Defining rights from the roots: insights from council tenants' struggles in Mombasa, Kenya

In: IDS bulletin, Band 36, Heft 1: Developing rights?, S. 100-109

Abstract

This article documents and discusses the experiences of a movement of low-income council tenants in three housing estates in Mombasa, Kenya. The focus of the struggle has been on attaining secure and dignified living conditions. The tenants' struggle illustrates that there is not only clear articulation of rights at the grassroots level, but also the seeds for expansion of the arena of legally recognised rights. The case study demonstrates that the prospects for progressive realisation of the rights to housing, indeed of all rights, lie in concrete struggles of movements at the grassroots level, which go beyond the claiming of benefits to make sustained demands for a reshaping of relevant institutions to make them responsive and accountable. (IDS Bull/DÜI)