Green spaces in Nairobi are set to undergo a major transformation to improve the quality of life for residents.
The Public Space Network has announced a partnership with DreamTown NGO from Denmark to spruce up green spaces in an initiative known as From Contentious to Consensus Project.
The sprucing-up process will be led by young people and members of the community in underprivileged neighbourhoods in five locations across the city.
The spaces include Kamukunji Park, Korogocho River Bank, Dandora Wayleave, Kayole Calvary Grounds and Nairobi Dam in Kibera.
“This project aims to deepen the capacity of community youth groups to transform and manage community spaces around them in a manner that is inclusive and sustainable," PSN communications officer Daphne Randall said in a statement.
"The improvement of public spaces is designed to improve the quality of life of residents while enabling the youth to become agents of positive change within their communities.”
PSN is a Nairobi-based international non-profit group of civil society, public and private stakeholders and urban experts with a vested interest in creating cleaner, greener, safer and inclusive cities.
PSN said it collaborated with the first community group in Nairobi’s Dandora in 2013. In 2014, the first edition of changing faces competition was held in Dandora.
PSN said some of the green spaces already spruced include Komb Green and Sister Brother Love court in Dandora.
A community-based organisation formed by Reformed youths, Komb Green has helped build safe spaces where the community can relax, hold meetings and play.
PSN said some of the challenges faced include low youth organisational capacity that is set to be fixed during the incoming initiative.
Also, there was a lack of consensus on the use of public spaces.
“The From Contentious to Consensus Initiative seeks to address key challenges encountered during the Changing Faces Competition by Public Space Network as a way to improve the capacity of community collaborators and the sustainability of the public spaces created.”
During the sprucing up, a detailed process will be followed.
First, new youth teams will be recruited, vetted and on-boarded before they are trained in organisational management.
Community consensus will be built around the use, access, and management of the target public spaces.
The targeted public spaces will then be co-designed with community, youth teams, experts and county officials.
The approved design will be co-created before the transformation of the target sites starts.
The transformed sites will then be activated before community ownership is created.
This will be followed by public space advocacy through community and transformed spaces.
Dandora, under the new plan, is set to have circulation paths, physical gyms and well-manicured flower gardens.
The Kamukunji Park will have well-manicured flower gardens, sitting spaces, a playground and an outdoor gym once complete.
A football pitch, an outdoor gym and relaxation garden are to be the climax of Kayole's public space. The Nairobi dam will have a relaxation garden, sitting spaces and circulation paths.
The latest bid to spruce up public spaces within the city comes against a backdrop of the UN Habitat inventory report that was released in September last year showing that public spaces in Nairobi are not only a few but substandard.
The report showed that some of the public places have been turned into dumping sites for all types of garbage.
The inventory, which was aimed at reclaiming the once 'Green City in the Sun', emphasises the importance of trees as contributors to comfort and safety in public spaces and the city at large.
Further, trees enhance the landscape, ameliorate the city image, and abate noise through natural mechanisms like transferring sound to other objects and altering the direction of the sound.
Trees also bounce sound back to its source, bending sound waves around an object and blending irritating sound with more pleasant sound.
The report indicated that there are 826 documented public spaces in the city.
It called for the protection, revitalisation and reclamation of grabbed public spaces.
The report noted that 357 of those spaces are under the custodianship of the county government and 39 under the national government.
The inventory said the entrance fees, as charged by Karura Forest, Arboretum and August 7 Memorial Park, can be a barrier to access and inclusion.
Such fees, the report stated, reinforce economic and social inequalities and take away the right to the city.
"Public space should not be a privilege for the wealthy but a basic human right accessible to and enjoyable by all regardless of their political and religious beliefs and economic ability," it said.
Out of the 826 public spaces, access to 651 is unrestricted – anyone can use them.
The Habitat report said the design of, for instance, walkways, entrances and amenities such as toilets, can promote access to and inclusivity in public spaces.
“In Nairobi, however, public spaces are not friendly to persons with disability. Only 19.8 per cent of the public open spaces have the inclusive infrastructure – pedestrian infrastructure that suits all users.”
The document emphasised the need to encourage a universal design of public spaces for sustainability.
Such design enhances the connectivity of public spaces to public transport (matatus) and creates a network of dedicated and protected bike lanes.