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Urban agriculture has been a growing trend around the world.\u00a0Kibera is no exception.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are over 10,000 sacks in Kibera,\u201d says Lucy Mbrgua, the Kibera agricultural ward officer for Kenya\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture. She\u2019s seen the growth of urban agriculture in Kibera over her six years working in Kibera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came here, I had not discovered the farms, now we have over 100 big plots,\u201d she says. The bigger plots are like those of Al-Hadid, or Junction Self-Help Group. The smaller plots are like Maggie\u2019s or Judy\u2019s.<\/p>\n
While urban agriculture appears to be expanding, these kinds of farms have actually been around for a long time.<\/p>\n
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While urban agriculture appears to be expanding, these kinds of farms have actually been around for a long time.<\/p>\n
What is new are the recent and ongoing attempts to reform and regulate this sector. In part, these reforms are seen as a way to change regulations that have been in place since colonial times. Some agriculture and political experts say the changes were prompted by the reality that this informal activity is an enduring and important source of sustenance. Area regulators also have their eye on a sector that they may finally be able to exert some control over.<\/p>\n
Urban agriculture has continued to exist in Nairobi despite its illegal status because the city simply doesn\u2019t have the staff to enforce the laws across the board and because it has helped the city\u2019s most poor access cheaper food, just as informal settlements have helped the city\u2019s poor access housing. Diana Lee-Smith estimates that nearly 29 per cent of households in Nairobi already engage in agriculture within the city limits despite the old law banning the practice she says in\u00a0Cities Feeding People<\/em>, a book published by Canada’s International Development Research Centre.<\/p>\n Urban farmers who have been farming\u00a0illegally within Nairobi’s\u00a0city limits have been pushing for a change in the law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe urban farmers of Nairobi have been driving forward amendments to the law banning urban agriculture, and the members of county assembly have been supportive,\u201d says Kevin Uduny, an urban farmer and activist in Nairobi.<\/p>\n \u201cUrban agriculture is on very murky ground,\u201d said Lee-Smith prior to the passage of the new law. \u201cThere needs to be political action.\u201d<\/p>\n And indeed there was. Nairobi changed its official urban agriculture policy with the passage of The Nairobi City County Urban Agriculture Promotion and Regulation Bill, 2015 on July 30, 2015. Instead of banning urban agriculture, as was official policy before this summer, it\u2019s embracing it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n