Plans are underway to convert the Michuki Memorial Park into a slum that will offer affordable housing to students from the neighboring University of Nairobi.
According to a design by the University’s School of Built Environment, the Park will host more than 16,000 shanties that can potentially host 48,000 students, bringing the much-needed accommodation to UoN students. It will also increase the student capacity at the University, which means more revenue to the University in terms of school fees.
Michuki Park to Michuki Slum
“The Park is the ideal place to create a slum for the students.” Said the University Vice Chancellor Prof Stephen Kiama. “It is a valley – you know slums starts in valleys, and there is a river nearby. This will make (human) waste disposal easy. The poor will no longer complain that they cannot afford to study at the great University of Nairobi.”
Many students have found themselves unable to afford accommodation inside the University, and definitely cannot afford hostels in Ngara. The only option is to travel to slums far from the university, hence the need for a slum right next to the University.
While some people raised concerns about destroying the legacy of the late John Michuki by converting the Michuki Memorial Park into a slum, experts argued that it is okay to forget the legacy, same way that people forgot the Michuki rules.
Youth Empowerment
The slum is also set to open up a number of new business opportunities for young people within the city. “We will have water vendors, informal landlords, security gangs and drug peddlers operating within the new slums. Extortion gangs can also set up camp in the slums, as well as commercial sex workers. These will serve both the slums and the wider CBD as well.”
The Association of Muggers, Pickpockets and Thugs (AMPiT) also welcomed the idea, saying that a new slum will see their year over year growth rise by over 25.2%.
The University of Nairobi recently increased the accommodation charges to Sh21,525 per semester, up from Sh3,150.
