Pope presses for dignified housing in major cities Pope Francis
Pope Francis

Pope Francis

Nairobi – Pope Francis visited a slum on Nairobi’s north-western edge to press his call for adequate and dignified housing for society’s most marginal, especially in burgeoning megacities like the Kenyan capital.

Francis has frequently insisted on the need for the three “Ls”, land, labour and lodging and yesterday he focused on housing as a critical issue facing the world amid rapid urbanisation that is helping to upset Earth’s delicate ecological balance.

Kangemi is one of 11 slums dotting Nairobi, East Africa’s largest city. The shanty itself has about 50,000 residents living without basic sanitation.

Most of the capital’s slums comprise a maze of single-room mud structures with iron-sheet roofing or cramped, high-rise buildings.

Francis referred to the problem of urban shanties in his speech to the African UN headquarters on Thursday, saying everyone has a basic right to “dignified living conditions”, and that the views of local residents must be taken into account when urban planners are designing new construction.

“This will help eliminate the many instances of inequality and pockets of urban poverty, which aren’t simply economic but also, and above all, social and environmental,” he said.

The message was keenly felt because the UN Habitat programme, which seeks to promote adequate and environmentally sustainable housing, is based in Nairobi.

Francis raised the issue of environmental deterioration in cities in his landmark encyclical “Praise Be”, saying many megacities today have simply become health threats, “not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise”.

“Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. Neighbourhoods, even those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space. We weren’t meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature,” he said.

After the visit to Kangemi, Francis is scheduled to meet with young Kenyans and hear of their problems with violence and simply trying to live their lives as Christians at a time of Islamic extremism.

Following the encounter, Francis heads to Uganda for the second leg of his trip, where he’ll honour the country’s Anglican and Catholic martyrs.

Tomorrow, he is due to arrive in the Central African Republic, the most dangerous leg of the pilgrimage given the ongoing conflict between Christians and Muslims.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said on Thursday night that plans hadn’t changed and that the Bangui leg of the trip was still on.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis celebrated a historic Mass in Kenya on Thursday before delivering a stern environmental warning just days ahead of a key climate change conference in Paris.

“It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects,” the Pope said, urging nations to reach an agreement over curbing fossil fuel emissions.

He urged politicians to work together with the corporate and scientific worlds, and civil society leaders in finding solutions to stop environmental degradation.

No country, he said, “can act independently of a common responsibility. If we truly desire positive change, we’ve to humbly accept our interdependence.”

The Pope spoke at the world headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The U.N. climate change conference opens next week.

But it was Francis’ comments on the pillaging of African resources that drew a louder response from the crowd.

He said Africans cannot afford to remain silent on the illegal trade in precious stones and the poaching of elephants for ivory, which “fuels political instability, organised crime and terrorism.”

The message reverberated with the crowd in what is arguably the Pope’s most important speech during his first papal visit to Africa.

Climate change, like poverty, is a hallmark issue for Francis, the first leader at the Vatican who hails from the developing world. Other popes have visited Kenya, but the welcome was particularly warm for the populist Pope.

His time in Nairobi so far has highlighted two issues close to his heart: humility and service to the less fortunate.

During Mass earlier Thursday, he called on citizens to reach out to the downtrodden.

“I appeal in a special way to the young people of the nation,” he said. “ … May you always be concerned for the needs of the poor and reject everything that leads to prejudice and discrimination, for these things, we know, aren’t of God.”

Kenya declared the day a national public holiday as throngs of jubilant Catholics flocked to Nairobi to hear the Pope.

He drove past the crowd in his popemobile, waving to thousands who started lining the streets at dawn to catch a glimpse of him.

When he got to the University of Nairobi, the site of his first Mass in Africa, choirs and traditional dancers swayed to Swahili Christian music as they waited.

Music mixed with the sound of rain wafted across the field as crowds peeked from under multicoloured umbrellas.

“I wish I was at that Mass now,” said Jane Waceke, who was watching the Pope on television in the town of Nakuru. – AFP

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