Innovating participation to expand water and sanitation access under a special planning area in Mukuru informal settlements, Nairobi

This chapter examines the participatory processes adopted in the development of water and sanitation interventions in the Mukuru informal settlements. The settlements were declared to be a special planning area by the Nairobi City County Government in 2017. The chapter highlights the role of legal empowerment in helping residents to identify practical opportunities to expand water and sanitation priorities. In this chapter, the utility of legal empowerment is viewed from its role in equipping residents with the requisite skills and voice to identify and confront the drivers of marginality within their settlements. It not only expanded residents' understanding of their constitutional right to participate, but also allowed them to identify legal openings that they could use to co-produce flexible and scalable technical models that would attend to the unique needs within their settlements while minimizing the chances of disruptions.