Transforming Urban Informal Settlements in Kenya through Adaptive Spatial Planning and Tenure Regularisation

Abstract

Regardless of the formal-informal dichotomy that characterises development in African cities, there is a need for urban governance transformation that requires reconceptualisation of the efficacy of spatial planning either as a tool for integration and inclusivity or as an agent of seclusion. In the context of urban informal settlements, the application of traditional spatial planning approaches considered to be complex, rigid and expensive may in fact lead to a continued circle of poverty and exclusion. Using published literature, policy and case law, this chapter reviews previous approaches in upgrading and regularising informal settlements that have been applied in Kenya and, argues for adaptive spatial planning as an inclusive planning approach towards incremental transformation of urban informal settlements that can support tenure regularisation and promote the realisation of Sustainable Development Goal 11 on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.