The growth of Africa’s towns and small cities is transforming the continent

In 2012, when Moses Aloo inherited a plot from his grandfather, his neighbourhood in Kisumu, western Kenya, had plenty of farmland. But over the past decade, as Kisumu has grown, Nyamasaria has become part of the city. Mr Aloo is building two houses on his land. He will rent them out, “hopefully to God-fearing people”, for 8,000 Kenyan shillings ($62) each per month, more than twice the going rate five years ago. “Now it is urban,” he says, “this is a prime area.”The city’s growth has disrupted traditional ways. Jamlick Onchari, who rents a one-room house behind his small dairy in Nyamasaria, says that Kenyans who have moved from other parts of the country feel increasingly at home in the historic stronghold of the Luo ethnic group. “This mix-up thing,” he says, “with people from different tribes…it speeds up development because when people live together they bring ideas together.”