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rates. Policing levels had increased in the slum community, but the evidence does not show improved security for the people there. Third, indications of environmental depletion and a deterioration of the local environment were noted at both sites. Recent fuel price hikes had encouraged charcoal burning and tree cutting. In Lango Baya, virtually all households cook with charcoal produced from burning trees taken from the area’s much-depleted forest cover. In Mukuru, almost all households also use charcoal for cooking. The findings of the research also suggest that protracted crises undermine the authority of the government. Protests and unruly forms of political challenge to the government in early 2011 suggest that the views gathered in our 2011 research may well be more widely held. It is to be hoped that such pressures on the government, particularly in the context of a new constitutional right to food, may encourage a faster and more timely response to future episodes of economic crisis in the lives of poor people in Kenya.
Notes 1. From African Economic Outlook, http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org /en/countries/east-africa/kenya/, based on International Monetary Fund and government of Kenya data. 2. This estimate of job losses refers to Nairobi slums, including Mukuru. KFSSG (Kenya Food Security Steering Group) 2009a. 3. The 2010 constitution enshrines “the right to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality.” It also provides for enacting and guaranteeing the right. Text of the Kenya Constitution: http://www.fao.org /righttofood/news42_en.htm.
References FEWSNET (Famine Early Warning Systems Network). 2011. “Kenya Food Security Outlook: October 2010 through March 2011.” http://www.reliefweb.int. Hossain, N., R. Eyben, R. Fillaili, G. Lubaale, J. Moncrieffe, M. Mulumbi, and M. M. Rashid. 2009. Accounts of Crisis: Poor People’s Experiences of the Food, Fuel and Financial Crises in Five Countries. Brighton, U.K: Institute of Development Studies.