 FIGURE 9: Type of roofing materials for the Shona community and Kenyans Percent of households 100 4 11 80 3 2 15 5 5 80 90 2 17 2 23 3 35 60 40 85 81 75 62 20 0 Shona National (urban) Population average Iron sheets Shona National Kiambu County Concrete Grass/makuti Shona National Nairobi County Other Source: Shona SES (2019) and KIHBS (KNBS 2015/16). and Taylor 2016). The types of wall, roof, and floor materials used for the construction of residential dwellings are used to determine the classification of housing as improved or unimproved based on classification from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Analytical Studies.26 Based on this classification, about 6 in 10 Shona houses are improved; however, differences exist among counties. Less than half of Shona houses in Kiambu County are made of improved materials, lower than what is observed for nationals in the same county (p<0.01). In turn, in Nairobi County, Shona houses are more likely to be built with improved materials than national houses. 19.  Iron roofing is common on houses among both the Shona community and Kenyans. This is more common in Kiambu County than in Nairobi County (90 percent vs. 75 percent; Figure 9). The use of concrete for roofs is more common among Shona households in Nairobi (23 percent) than in Kiambu (5 percent). The same patterns are observed among urban Kenyans: on average, about 80 percent of houses use corrugated iron sheets for their roofs. The rate is higher in Kiambu than in Nairobi (81 percent vs. 62 percent, p<0.01), although not as high as that of Shona households in both locations. Notably, about 35 percent of Kenyan houses in Nairobi have concrete roofs compared to 17 percent in Kiambu (p<0.01). 20. The majority of both the Shona community and Kenyan houses have cement floors; however, cement floors are more common among the Shona community houses. About 84 percent of the Shona community houses are floored with cement compared to 69 percent of households in urban Kenya (p<0.01; Figure 10). The use of earth, sand, or dung (or a combination of these) is also quite common among urban Kenyan households (16 percent) while no Shona household uses these materials. Some urban Kenyan households in specific areas within cities—mostly on the outskirts of urban centers or within irregular settlements—often use unimproved floor materials (such as earth, sand, and dung) due to lack of resources to buy improved materials and other constraints. At the county level, for the Shona community, the use of cement is more common for houses in Kiambu than in Nairobi (92 percent vs. 26 Improved housing, referred to as modern housing in DHS Analytical Studies, is defined as having improved floor, wall, and roof construction. https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/AS61/AS61.pdf 12  Understanding the Socioeconomic Conditions of the Stateless Shona Community in Kenya 10183_Shona Report.indd 12 12/14/20 2:56 PM