been a ripple effect of
space transformations in the low-income
communities along the rivers in Nairobi. Youth
groups such as Mizingira, Bridge Shakers.
Koch Hope Vert Ravive, L.E.W.M.O,
located in other parts of Korogocho (see map
on next page), have commenced a green space
transformation along the river, based on the
Komb Green Model.
Flow direction
Korogocho
Mathare River
Nairobi River
Towards CBD
Dandora
Komb Green
Koch Hope
Migingo
Greener Life
Village Group
Bridge Shakers
New space
1:10000
Fig.18 - Map of Korogocho showing Komb Green
and other projects inspired by their work.

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SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MODEL: LIMITATIONS
Changing Faces Competition has been a
catalyst in fostering the feeling of collective
responsibility and ownership and the coming
together of residents of informal and low-
income neighbourhoods across Nairobi.
However, the model does not come without
limitations. Grassroots movements are a key
in bringing forward the inequalities and lack
of rights as experienced by different groups
of people in cities. Community-led initiatives
are important in spreading awareness about
the rights of the people, creating short and
mid-term socio- economic and socio-spatial
changes. These movements, though, have
proven to be challenged in the long-term
perspective (Mulligan et al., 2020)
First, many projects that have evolved through
the competition are developed on land that
is not owned by the community. This results
in limitations to the communities’ willingness
to invest time and money in the spaces, since
there is a risk that the owner of the land will
either reclaim the land or increase the rent,
as the space becomes more attractive (Ibid.).
Secondly, the format is based on one-off
grants, donated on a project basis, rather than
through long-term funding mechanisms. This
has implications for the building of capacity
at the local level, as well as the willingness of
external agencies to support and collaborate
with the projects. Capacity building is the
key to local innovations, and co-learning
processes within communities goes a long way
in determining the success of community-led
initiatives. Innovations and idea sharing, not just
locally, but also across different stakeholder
groups is essential for long-term success and
sustainability of the model, and essential to this
is long-term presence of funding (Ibid.).
In spite of the short-term funding model, there
are high expectations from the communities
every year that the competitions will lead to
long-term transformation, especially with the
participation of the UN-Habitat. As the format
does not include long-term transformation per
se, a consequence may be that the unfulfilled
expectations will lead to unwillingness to
participate and mistrust in the process, says
Nyole from PSN. Additionally, Nyole, who
has facilitated several competitions, says The
competition format is built around an award with
monetary prizes, the groups are focused on these
aspects, and whether or not they receive a prize,
their motivation falls after the award. This leads
to neglect of the transformed spaces after the
competitions are over, as they have no incentives
to maintain the spaces.
Another challenge mentioned by PSN is the
participating teams’ capacity to sustain their
momentum. In the beginning, the teams
are highly motivated and willing to invest
a lot in the projects. Over time, they face
challenges in the organisational structure,
conflict management, as well as motivation to
continue. Nyole mentions that only few groups
last after the competition, and these are the
ones with particularly visionary leaders who
hold the motivation even when team members
fall off. Also, the groups have different starting
points, as some, like Komb Green, have been
working on a space for a long time before the
competitions, whereas others have only just
been founded upon participation. This, Nyole
mentions, has caused disputes over the fairness
of the awards and the participation of certain
groups.
Fig.19 - above right. Community action to clean the river.
Fig.20 - below right. Playground created by Komb Green

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The Changing Faces Competition has been
one of many attempts to clean the rivers in
Nairobi. In 2021, a major project, the ‘Nairobi
River Life Project’ was signed between the
Kenyan government, the New Metropolitan
Service (NMS) with technical assistance from
UN-Habitat, with the aim of “reclaiming
Nairobi River as a shared public asset”
(Unhabitat.org, 2021). At the opening
ceremony, the Executive Director of UN-
Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, said ‘’I believe
in top-bottom. I also believe in bottom-up
and convergence of ideas in the middle. If
there is only top-bottom, bottom-up won’t
work. If there is only bottom-up, there is no
leadership’’ (Ibid.).
The competition was a part of the opening
ceremony of the Nairobi River Life Project, to
represent the inclusion and acknowledgement
of the grassroots level in the urban
transformation initiative. The Memorandum
of Understanding was signed, but Nyole
from PSN, who has followed the process
closely, describes that there was a lack of joint
intention from the beginning of the process,
between the different stakeholders. With the
NMS ending its formal tenure after the election
in 2022, the Nairobi River Life ended up as
merely an advocacy initiative, with limited
tangible action on the ground, she says. Thus,
with the Changing Faces Competition, Komb
Green, and the Nairobi River Life project
taking place simultaneously, having remarkably
different outcomes, they can be used to
understand the interlinkage between top-down
and bottom-up processes.
