Life Tree Academy

Makongeni is the first estate to actualise the Eastlands Urban Renewal Masterplan, a project that represents a shift in how Kenya handles redevelopment.

It’s a structured process with full documentation, and a community-led transition where every voice is heard and no household is left behind.
Government agencies describe the Makongeni process as the most people-centred engagement exercise in the Affordable Housing Programme’s history.

It’s designed to protect residents, safeguard pensioners, and prepare the estate for rebirth as a modern, green, connected community.

Here are 15 facts that reflect the uniqueness of the project:

1. Extensive Consultation
Records show Makongeni has undergone multiple rounds of structured engagement, including barazas, door-to-door visits, enumeration, verification, grievance redress sessions, Relocation Action Plan (RAP) workshops, and consent signing.
Every step was documented, capturing household details, concerns, and agreements.

2. No Forced Evictions
There is no forced evictions. All households that moved did so after:
* Full facilitation
* Verification.
* Signed consent forms.
The redevelopment is designed as a return model, where current residents become priority beneficiaries of the new, safer, greener Makongeni.

3. Land Valuation
The land acquisition followed a professional, regulated valuation process aligned with pension rules to protect the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme.
Comparative data indicates that private developers have paid higher amounts for similar land in the same zone.

4. Beneficiary Eligibility
The RAP follows international relocation standards, which recognise the primary household occupant, not extended family.
Makongeni validated 3,601 rightful households after enumeration, verification, objections, and grievance redress processes.
Paying beyond verified households would violate the agreed criteria and compromise fairness.

5. Relocation Support
A full Relocation Action Plan was co-created with residents, detailing:
* Security deployment.
* Psychosocial support.
* Needs assessment.
* Transport facilitation.
* Temporary shelter centres.
These provisions emerged directly from the RAP workshop, where residents highlighted practical and emotional concerns.

6. Safety Concerns for Women and Children
Security plans specifically prioritised women and children through:
* Deployment of female security officers.
* Increased lighting.
* Patrol of hotspots.
* Activation of GBV hotlines.
Officials describe safety not as a “policy item” but a daily operational commitment.

7. Facilitation Amount
The amount is part of a broader support framework, which includes:
* Logistical assistance.
* School transition help.
* Priority for vulnerable residents.
* Job opportunities within the project.
* On-site safety support.
The model is designed to ensure families move with structure, not struggle.

8. School Disruption
A coordinated school transition plan is in place:
* Transfer letters provided.
* Neighbouring schools confirm placements.
* No student is expected to lose learning time or stability.

9. Impact on Traders and Small Businesses
Traders are receiving:
* Relocation support.
* Business continuity assistance.
* Priority allocation for commercial spaces in the new estate.
* Temporary trading zones to protect daily income.

10. Youth Inclusion
Youth were active contributors to the RAP process and will be engaged in:
* Construction works.
* Waste management and recycling.
* Logistics.
* Community mobilisation.
* Environmental tasks.
The redevelopment doubles as a youth employment programme.

11. PWD Considerations
Persons living with disabilities (PWDs) were identified and prioritised.
Support includes:
* Escorted relocation assistance.
* Special transport.
* Priority for accessible units.
* Built-in features in new blocks such as ramps, rails, wide doors, and enhanced lighting.
Accessibility is being designed, not retrofitted.

12. Elderly Residents
The elderly requested slower movement schedules and emotional support.
They are receiving:
* Staggered relocation timelines.
* Assisted movement.
* Counselling.
* Priority allocation for accessible units.

An artist’s impression of the proposed affordable housing project in Makongeni, Nairobi (Image: Files)

13. Churches and Schools
Churches, schools, and NGOs are transitioning in phased schedules to retain their community presence and activities.
In the new Makongeni, they will serve as community anchors, with improved facilities and space.

14. Communication
Communication channels include:
* WhatsApp groups.
* Estate posters.
* Barazas.
* Digital content.
* Interpersonal briefings in Swahili and Sheng.
* Verified briefing packs for leaders.
The communication strategy aims to reach people in familiar, accessible formats.

15. “This is just demolitions.”
Makongeni’s redevelopment is not defined by demolition but by renewal.
The new estate will include:
* Modern high-quality housing.
* Green parks.
* schools.
* A hospital.
* Commercial areas.
* Safe walkways.
* Jobs for local residents.

From enumeration to Makao Bora cards, each step is documented because this is not the end of a community – it is the evolution of one.

Makongeni’s transformation is the clearest expression yet of Kenya’s attempt to implement documented, inclusive, people-first urban renewal.

As Top Help Schweiz, we are committed to raising the next generation through projects like Life Tree Academy, Life Tree Kids and Children Camps.

We believe that partnership is key for learning and growth.

This year we are pulling together ideas and resources for a 250-Girls Residential Camp in December at Omboga Secondary School in Kanyaluo, Homabay County.

For more information, contact Dorise on 0713 335924

Die Life Tree Academy (ein Projekt von Top Help Schweiz International) wurde im Dezember 2020 als christliche Modellschule gegründet, um Kindern aus allen Gesellschaftsschichten das Evangelium von Jesus Christus zu verkünden.

*Erziehe* einen Knaben *auf dem Weg*, den er gehen soll; so lässt er auch nicht davon, wenn er alt wird.

(Sprüche 22,6)

*Unser Dienst ist dringend!* – Wir müssen Kinder für Christus gewinnen! Wenn sie Christus nicht bis zum Teenageralter als ihren Retter annehmen, ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit gering, dass sie es später tun.

Wir arbeiten mit Gott zusammen, um Kinder in den Bezirken Nairobi, Homabay und Migori durch unsere gut ausgebildeten Lehrer und Mentoren im Glauben zu begleiten.

Vision: Eine neue Generation von Führungskräften inspirieren.

Mission: Bedürftigen und benachteiligten Kindern aus armen Stadtfamilien eine hochwertige, ganzheitliche Grundbildung ermöglichen.

When parents gossip about one child to another, they aren’t just venting — they are *triangulating* the family. This tactic forces siblings to take sides, plants seeds of jealousy and resentment, and destroys trust between children who should have been allies.

It teaches kids to compete for love instead of knowing they are already worthy of it. It creates confusion, insecurity, and long-term emotional wounds that carry into adulthood — where siblings may grow distant without ever realizing it started with manipulation at home.

This isn’t “just how families are.” It’s emotional abuse disguised as conversation.

Healthy parents encourage unity, not division. They don’t use their children to regulate their emotions or to wage silent wars.

If you grew up with this kind of dynamic, you’re not crazy — you were *conditioned.* Healing starts when you see it for what it was: a cycle you never have to repeat. ❤️‍🩹

Life Tree Academy (a project of Top Help Schweiz International) was established in December 2020 as a Christian model school, an outreach to children from all walks of life with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

*Train* up a *child* in *the way* he should *go*: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)

*Ours is an urgent ministry!* -We must reach people for Christ while they are children! If people do not trust Christ as Savior by the time they are teenagers, there is little chance they will do so

We are in partnership with God to see children in Nairobi, Homabay and Migori Counties discipled by our well trained teachers and disciple-makers.

Vision: To inspire a new generation of leaders

Mission: To provide quality holistic basic education to vulnerable and undeserving children among families of the urban poor

Are you shaken? You are ready for God's use!

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, “shake well before using.” That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Vance Havner

Witness in Our Spirits

It is good to remember that God has not left Himself without a witness in our spirits, that despite all of the wanderings of our footsteps, despite all of the ways by which we have sought to circumvent His truth within us, despite all of the weaknesses of spirit and of mind and of resoluteness and of body, despite all of the blunders by which we have isolated ourselves from our fellows and proven unworthy of the love and the trust and the confidence by which again and again our faltering lives are surrounded, despite all of this, it is good to remember that God has not left Himself without a witness in our lives.

The learning curve..

"The goal of the christian life is not to become something in our lives, but for Christ to become something in our lives" Rev Dawkins, 18 Jan 2021

Admissions going on..