Sego Slums That Feeds Nairobi State House Junior Employees

Few metres from the gate of State house, Nairobi sits a slum that is said to be the safest informal settlement in Kenya.

Its name is Sego and is tucked between State House Road and Jakaya Kikwete Road and has about 300 residents.

It sits on three and half acres of land but besides it being a slum in unusual neighbourhood, it is popular with cheap but delicious food that is liked by some of employees working at State House.

Security officers working at State House and other employees working around Kilimani area, City Centre, Hurlingahm and along Dennis Pritt Road come for lunch here at Sego slums.

The area is owned by six siblings from Nyeri County and initially it was a beautiful home bought from Whites in 1960s but it went up in flames in 1998.

The owners decided to turn the land into some sort of a slum to accommodate low-end employees in this leafy suburb.

Junior staff in State House eat lunch at Sego slums.

Mzee Felix Gikandi is one of the living owners of the slum and according to him, many employees at the President’s residence and in the neighbouring suburbs prefer the affordable food from this slum.

“Fresh and affordable food attract many city workers to Sego slums. Our customers are people working in State House, particularity cops and also average employees based in leafy suburbs in Kilimani. They find us vital to their lives” Gikandi says.

Initially this slum was called Kilimani but 20 years ago it was renamed Sego, after a popular pub there.

Gikandi says though their status is tenfold below their high-end neighbours, they are unlike many slums in terms of security, water and power supply.

“We don’t have mugging cases here. Our tenants walk from city centre to this area any time of night without fear and when it comes to water and electricity we are not worried about outages” Gikandi says.