Komb Green is a poster project that showcases
the benefits of grassroots movements while
also highlighting the shortfalls that do not
allow the movement to reach its full potential.
Grassroot movements have the capacity to
allow marginalised communities to reclaim
their rights to the city and promote localised,
collective development. However, these
initiatives cannot function and thrive in isolation
without the presence and continued support
of top-down approaches that give platforms
for sustained long term collective action.
While bottom-up processes have the
opportunity to respond rapidly and
contextually to pressing issues, they have
limitations related to long-term engagement,
access to land and sustainable funding. Top
down processes, on the other hand, have
the advantage of secure tenancy, as well as
substantial, long term funding. It is known that
state-led processes are bureaucratic, slow and
potentially face political obstacles. There are
advantages and limitations to both processes,
but maybe Mohd-Sharif is on the right track,
when she talks about ‘’convergence of
ideas in the middle’’?
This discussion explores the gaps in the current
dynamics referring to the work of Carson
(2018) titled Citizen Spaces: Reclaiming the
Right to the City. The parameters of this
discussion are the four axes of participation:
tenancy rights, perspectives of the organisers
of the movement, duration and timeline of the
projects, and the outcomes and impacts that
the projects elicit in the community. Carson
(2018) draws connections between availability
of safe tenancy to top-down planning
initiatives, stating that state-driven initiatives
ensure and validate the tenancy rights of the
people. In contrast, grassroots initiatives are
often taking place in spaces that have insecurity
about land rights and tenancy. In such contexts,
collective movements become a medium to
garner community support in the effort to
claim spatial justice and reclaim rights to the
city. Such processes challenge the status quo
of public space design processes as undertaken
by the state or corporate interest groups.
Carson (2018) claims that top-down processes
can be politically motivated or for corporate
gains as they carry a pseudo-participatory
TOP-DOWN OR BOTTOM-UP - IS THERE A MIDDLE WAY? process to carry a false sense of engagement.
In reality, these projects are often not what
the community needs or wants; in some cases,
the access to such spaces is restricted, bringing
questions on the nature of the publicness of
the space.
Placemaking projects led by communities
are an integral part of the process of public
awareness and forming social bonds and
interactions within communities. According
to Carson (2018), these projects empower
the community and lead them from being
oppressed to a space where they can take
initiatives to demand for socio-spatial justice.
Korogocho has been in the transition between
oppressed and empowered since the time
the people took charge of creating public
spaces that they desire. Site transformation
projects have led to the overall progress of
the community and a stark change in the social
fabric of the neighbourhood. However, site
transformation processes, as Carson argues,
require physical and programmatic changes
that take place over a long period of time,
with security of land tenancy and rights to the
city. The settlement of Korogocho, though
working collectively on transforming the
neighbourhood, will not achieve desired results
unless there is a sufficient availability of expert
support, security of funding that comes steadily
over a long period of time and lastly, a voice
that is heard in decision making processes
along the urban rivers of African cities, in
general, and River Nairobi, in particular.
As explained in the section about Korogocho,
there is a widespread mistrust in the
community towards the authorities. This
mistrust also permeates the river rehabilitation
process. Through interviews with Komb
Green and PSN, it was explained that the
communities fear that the river regeneration
will lead to an increase in the cost of land,
potentially leading to gentrification, which,
ultimately, can cause eviction of the informal
settlements along the river. Mutual trust as well
as consideration for the socio-spatial dynamics
following the river rehabilitation process,
will have to be accounted for, to ensure a
sustainable urban transition - of the river and
of the city.
It can be said that the initiatives undertaken
by the PSN, people of Korogocho and all
other participants and stakeholders of the
Changing Faces Competition are successful
steps in the short and mid-term process of
reclaiming the rights to the city. However, the
long term sustainability of these processes
need to be addressed. It will be interesting
to follow the processes of grassroots-led
space transformation, emerging simultaneous
to the city-wide, government-led river
regeneration process. If the grassroots manage
to consolidate their activities along the river,
the community-led space transformations
have the potential to form a strong advocacy
movement for the inclusion of the low-income
communities in the larger river regeneration
process.
