In the Global South, particularly in Africa, to be born and raised in a poor background is to learn the harshness of life too early. It’s waking up in a cramped, leaking shack and going to bed hungry, with dreams shaped more by survival than ambition. For millions of children and families across the world, especially in informal settlements and slums, poverty is not just about money, it’s about living without dignity, safety, or hope.

On 20 May, 2025, the Kenya president William Ruto presided over the official handover of 1,080 housing units to beneficiaries at Mukuru’s (one of the ballooning slums in the capital) housing project in Embakasi South. Spanning 56 acres and comprising 13,248 housing units, the Mukuru project is a testament to the government’s commitment to providing dignified living spaces for all Kenyans. For decades, the word “development” echoed like a promise in the slums of Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa; hopeful yet hollow. From the time of independence, government after government pledged transformation, yet many Kenyans in informal settlements continued to live in subhuman conditions, the crowded shanties, open sewers, and the stifling stench of poverty.

“I used to watch the city lights from my tin-roof shack and wonder if my children would ever know a home with running water,” says Jane Mwangi, a vegetable vendor in Nairobi’s Mukuru kwa Reuben settlement. It is the unfolding, messy, hopeful journey of a nation that dared to constitutionalise housing, then set about translating lofty political words into brick, mortar, and secure tenure of a house.

The overall approach to affordable housing in Kenya is set out in the Affordable Housing Programme, launched as a policy as part of the current regime’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) of 2023 – 2027, and the former administration’s Big Four Agenda of December 2017. Kenya’s constitutional framework is progressive, even inspirational. The right to housing is grounded in the expansive Bill of Rights and further supported by international instruments like the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Kenya is a party. The Constitution obliges the State not only to respect but to protect, promote, and fulfill socio-economic rights. The Judiciary has also begun to breathe life into this right.

Kenya’s 2010 Constitution did three revolutionary things for housing: Article 43(1)(b) declared the right to “accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation.” Article 21(2) converted the right into a duty, obliging the State to take “legislative, policy and other measures” for progressive realization of Article 43, and Article 20(5) insisted that if resources are meagre, government must still show that “there were no less restrictive means” available.

In Mitu-Bell Welfare Society v Kenya Airports Authority & Others [2021] eKLR, the Supreme Court affirmed that the demolition of informal homes without notice or resettlement violated Article 43. It emphasized that progressive realization does not justify inaction, calling for the State to act within reason to respect socio-economic rights. Additionally, in Ibrahim Sangor Osman v Minister of State for Provincial Administration [2011] eKLR, the court held that the government could not demolish homes without engaging affected communities and offering alternative shelter. It established that mass evictions required human rights impact assessments. Other jurisdictions have similarly protected housing as a human right. In Grootboom v Government of the Republic of South Africa, the Constitutional Court emphasized inclusion of the most vulnerable in housing policies, while Indian courts have expanded Article 21 (Right to Life) to include the right to shelter. Furthermore, in Brazil, participatory urban reforms and social housing guarantees offer replicable models.

In Kenya, it is worth noting that these decisions illustrate judicial recognition of the indivisibility of rights; linking housing with dignity, privacy, and fairness. Yet enforcement of these orders remains inconsistent, and many evictions continue without judicial oversight.

Conclusion

The right to housing in Kenya is more than a constitutional clause, it is a lifeline that anchors human dignity, social justice, and the promise of equality in a nation still wrestling with the legacy of historical injustices and deep-rooted inequality. Anchored in Article 43(1)(b) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, this right compels the State to go beyond rhetoric and ensure access to adequate, habitable, and affordable housing for all, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized.