Food Security, Conjugal Conflict, and Uncertainty in ‘Bangladesh’, Mombasa, Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, informal settlements or ‘slums’¹ are urban residential spaces characterized by poverty, high population density, lack of infrastructure, substandard housing, tenuous land rights, and high rates of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Often, these areas exist as the ‘…physical and spatial manifestation of urban poverty and intra-city inequality’ (UN-HABITAT 2003: xxvi). In these environments, households are important units for food security as they are the loci where decisions about employment, income, expenditure, and resource distribution are negotiated and where food storage, preparation, and consumption take place. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food security is defined as existing ‘.when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’ (FAO 1996, 2003). Although the proportion of residents in Kenyan informal settlements who are food insecure is unknown, previous research from Nairobi suggests that many (if not most) residents struggle daily with problems related to food (see APHRC 2002, 2002a; Amuyunzu-Nyamongo & Taffa 2004: 6; and Amuyunzu-Nyamongo et al. 2007).