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Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday (March 6th) launched a 3-billion-shilling ($32-million) project to upgrade the Kibera slums, Kenya's Capital FM News reported.

The Kibera Peoples Settlement Development project includes building 912 new apartments, 230 retail stores, a nursery school, a social hall, a youth centre, and sanitary and waste management facilities.

The project is the second phase of the slum upgrading project Kibaki launched in 2004, the news agency reported.

"I am particularly happy that the programme I inaugurated in October 2004 has turned another leaf in realising the government's objective of ensuring better housing standards for our people," Kibaki said at the groundbreaking ceremony, pointing out that 30% of urban dwellers in Kenya live in informal settlements, lacking basic amenities.

"The government will continue to implement policies that alleviate poverty in our country," he said.

Kibaki thanked the United Nations Human Settlements Programme for its help funding the project, as well as the World Bank, the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency and the French Development Agency for help with similar programmes.