By 2022, Nairobi was home to an estimated 60 percent of its population living in informal settlements, areas without formal land tenure, reliable water, adequate sanitation or access to most public services.
Kibera, with a population estimated between 170,000 and 1 million depending on the methodology, was one of the largest informal settlements in Africa.
The mismatch between the aspirational city of glass towers, highway overpasses and tech hubs and the daily reality of millions living in corrugated iron housing reflected a fundamental failure of urban planning and land policy that successive governments had not resolved.