Nairobi, Jan. 19 -- Kawangware announces itself before it explains itself. The road narrows, with the smell of open trenches competing with the calls of hawkers balancing tomatoes, phone chargers and second-hand shoes on wooden carts.

Tin-roofed shanties lean into each other alongside the interruption of half-finished stone buildings that look lost in the surrounding.

The drainage channels double as footpaths, and when it rains, residents admit that the surrounding sinks into chaos of mud and stagnant water.

However, Kawangware is located on one of Nairobi's most strategic corridors. Just off Naivasha Road are gated apartments and other desirable real estate, putting the settlement uncomfortably close to the city's middle-class ambitio...