Housing experiences of People with Disabilities (PwDs) in rapidly changing informal settlements of Eldoret, Kenya

Supervised by Dr Paula Meth and Dr Philipp Horn. 

Increased urbanization has led to the burgeoning of informal settlements in both global regions of the North and the South but evidence suggest that the latter has been immensely affected. Housing debates in such low-income neighbourhoods have focused on how best to improve housing delivery systems with the expectation of improving people’s livelihoods, however, there is an existing lacuna within this broad scholarship that has not been well established; the situation of disability geography. In the global South, the gap is even wider when we consider how a focus on disability has not been integrated into work on urban informal housing which for a long time has overemphasized gender differences predominantly on shelter and legal frameworks. PwDs in informal settlements are exposed to varying challenges that are related to poor health, disaster risks and socio-spatial and economic problems which in turn influence their housing conditions.

My PhD research work is aimed at situating that geography of disability within analyses of urban informality for a more nuanced understanding leading to holistic housing improvement initiatives. This will be achieved through capturing the agency of people with disabilities (PwDs) and the structural forces that make it difficult for them and their families to have decent housing conditions in urban slum areas. The study will draw on critical disability theory (CDT) and intersectionality as the main conceptual underpinnings. The key argument is made through critical disability theory (CDT) where I depart from the traditional forms of disability to more intricate understanding of the phenomenon. The concept of intersectionality will espouse how PwDs are faced with wide ranging inequalities which overlap into a complex form of social exclusion. The study also adopts a case study design strategy with four qualitative methods as the main data collection means.

I am a Landscape Architect and a Town Planner who hails from West Pokot County, Kenya. I did my honors’ degree in Landscape Architecture at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and further got my Masters’ degree in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

After graduating from JKUAT I worked as a graduate Landscape Architect with Axis Consulting Architects based in Nairobi Kenya for a period of two years. I then went to South Africa for my second degree where I was also able to secure a consultancy job with a local firm in Johannesburg; Silverhorns Consulting Co. Ltd. where I served as a Landscape Planning Consultant. I worked for almost a year.

I then moved back to Kenya in December 2014 and have since worked for West Pokot County Government as a Chief Superintending Architect in the Department of Public Works. A position I hold until now even as I pursue my doctoral studies at the University of Sheffield on a study leave under sponsorship from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission.