Residential Mobility and Informal Settlement Creation in the Periphery of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area

Abstract

In African cities, where government resources for urban development are scarce, individual residential mobility (which includes intra-urban and rural-urban migration) is thought to play an important role in the spatial expansion of urban areas. However, very little research has focused on residential mobility in African cities. To explore the role of residential mobility in the expansion of urban space in African cities, I will present a case study of the process of informal settlement development in the periphery of Greater Kampala, focusing on people's migration experiences and socio-economic situations. The presentation is based on data from 190 household surveys and 18 life history interviews in the study area, located 20 km from the CBD, collected in 2023. The results indicate that informal settlements in the urban periphery are not mainly created by migrants coming directly from rural areas but by families living in tenements (muzigo) in the inner city or satellite cities who buy land and build their own houses. In this area, private brokers bought small plots of land from landlords, subdivided them, and sold customary development rights, known as 'kibanja'. Most of the migrant families were not from the middle class, with formal jobs and stable sources of income, but from the lower class, working in the informal sector. Many people working in the informal sector in the inner city were unable to continue in their previous jobs because of the increased commuting costs as a result of moving to the periphery.