Conflicts in both rural and urban settings are said to be as old as society itself.

The dynamics of these conflicts are however different in the two situations and are influenced by both internal and external factors. For example, in the rural set-up, there are usually established mechanisms of minimizing conflicts. These are usually prescribed by different cultures. It is only when conflict affects a wider scope than covered by cultural norms or when the parties in dispute disagree that the matter is taken to state or other designated bodies.

Traditionally, however, the preferred way of dealing with conflicts is through informal means as usually people do not have money to engage the state or other parties.

The situation is however, different in urban areas where communities are composed of people from different cultures. Urban areas have also got large concentration of people representing different interests and intense competition for resources.

The history of the growth of the cities also lends them to more conflict than rural areas. For example, colonialism led to the development of most cities which were modeled according to the needs of the colonial government. For most part, rural areas were left alone where they did not interfere with the interests of the colonial government.

The situation was, however, different in the case of land and provision of services because both rural and urban settlements were affected. The impact was, however, mostly greater in urban areas where in most cases existing structures were destroyed or where new structures were created.

Informal settlements house 60-80% of Kenya’s urban population. These settlements also represent some of the visible conflicts in urban settlements located on both public and private land.

Conflicts in Urban Settlements

Conflicts in the urban set-up are caused by many factors. Some of the causes include the following:

• The ethnic, cultural and religious heterogeneity of the urban settlers often make them compete aggressively for insufficient resources in the cities. Urban conflicts occur therefore, in competition for jobs, land, housing and other related opportunities;

• Poverty among city dwellers which often leads to high rate of urban crime and delinquency.

• Persons who belong to the less advantaged social status, are often prone to harassment and arrest by police.

The ethnic, cultural and religious heterogeneity of urban settlers also means that people can no longer depend on their cultures to resolve whatever conflicts they have because there is no common culture. Further, different groups have different points of reference and are not usually under any obligation to consider other groups. The role of the government in conflict resolution therefore becomes very important because this is the main mechanism of regulating people’s behaviour. In addition, some of the resources belong to government or require government regulation to deal with. This is particularly true for land and service provision. But on the whole the role of government assumes new importance in urban areas. Informal conflict resolution mechanisms are used occasionally in some cases in urban areas. The reasons for using informal mechanisms include the fact the poor cannot afford to have conflict resolved by state or other designated bodies. At times most people, and especially in informal settlements, do not understand how the system works and are often intimidated by it. In other cases, like access to land in informal settlements, there is no legal mechanism to deal with land issues because structure owners do not have legal rights to land. The arrangements are mainly informal and the residents have no choice but deal with conflicts on an informal basis.

When it comes to poverty in urban areas, there is no established mechanism to deal with whatever problems are brought about by poverty. Most people in urban areas want to survive even if it is at the benefit of other group members. Also social control in urban areas is limited and depends more on law enforcement. There is also no relationships that necessarily bind people together and so individualism takes the upper hand most times. This is aggravated by a government that may not necessarily be representative and at times will tend to favor some members in the community and not others. All these factors intensify poverty and conflict in urban areas.

The nature of low income urban settlements also mean that the poor need both state and police protection. In spite of this they are most times harassed more because of the nature of the settlements where they live. They are also usually subject to harassment because of the perceptions that most criminals and undesirable people live in informal settlements. The poor are also least able to demand their rights which they at times do not know or are too scared of being victimized if they demand their rights. This is the case in many informal settlements in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret where cases of police harassment were reported. The fear of the police force is so paramount that most wrongs committed to people in the informal settlements are never reported. These factors intimidate the poor urban residents who have no choice but keep quiet. This, however, explodes at times as evidenced by cases where the policemen have been attacked by residents.

All the above factors intensify competition for limited resources which at times intensifies conflict. These conflict are, however, at different levels ranging from individual groups to the state. According to existing literature, conflicts which take place within a state, include activities of predatory states, natural emergencies and internal wars, development wars and poverty. These are seen as part and parcel of development, and thus objects of development planning, funding and implementation.

In the Kenyan situation most development efforts seem to have been trying to resolve conflicts surrounding distributions of resources among different groups. This is particularly true in the urban areas. These efforts have, however, to be assessed historically to understand the reasons behind unresolved conflict especially in relation to land and public services.

Taken from “CONFLICTS IN URBAN SETTLEMENTS IN KENYA: ACCESS TO LAND AND SERVICES IN UNPLANNED SETTLEMENTS”. By JOYCE MALOMBE. AUGUST 1997. http://payson.tulane.edu/conflict/Cs%20St/MALOMFIN2.html

Photo credit: A temporary illegal structure in Nairobi’s South C neighborhood.