A lot of literature on urban development in developing
countries has entirely focused on the nexus between rapid
urbanization, Gross Geographic Product (GGP) and poverty growth
with little research that demonstrates what this impacts on urban
sustainability especially with increasing slums in rapidly urbanizing
African countries. Available research has focused entirely on
increasing poverty level in urban Africa and its mitigation without a
clear direction on what this means to slums improvement and urban
sustainability. This papers aims to give a conceptual analysis that
will help to understand the dynamics of urban sustainability and
slums development. The historical perspectives and current realities
of Kibera slums in Nairobi are reviewed.