The nexus between disability and urban informality: disabled voices from Eldoret’s informal settlements

This thesis explores the nexus between disability and urban informality with a particular focus on how cultural, spatial and political characteristics shape the everyday lives of people with disabilities (PwDs) in informal settlements aiming to promote inclusive and contextually meaningful planning interventions. Arguably, there has been a limited scholarly focus on the voices of people with disabilities (PwDs) in informal settlements in secondary cities of the Global South including Eldoret. Yet, understanding their priorities is critical for broader and all-inclusive decision-making processes, as well as informing wider theories of disability which lack intellectual insights from the global South. This study contributes to that understanding from a disability lens through capturing the agency of PwDs and the structural forces that make it difficult for them and their families to have decent living conditions in urban informal settlements. The study draws on southern theory as the main theoretical underpinning with a specific focus on southern conceptualizations of disability and informal urbanism. Through a qualitative case-study approach, the study explores three informal settlements in Eldoret using interviews, observation, transect walks and document reviews.

The research finds that PwDs encounter varying socio-cultural realities, and are spatially affected by the material realities within informal spaces, as well as by urban governance responses. While considering how socio-cultural realities influence PwDs lives, the study discusses disability induced stigma, informal chama networks, care dynamics for the disabled and culture as being integral to shaping PwDs living informally in Eldoret. From a spatial and material perspective, the study highlights housing, water and sanitation services as fundamental to how PwDs experience life in informal settlements. The thesis also reveals how urban governance responses by state actors, non-state actors and traditional authorities play a key role towards the lived realities of PwDs in informal settlements. The thesis makes a key contribution to urban theoretical knowledge from the south within the context of informal settlements in secondary cities whose growth dynamics are different from the often-emphasized primate cities. Further, the study contributes to post-colonial debates within cities of the South and at the same time advances intersectionality as a way of understanding the diversity that exist among PwDs who live informally.