Flooding and demolitions in Kenya

Mathare, Kenya, after the floods and demolitions.

Flooding in Nairobi

In 2024, Kenya experienced massive floods as a result of El Niño, leading to more than 200 people losing their lives. Some of the areas most severely affected were the informal settlements in Nairobi, located along the banks of the rivers flowing through the city.

When the water came, no one was expecting it. It came in the middle of the night, so fast that people had to run for their lives and leave everything behind.

Bents Kabingi on the remains of her house.

Bents Kabingi had never experienced anything like this before. Thinking back, she says: "If I close my eyes, all I can remember are the sounds of the river. Every time I try to sleep, I just feel the sound of the river. I just feel the way the houses are moving. The way they are cracking when they are swept away by the water. I see how the people are removed from the water. It is very difficult for me to forget.”

Evictions and Demolitions

After the floods, the Government of Kenya urged people living in flood-prone areas to evacuate their homes and move to safer grounds. What people didn’t know was that massive demolitions would soon be carried out within a 30-meter buffer zone along the river. This meant that close to 120,000 people would lose their homes. Since most of the people were given no notice or warning about the demolitions, they lost all their belongings to the bulldozers.

The destruction can only be described as something seen in pictures of war zones. It’s so massive and continuous for many kilometers along the river. At every step, you see people's belongings—carpets that were once the floor of a house, ID cards, teddy bears, and small items destroyed during the demolitions.

Kenya currently faces a humanitarian crisis and severe human rights violations. Many people affected by the floods, or even more by the evictions, are still without homes, belongings, and livelihoods.

Dreamtown’s Response to the Emergency Situation

The community park in Mathare, supported by Dreamtown, survived the demolitions.

Dreamtown works on locally-led climate adaptation across several informal settlements located along the Nairobi rivers. These are some of the communities that have been most affected by the floods and demolitions.

In June 2024, a team from Dreamtown traveled to Nairobi to hear the stories of the people who had been affected by the floods and demolitions in order to understand how best to provide emergency support together with our partners.

Dreamtown currently supports two partners in Nairobi—Mathare Social Justice Centre and Public Space Network—to provide emergency assistance to some of the most vulnerable groups living in the communities of Mathare, Korogocho, and Kamkunji. The support is based on direct cash transfers, enabling people to purchase what they need most, such as food, clothes, building materials, and medicine. The support comes from individual donations collected in Denmark and from the Danish Emergency Relief Fund (DERF).

People’s Stories

The stories that people tell are heartbreaking.

There is Caroline Anyango, who had been sick, making it impossible for her to save any belongings when the bulldozers came to demolish her house.

Single mothers like Olivia Gathoni, sleeping outside with their children at night, are afraid of gangs that roam around or worse that could happen to them. Safety is a big concern for many of them.

Communities Are Organising

Community kitchen run by Mathare Social Justice Centre for the victims of the floods and evictions.

What will the future bring for the affected communities? Currently, local grassroots organizations are mobilizing, organizing, and brainstorming on how they can reclaim the riparian zones that have been demolished into spaces that benefit their communities. For instance, by expanding green public spaces that can both work as protection against potential floods in the future and at the same time provide livelihood opportunities. Dreamtown supports the drive and dreams of the local communities to rebuild their communities.