Migration of people to urban areas from the rural areas usually comes with its challenges in
terms of infrastructural requirement and housing to cater for growing population. One of the challenge for the urban
dwellers in Nigeria is that of adequate housing. The inability of the government to meet this demand has seen the
people concerned seeking alternative solutions to housing need. The resulting settlements are usually unplanned hence
becoming a challenge for government to manage in terms of providing infrastructure facilities. With the growing
incidence of global warming and the attendant increase in flooding in most urban areas of Nigeria, especially between
year 2000 and 2013, the safety of the people who live in slums have become a concern to the state governments due to
issues of flooding and collapsed buildings. Government usually evicts such people and clear the settlement; however
the people simply relocate to another area. The aim of this paper is to examine how community participation can be
used to provide housing for the urban poor based on their living requirement, drawing from the experience of selected
case studies from Kenya. The research method adopted for the study is a qualitative research method using case studies
of selected communities in Kenya and selected communities in Nigeria. A comparative analysis is drawn with these
communities. The research concludes by proposing how community participation process should be incorporated into
provision of housing for the urban poor.