Fig.21 - Analysis of Komb Green through the participation
parameters (Carson, 2018)
Fig.22 - The time and space of intervention to achieve the
middle way
safe
threatened
time
the middle-way
top-down
grassroots
impact
oppressed
empowered
top-down
transformation
grassroots
intervention

21 22
Rapid urbanisation in African cities pressures
socio-spatial justice, questioning who gets the
right to reside in and give form to the city.
With the lack of sustainable and strategic
urban planning and a constant struggle for land,
socio-ecological resources, like the Nairobi
River, are under significant pressure. As a
result, green infrastructure across African cities
in general, and in Nairobi in particular, is in a
state of deterioration.
The Nairobi River and its current ecological
condition raises questions regarding the future
development of the city. It is an opportunity
to facilitate city-wide upgradation with the
inclusion of inhabitants of low-income and
informal neighbourhoods along the riverbank.
However, it is also a chance to develop the
riverbanks by attracting more investment,
which is likely to bring about gentrification,
pushing out the less privileged citizens.
Sustainable and just urban planning in this
context is challenging, and it is crucial to ask -
who gets to make the decisions?
In this paper, we have investigated the bottom-
up movements near the Nairobi river. The
Komb Green public space transformation
along the river is one of many grassroots
initiatives that are appearing across African
cities, as a part of reclaiming the right to the
city for people in marginalised urban areas.
Such projects inherently have a transformative
value by engaging people who are usually left
behind in urban decision-making processes.
From this standpoint, we have discussed that
while grassroot projects are useful in creating
short- and mid-term socio-spatial and socio-
economic changes, they are challenged in the
long-term perspective. They are challenged in
the coordination and collaboration between
different stakeholders. Furthermore, there is a
lack of effective policies for safe tenancy, and
finally, they lack sustainable funding.
The Changing Faces Competition has sought
to form a momentum around the multiple
grassroots initiatives across Nairobi. By giving
a platform to connect the fragmented urban
initiatives, they have been able to create a
space for knowledge-sharing and advocacy
towards the authorities. The platform is a
demand for claiming socio-spatial justice,
showing how people in informal and low-
income communities have the right to have a
voice in urban decision-making. To compare
governmental initiatives to facilitate access to
public space across the city, and specifically
initiatives to rehabilitate the ecological
state of the river, have been slow, if not
completely absent. The two processes of
urban development are happening at different
scales, and at different paces. Some processes
are better suited for grassroots action, while
others require governmental, city-wide
initiative. Through this case study we have
identified a need to explore the “in-between”
approach which considers balanced bottom-up
and the top-down processes.
In conclusion, this case study has been
exploring how bottom-up placemaking
processes can be a responsive
and effective tool for advocacy of
socio-spatial justice in urban river
regeneration. The study highlights a
need to acknowledge the grassroots
level, as this is the fundamental
expression of the right to give form
to the city, and ultimately the right to
be in the city. As grassroots initiatives
can not stand alone, there is a need
for a framework for the long-term
perspective, ensuring sustainability and
socio-spatial and environmental justice
in urban development.
CONCLUSION REFERENCES
- AfricaNews (2022). The worsening living conditions in
Korogocho, one of the largest slums in Kenya. Africanews.
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worsening-living-conditions-in-korogocho-one-of-the-
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- Burugu, D., 2015. Conflict in slum upgrading programme
a case study of Korogocho slum in Nairobi, Doctoral
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the City”, Global Platform for the Right to the City. URL:
http://www.righttothecityplatform.org.br/african-
struggles-for-the-right-to-the-city. Accessed 11.05.23
- Carson, J. (2018). “Citizen Spaces, Experiments in
Reclaiming the Right to the City”, Emily Carr University
of Art + Design, available at: https://designawards.
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system to kick start citywide regeneration | UN-Habitat. URL:
https://unhabitat.org/news/14-jul-2021/restoration-
of-the-nairobi-river-system-to-kick-start-citywide-
regeneration, accessed 06.05.23
- UCLG (2015), “Challenges and opportunities of public
space as a generator of growth in African Cities”, URL:
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LIST OF FIGURES
Fig.1- Photo: Simon Sticker
Fig.2 - Author’s work
Fig.3 - Photo: Simon Sticker
Fig.5 - Photo: author
Fig.12 - Tehlova (2019)
Fig. 15 - Author’s work
Fig.16 - Google maps
Fig. 23 - Photo: Simon Sticker
Fig.23 - Nairobi River

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