THE Kiandutu slum upgrade will turn the area into an estate, Thika Town MP Alice Wambui Ng’ang’a has said.
“With better roads, health facilities, proper housing and stable security, this place will definitely qualify as an estate,” she said at the slum on Tuesday.
She was launching the Huduma Jiko programme, which allocates women’s groups money to cook for residents employed in the upgrade project.
The lawmaker said modern semi-permanent structures are being built and infrastructure improved.
She asked residents to propose a name for the new estate and they said ‘Salama’.
Crime rates have dropped “drastically” since the upgrading began four months ago, the MP said.
She said alcoholism and drug abuse have also declined.
Ng’ang’a said the project has changed the face of Central Kenya’s largest slum.
The MP said she expects the government to launch the same programme at Gacagi slum in the constituency.
“Kenyans living in slums can attest that the Jubilee administration is improving the standards of living and transform the face of the country,” Ng’ang’a said.
“Through this programme they have been able to save cash for their own ventures, and we expect upon completion there will be no slums in our country.”
Ng’ang’a urged parents living in Kiandutu to ensure their children go to school.
She promised to help bright and needy students get education.
The MP said she will help them get funding from the CDF and the Thika Education Trust Fund.
