Thika (Kenya)

Thika, located in the White Highlands of Kenya, developed due to its proximity to Nairobi into an agricultural and industrial hub that since the 1940s attracted migrant workers from throughout the country. All of them needed housing.  Despite existing extensive research on Kenya, Nairobi and Mombasa have been over-emphasised while too little focus has been dedicated to housing in smaller urban centres and townships.

 In 1950, the then colonial Minister for Local Government, Ernest Vasey, produced a report on African housing which was a turning point in British colonial housing policy in Kenya and highlighted its socio-political importance. In the report, owner-occupied housing was seen as a solution not only to the prevailing housing shortage but also to financial losses created by the, till then dominant, sub-economic housing provided by the Central Government and local authorities. The township of Thika was selected as a pilot owner-occupier ‘Vasey Housing Scheme’, which became an experimental blueprint for the whole colony. It was believed that home-ownership would open the door to a stable urban population, promote social control and ultimately create an orderly African middle class. Thika became one of the oldest Site and Service Schemes in Kenya and in the early post-colonial period - after Nairobi - the largest supported scheme by the international donor community including the World Bank.

Thika Vasey Housing Scheme represents an ideal case study for this project as it enables us to trace a development of one particular housing scheme - its provision, planning and building - through its inception in the early 1950s up to present day Majengo (current name for the Vasey Housing Scheme). The scheme, with its successes and failures, is a reflection of prevalent social, political, and economic processes and offers insights into colonial and post-colonial housing policies and practices.